Rating: 
Summary: Horror, Indeed!
Review: What an infuriating book to read. In the beginning of this book I found the characters hard to distinguish. Harris introduces too many fuzzy characters at once and leaves no clues for his readers to distinguish the important players from the extras. Having cleared that obstacle, one that stunted a few of my friends' endeavor, I moved on to Florence with Harris and Hannibal. It was in Italy that I again felt the rage building in my chest. I am not an unintelligent woman but I had much difficulty in following Hannibal around Italy and understanding the locations, scene setups and culture of the characters. Spare me the Italian lessons I wanted a clearer story to follow. And the ending!! What could be more horrifying than that! Tsk, tsk, tst, Mr Harris, I don't agree. Aside from these points that stung my eyes with the serverity of Carlo's cattle prod I can still manage to find some praise for Mr Harris. The atrophied monster, Mason Verger, is one of the finest madmen that I have had the shameful pleasure of encountering in quite a while. Overall I find this book incredibly hard to read however, between the Italian quotes and the descriptions of wine that I doubt I will ever have the pleasure to taste, there is an interesting glimpse into the eye of a madman. Please Mr Harris try to stick more to the flesh of your stories and leave out some of the garnish.
Rating:
Summary: Too Hollywood
Review: I was very disappointed with Harris' latest. I don't like what Harris did with Clarice's character. And when I didn't think it could get any worse, I got to the ending. I can see why Jodie Foster didn't want anything to do with the movie!! I felt like I was reading a screenplay, this novel was "too Hollywood" for me.
Rating: 
Summary: This may Shatter You
Review: In the 3rd installment of the Lecter plot, Thomas Harris gives us something to challenge us with: the dynamics are not good guy versus bad guy, more on the lines of bad guy versus bad guy who has the help of a good guy. The ending will leave you dazed, possibly. It is obvios, even from a cursory glance, that a truckload of time and effort went into the making on this thing- it shows in the developing relationship of Lecter and Starling. Some may be horrified at just how much that relationship blossoms; as for myself, I was in love too. Approach it with dread, sieze it with awe- it is a rewarding reading expierience that will leave you thinking and mesmerized. Have a good day, if after reading this that is possible.
Rating: 
Summary: Five stars, you got to be kidding me!
Review: I bought this book because I had read Black Sunday and wanted to experience the same feeling of suspence. No comparisons. Story apart, "Hannibal" is just poorly written. This book is simply terrible. Harris has no sense of pause or suspense; most chapters cut off at the wrong time. In addition, the dialogues are extremely poor, and the characters are shallow as shallow is the book. I love to read, so long as the material is readable. My advice? Do not waste your precious time and money to buy and read Hannibal.
Rating: 
Summary: A Clear Money Grab by Thomas!
Review: In my opinion, Thomas Harris wrote the book on the Thriller Genre, literally, with "Silence" and it still stands as the book I hold all other thrillers up against. I was very disappointed to learn that there was a sequel, more disappointed to learn that the screenplay rights were sold for an obscene amount of money BEFORE the novel was even written, and was the most disappointed with the actual result.This book lacks all of the heart of Silence and even the Red Dragon; stories where the real terror was written into the dialogues between the characters whom you cared about and written in between the lines. The gory details acted as filler which supplemented the implicit terror and drove home the evilness of the acts of the killer(s). It was written in such a way that you almost grew to like the monster named Hannibal and really invested yourself in Agent Starling. This book came up short in the heart area and was overdone in the gory details. Agent Starling who????????? What a disappointing 180 turn in her character. They were two completely different characters, they just happened to share a name from one book to the other. The attempts to explain Hannibal Lecter's childhood traumas were very weak and took much away from the mystique of his character. Much of what makes up the horror/thriller genre is the unknown. Not knowing what made Lecter tick was part of that character's heart in "Silence". But I must say in Harris' defense, that it is well-written overall, which makes it readable. And like many who read the thriller genre, my morbid curiosity compelled me to read scenes like Starling's dinner party (if you read it, you'll know the scene I'm referring to). it's not hard to see why Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins skipped the roles for the movie sequel. I might skip the movie sequel as well.
Rating: 
Summary: Informative and Interesting
Review: Hannibal, by Thomas Harris, is a good read. Harris includes some fascinating and educating information about the city of Florence, which is one of the main reasons why I personally like the book. The plot of Hannibal is stable and well thought out, but is not as fast-paced as two other novels by Thomas Harris, The Red Dragon and Silence of the Lambs. In Hannibal, Hannibal Lecter, a mad man who plays a part in both The Red Dragon and Silence of the Lambs, is living relatively peacefully by himself in Florence, Italy. The story's plot begins to thicken when two different people, with two different motives, enter into a quest to find him, each wanting to get to Hannibal ahead of the other. The main character of this novel would have to be Dr. Hannibal Lecter, but Clarice Starling and Mason Verger come in as close seconds. Dr. Lecter is portrayed throughout most of this book as a highly intelligent man who is just very particular in his needs and doesn't seem to be bothered by stepping on, or killing, those unfortunate people who happen to be in his way. The ending to this book took me by surprise because it was entirely different than I had guessed it would be, however, it is consistant with Hannibal's character. Hannibal Lecter constantly does things that people normally don't do, like eat human livers and/or brains, so the ending, which confused me at first, actually does makes sense. After reading this book, I would love to travel to Florence. Before reading Hannibal, I didn't know much about the city of Florence, but now, after learning something about Florence's interesting history, I think that it would be a great place to visit.
Rating:
Summary: Great Cold Weather Book!!!
Review: For those nights when the weather keeps you in, when a fire and a good book sound like the best way to spend the evening....use this book to start the fire and then go find a good book to read!! If you do decide to work your way through this one don't finish it....this book has a few pretty intriguing story lines but doesn't deliver. It almost seems as if there were two authors, Harris seems to have started the book, whoever finished it should be just that....finished!! I finished it out of morbid curiosity and then gave the book the burial it deserved....the garbage. Too bad I don't have a fireplace...it would have made great kindling!!! I give it negative five stars.
Rating:
Summary: Harris gave up in the end ...
Review: Great book until the last 50 pages -- then I regretted starting it at all!
Rating:
Summary: breath-taking
Review: This book, put simply, is my favourite book of all time. It is a roller-coaster of psychological suspense and then some. It covers so many topics that it defies description. It is a stroke of literary genius. I would recommend this to anyone, period. Elegent, compelling, original. Hannibal.
Rating:
Summary: Hannibalisation
Review: With the buzz surrounding the production of the 'Hannibal' movie and the sinister face of Sir Hopkins as Dr. Lecter peering out from the movie's poster (which I had to have and now looks spectacularly down at me from the wall of my room), I was itching to get my hands on the novel itself, but I knew I had to start from the beginning. The poster made me do it. I was hungry for Hannibal. I went out and purchased all three books, Red Dragon, Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal. Mind you, I had not seen Silence of the Lambs yet and such was the wonderful mystery of it all. It took me less than a couple of weeks to breeze through the first two books. Finally I felt deserving of 'Hannibal'. On the same night that I had finished Silence of the Lambs, (and having finished a book made me feel as if I had gone straight out and devoured it..simply delicious feeling that I revelled in..) I dived straight into the pages of 'Hannibal'. From the first chapter of this novel, the third volume of the Hannibal trilogy erupted right out of its pages and into your face. Clarice Starling's stakeout gone wrong and the bloodbath that ensued had me riveted to my chair and rooting for the gutsy gal. Mr. Harris is indeed gifted with the ability to paint startling images in our minds and he has done so with much gusto in just one chapter. And then the story kicked off, with Starling's suspension and the Crawford's inability to help out much. (It's a bit sad to see Crawford playing a very distant second fiddle to almost every character in this story. What happened to the Crawford we knew?) The story suddenly leaps to Florence, Italy, introducing Pazzi and the mysterious Dr. Fell. Rinaldo Pazzi, though scheming and greedy, still gained sympathy and empathy for, sadly, being human enough. Pazzi's deal with Mason Verger goes awry, but we all knew that they were playing on risky ground with Dr Fell aka Hannibal. The way he killed Giocco in the midst of a crowd, unexpectedly and swiftly, in itself drew attention to the fact that Thomas Harris was indeed delivering. I also thought that Dr. Lecter's mind trips into his memory palace was really cool and plausible. (one reviewer asked why mr. harris even bothered... well, to each his own tastes.. and isn't that what hannibal is about....individual taste.) Despite all the flak Hannibal has gotten from reviewers here, I believe that this novel still outshines most of the so-called horror-suspense-thriller novels of its time, and Harris deserves recognition for the risks he keeps taking. You can see that Harris' way of writing has changed over the years. His style in Red Dragon differs from Silence of the Lambs and now in Hannibal it has transcended even further. Dear Mr. Harris, thank you for Hannibal. Life wouldn't be the same without the acquaintance. I just hope the movie does justice to it...
|
