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Hannibal
This book was horrifying, and not in the way in which it was supposed to be. Hannibal is so poorly written that, for the first few chapters, I thought I'd been sent the unedited galleys of the novel by mistake. Harris moves back and forth through tenses more fluidly than Dr. Lecter's knife through one of his victim's gut. It's like the author couldn't decide if he was writing a schlocky screenplay or a novel. What's missing here is a serial killer, and the thrill of the chase - the most interesting thing in "Dragon" and "Lambs" was the suspense, the not-knowing what the hell was going to happen next. Even if you can overlook Harris's amateur prose, the plot is nearly non-existent. I'm going to have to reevaluate my respect for Stephen King (accident notwithstanding) after his praise for this novel in the NYTimes. By the time this book was over, I felt I'd been worked over by Mason Verger's swine. This book sucks.
Hannibal
It starts off somewhat slowly; Lecter doesn't even appear in the beginning. The pace picks up when Pazzi tries to catch Lecter, and from then on in I couldn't put the book down. And the ending ... all I can say is Wow. Got to the back cover, placed the book on my couch and literally said, "Holy s***". That's how amazing it was
Hannibal
I saw Silence of the Lambs, but I haven't read the previous two Hannibal Lechter novels. Hopefully, the old books were better than this one. Hannibal was a shaky rollercoaster of inconsistent plots, unnecessary graphical content (not the cannibalism - other events) and an ending not worthy of a second-rate comic book.
Hannibal
This is the 615th review so I doubt it'll get much exposure, but I felt the need to defend Harris a little here. OK, I'll have to agree that there's a plausibility problem with the final outcome; Starling's character did seem to become a little cartoonish. I did get the feeling that Harris decided to finalize the draft with some haste. He probably had a great deal of pressure on him to finish. Maybe he's playing with us a little because of the incredible hype and anticipation over the release of this novel. Still, I thought the imagery was up to Harris standards, the pacing was great, and I generally had a good time reading it. It wasn't as enjoyable as the first two novels in the trilogy, the characterization not being as strong or as dimensional, but I got over the small disappointment of the not-so-likely ending pretty quickly.
Hannibal
What I found most interesting in this book was its scrambling of our expectations for heros. The italian investigator Pazzi and the Justice department hack Kremmler are the truly evil ones, as justified by their simple self aggrandizing schemes. Lecter, in contrast, ever the individualist, merely seeks self fulfillment through his "taste" for the finer things in life, among which are included Clarice Starling. His never ending quest is simple enjoyment of his private pleasures, which are compatible with, and often require him to rid the world of the rude and the boorish. Privacy and individualism are threatened by government (a corrupt FBI and political system), and big business as given a figurehead with Mason.That said, Starling seemed to me to be the central character of the novel, whose theme is her awakening to and acceptance of the vision of reality as provided by Lecter. Very bizarre, but more funny than sick."Hannibal" was more interesting than "Silence", but not as thrilling (and both were far better than "Red Dragon"). The disjoint first part in Italy could have been a separate novel. A good read, I'm really curious how they'll do the movie.
Hannibal
A poorly written story with an unbelivable ending that betrays the integrity of the characters and insults the intellegence of the reader. I now CAN wait for the film to come out. Biggest letdown of the year.