Customer Reviews

Hannibal

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This book is the product of a vibrant, morbid and twisted imagination. Thomas Harris did an excellent job in creating a likable monster and a model agent.

Hannibal Lecter, M.D. is a kind of man you want to meet: an intellectual, a musician, a cook who cooks human organs, and kills in the name of humanity, to rid us from undesirable, uncouth, boorish individuals (including killing a mediocre flautist from the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra).

Agent Starling is the idealized straight arrow, the unwavering FBI agent who is ostracized from the bureau, because she's a female.

Every character in this book is disturbing. Corbel, the pederast who makes martinis using children's tears, Barney, the orderly who devours street pigeons, Margot, the incestuous sister, and finally, Mason Verger, the "faceless" monster who plans a harrowing revenge against Dr. Lecter, his erstwhile mentor


Those characters who are not so disturbing meet untimely, savage deaths. You know there are going to be a lot of killing, but you just don't know what kind of gruesome death they will suffer.

As usual, the book is far better than the movie. I can't wait to read "Hannibal Rising." I want to know what happens to agent Starling and Dr. Lecter.
I won't spoil the ening of this book, but I was amazed by the way it ended.

Hannibal is no "Silence of the Lambs" and it sure as hell is not a Hollywood movie. Sequel lovers will be disappointed but those who want to find progress and evolution in horror will find it here in Hannibal in all its bloody glory. Harris could have given us a remake of Red Dragon or Silence, but instead he goes the extra mile by shredding everything that the other two books stood for and simply slapping out a new raw type of horror story on a plate. There is nothing in this book which stops you turning the pages and anybody with some insight can see that every word, every sentence, every chapter has been gone over with a fine tooth and comb to give it the 'horror' masterpiece that Harris obviously had in mind. In fact that is what this book is - sheer urban horror.

Hannibal is a quicker read than anything you can expect. If you want to know more about why Hannibal does what he does then you will find it here within these pages. There is less detective work this time round but then again look at the book's title and you will understand. This isn't about the FBI or Starling. This isn't about Serial Killers and their Nemisis - this is about Hannibal.

The story is vulgar, obscene, violent and bloody. It takes us through the halls of blood-soaked dreams and into Hannibal's world where he walks freely painting his canvas a dark red while convincing onlookers that his interpretations of renaissance paintings are indeed the revelations of their ancestors deranged minds.... and they clap! This books plays with you and sticks with you.

To cut a long story short this is a HORROR NOVEL and a bloody good one at that. It matches the Exorcist in this respect and does its best to distance itself from prejudged ideologies about what a follow-up to silence of the lambs should be. I give a nod to Harris! This is Horror evolution at its finest if you ask this reviewer.... and that is the best way to lap it up.

Go read Agatha Christy or James Patterson if you really want another detective yarn.

Thomas Harris has produced his masterpiece in HANNIBAL. Moving beyond the standard crime thrillers of RED DRAGON and SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, Harris composes an elegant, twisted narrative resembling a contemporary take on the surreal writings of Edgar Allan Poe, and the result is a deliciously dark thriller.

But despite its distinction from its predecessor, HANNIBAL also compliments SILENCE quite well. While it goes on to tread new territory, the characters continue on. Harris has never had a better grasp on Lecter or Starling than he does in HANNIBAL, and those arguing to the contrary missed much of what Harris was doing in SILENCE.

"Hannibal" by Thomas Harris, ©1999

This story makes Hannibal a sympathic character. It is more a story of the growth of the relationship between Clarice and Hannibal, then a horror or mystery. It was so sad that so many people have so many foibles that create evil. In the end it was good that the best people of the story really got some real good in their lives. But truly, Clarice gets turned to the dark side, so to speak.

By now there doesn't seem to be much left to say, but since I managed to ignore most reviews and read Hannibal years after it was released, others might as well.

Hannibal would have been far more enjoyable as a standalone novel rather than a sequel to Silence of the Lambs. I find it impossible to ignore the changes of two main characters. There was *nothing* in Silence that suggested what would eventually happen to Starling. Even not considering that, Harris seemed to be more interested in shocking the reader not because it fit the story but just because he felt like it. One theory is that, after his initial refusal to do a sequel to Silence, Harris wrote something he figured would be unfilmable to spite those putting pressure on him. Hannibal is not all sludge though, as the prose was often captivating and I found the Florence section rather good, so I'd suggest to anyone who might pass over Hannibal to borrow it from the library and read that part alone.

In the beginning, there was "Red Dragon," where ex-FBI agent Will Graham went after a sick and twisted killer known only as the "Tooth Fairy," looking for help in Dr. Hannibal "The Cannibal" Lecter, who only appeared in three scenes. Then, there was "The Silence of the Lambs," in which the good doctor was given a much larger role as he helped FBI trainee Clarice Starling catch a demented killer called "Buffalo Bill." Now, the finale is here, in the beautifully constructed, wonderfully written and shocking novel, "Hannibal."

It is seven years after the events of "The Silence of the Lambs." Jame Gumb is dead, Clarice Starling is on bad ground with the FBI after a drug raid gone wrong, Jack Crawford is nearing retirement and Hannibal Lecter is out of jail and free in the world. Nobody knows where he is, and everyday his photo stays as number one on the FBI's "Ten Most Wanted" list. Now, someone is out for revenge. Mason Verger is a disgusting child molestor who was convinced by Hannibal to peel his own face off, leaving him horribly disfigured. Verger owns a large and wealthy foundation and enjoys terrorizing children while he lies in bed and watches every thing that goes on in the world. Mason is plotting a scheme to torture Dr. Lecter for two days until killing him for good as revenge against what he did to him. The reward he puts out for catching Lecter alive (without the knowledge of the FBI) convinces Rinaldo Pazzi to catch Lecter, who is living a good life in Florence under the alias "Dr. Fell," and deliver him to Mason for a full ten million dollars. Many die as Dr. Lecter leaves a trail of mayhem and blood, proving he is the ultimate monster is history. Meanwhile, the slimy Paul Krendler is double crossing the FBI to catch Lecter and kick Starling out of the FBI and use her as bait. But Lecter always remains one step ahead of them.

Ever since "The Silence of the Lambs" was published in 1988, readers demanded a sequel. Little did they know, it would take eleven years for such a book to be published. It's a lot like "Star Wars: Episode 1." People waited so long to get the book, and invisioned in their heads what might happen in it. So, of course, when it was released, many were dissipointed. When you wait so long, you build something up to be better than it really is, or the result is different than you expected it to be. That's why most of the reviews you'll find on this site are negative and bash it. I, however, am able to see the pure brilliance of this novel, no doubt a pure masterpiece. I'll bet a million dollars that most of the world was expecting another serial killer novel similiar to "Red Dragon" and "The Silence of the Lambs," but what was given to them was so different, unusual and twisted they couldn't really enjoy it. Personally, as much as I loved the two previous books, I welcomed the change in this one and admired Thomas Harris' bravery in departing from what was expected.

When I say this book is twisted, I mean it. Everyone is up in arms over the gore of the movie version, but this book is much sicker. There's a truckload of violent murders, tons of gory scenes in very explicit details, as well as very disturbing talks about molesting children and Mason and his sister, Margot's (who is nowhere in the movie) sexual expieriences as children. Not to mention you've got man-eating wild boars and a particularly nasty dinner sequence. The ending also caused a lot of controversy and anger. I won't give it away here, but I will say that "The Silence of the Lambs" hinted at this throughout the whole book, and this novel was only taking that a giant leap further. I particularly admire this ending, because it is a big shock yet left me feeling completely satisfied (once again, the movie version changes this).

Dr. Hannibal Lecter himself is, in my opinion, one of the greatest monsters ever put onto a page. He is interesting and fascinating. The coolest thing about him is how is a complete gentlemen, has a knowledge of fine wines, enjoys excellent meals, speaks intelligently and has a wide knowledge of the history of the earth, and because of all this, he can kill and eat people and we still find him a nice guy because he is so charming and intelligent. This book explains his past more and why he is the way he is, and I really enjoyed it because it makes you feel for him as a character more. Of course, many people disliked this, but I thought it influenced that he is a real person and truly can't help the way he is. Besides, the real villian of this book is Mason Verger, one of the most disturbing characters I have ever seen in a book. The details the novel goes into about him are very nasty and I really hated him. Other characters from the previous novel are back, most noticeably Paul Krendler, Jack Crawford, Barney the security guard and Ardelia Mapp, Clarice Starling's best friend and house-mate.

Overall, this book is a must read for anyone with a strong stomach and anyone who enjoyed "Red Dragon" and "The Silence of the Lambs." If you enjoyed this book, maybe you should check out "The Stand," the most brilliant novel I've ever read, or any of the Lecter movies, which include "Manhunter," "The Silence of the Lambs," "Hannibal" and "Red Dragon."

I hope my review was helpful.

PS: I really am thirteen.

This is an epic horror novel. Many found it too violent and juvenile. I found Hannibal's story, esp. the parts in Europe, to be a fascinating story. The side stories in this book are so much more detailed than the film; Large portions of this book were cut from the movie, although it did a decent job of capturing much of this book. The side story of the search for a serial killer Florence is interesting; The fate of Mason Verger is quite different, although the wild boar do make an appearence. The Barney storyline is more extensive, as is just about everything they touched on in the movie. I really like this book because it just went all out and told this crazy story about a criminal mastermind trying to outwit those trying to disrupt his life, in a manner of words. The characters are complex and colorful, and this book mixes the bloodshed and suspense quite well. I know people who hated this book, many right here on this same page. But I'm not one of them; I enjoyed Hannibal as the epic freakshow that it is. Harris covers alot of ground here, and proves himself to be a gifted and go-for-broke, 'I'm all in' kind of author. One of my all time favorite books, although I didn't buy the end.

Rarely has an author disappointed his loyal fans more than this, Thomas Harris' follow-up to the excellent RED DRAGON and SILENCE OF THE LAMBS. Having created one of the most deliciously evil characters in fiction with Hannibal Lecter, Harris decides to squander it.

Harris is an excellent writer, and that shines through here. Easy to read without being simplistic, Harris creates scenes that seem genuine and real, and describes situations that allow us to project ourselves into them. And sure, much of the action in HANNIBAL is very, very good. Harris could have made this book excellent without substantially changing much of the plot. Alas, it was not to be, and the problems are severe.

Of course, there is the atrocious ending. In the SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, Clarice Starling represented the archetype of the American girl - humble country-girl origins combined with the grit and determination and an unwillingness to back down that allows her not only to pull herself up, but to meet eye-to-eye someone like Lecter, whose genius is matched by his patronizing attitudes towards those of the lower classes.

In HANNIBAL, Starling is a pathetic basket case, pure and simple. In his portrayal of Starling, Harris destroys another great character.

Further, and equally problematic, is that Harris erodes Lecter's persona of evil in two ways. He describes Lecter's background to partially explain why he turned out as he did. Bad mistake. Lecter's evil should have been kept pure, evil for the sake of evil. By taking us into Lecter's background, he moves Lecter's evil away from the ontological and into the psychosocial and thereby lessens its impact. Harris also takes us on a tour of Lecter's mind. Again, this simply cheapens the impact of Lecter as an archetype of evil.

HANNIBAL really does make a reader wonder exactly what happened. How did a series with such an exceptional start get taken down this path? We may never know. But Harris should go back and write another sequel, not picking up where HANNIBAL left off, but taking us on an alternative route after SILENCE OF THE LAMBS. Writing the book that should have been written might mercifully make us forget this clunker.

I enjoyed reading Hannibal and am glad that I did. I did think that Red Dragon was a better book but Hannibal Lechter is so WONDERFULLY WICKED and well written that I cannot resist. There will never be another Silence of the Lambs but this was still enjoyable and certainly more than a one star book.

This is the second in Thomas Harris's series of three, with the latest being "Hannibal Rising". The book takes off where "Silence of Lambs" ended. From here we begin to understand the mind and evil of Dr. Hannibla Lector. We find the Harris takes us through a maze not only in the story but the mind of Dr. Lector. We also understand that Dr. Lector is in love and he will do what ever it takes to get what he wants. The ending will make you wonder but leaves the door open for another book. Though the second book in now a three book series it delivers and is a good read. If you are a serious fan of Harris this is a must read and should be on your book shelf. Lastly the book is 300 times better than the movie.