Hannibal
by Thomas Harris
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| The movie version ending, or movie vs. book | 3 | 04/03/2008 07:38AM |
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 2577)
Okay, let me confess up front: I loved Red Dragon and The Silence of the Lambs. Loved them. I enjoyed the movies, too: the movie version of Silence of the Lambs scared the pee out of me, and even so, I didn’t want it to end. So, long years later when I finally got hold of a copy of Hannibal, I really, really, wanted to love it, too.
But I didn’t.
Well, that’s not entirely true. If I pretend that this wasn’t a sequel about characters I alread...more
But I didn’t.
Well, that’s not entirely true. If I pretend that this wasn’t a sequel about characters I alread...more
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Read in October, 2007
Terrible. I cannot believe this is the same author who'd written "Red Dragon" and "Silence of the Lambs." The character assassination of Clarice Starling and Jack Crawford were unacceptable to me. Harris should stick with what he knows. Instead of trying to write a love story, he should have followed the formula of the two previous novels. What made "Red Dragon" and "Silence of the Lambs" worked as a series was Jack Crawford. In both of them, he was the on...more
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Read in January, 1999
This book is twisted, darkly funny, Grand Guignol, and I think a perfect coda to the Hannibal Lecter story. This is the book for everyone (And you know that most of you fall into this category) who wanted to see how Dr. Lecter managed to live, kill, and not just survive, in the world after prison. What I thought was bloody brilliant was that aside from Clarice Starling, pretty much every other major character in this book is ugly, awful, and so reprehensible, that rooting for Lecter as the her...more
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I have a theory about this horrible book.
Both Red Dragon and The Silence of the Lambs are formidable pieces of pop fiction. They are well-written thrillers with great descriptions and characters. They were both adapted into great movies. They made Thomas Harris a very rich man.
I think Mr. Harris made a bet, maybe ...more
Both Red Dragon and The Silence of the Lambs are formidable pieces of pop fiction. They are well-written thrillers with great descriptions and characters. They were both adapted into great movies. They made Thomas Harris a very rich man.
I think Mr. Harris made a bet, maybe ...more
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Read in June, 2000
recommends it for:
I wouldn't
The book starts off wonderfully with Harris's visualization; you can see everything you read. There are complex characters introduced and of course a wicked weave between them. He shows the master insanity of Hannibal with his elaborate set-ups for escape from not only Starling but from a vile creature named Verger who sets out to seek revenge on the good doctor. And you are eating this up the whole time, because it seems that Harris is once again quite the masterful story teller. But then you g...more
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Read in June, 1999
I had waited ten years for the sequel to The Silence of the Lambs. Ten very patient years because I believed the longer the wait, the bigger the payoff. Wrong.
If Thomas Harris spent the last ten years meticulously writing this latest installment, I'll eat my liver. Now hang on, I don't mean to say this is a bad novel, in fact it will make a tremendous movie. That's the problem...it read like a screenplay.
The characters I grew to know in the last novel just didn't seem real enough and I didn'...more
If Thomas Harris spent the last ten years meticulously writing this latest installment, I'll eat my liver. Now hang on, I don't mean to say this is a bad novel, in fact it will make a tremendous movie. That's the problem...it read like a screenplay.
The characters I grew to know in the last novel just didn't seem real enough and I didn'...more
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Read in September, 2003
recommends it for:
no one. Ever.
The quality of Harris' work has taken a fantastic swan dive. I can hardly believe that this was by the same author as Silence of the Lambs. Everything about this book is a failure. Perhaps the biggest disappointment is Harris' warped new take on Hannibal Lecter, which turns him into a sympathetic anti-hero figure. What?! Harris explores Lecter's backstory and exposes the "root of his evil," so to speak. I won't reveal it here in case anyone is still thinking about making the mis...more
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recommends it for:
ethicists, politicians, you
In Hannibal, we see the rise of Dr. Lector as an anti-hero, one who murders to make the world a better place. That the ending of this book was anathema to Hollywood, even with David Mamet adapting, is the best recommendation to read it. It is, among other things, a really weird love story. Those who love Dexter, in fiction or on TV, should embrace this novel for its courage and for blazing the trail. Harris, with at least three of his books containing Dr. Lector, writes remarkable morality plays...more
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Sadly enough, this is probably the lowest rating I have ever given a novel that I've read. This very disappointing followup to Silence of the Lambs finds a former victim of Lecter's plotting to ensnare and torture the doctor to death to please his own sadistic cravings. While at the same time, Clarice is also trying to find him, and, in effect, winds up rescuing him. Very unbelievable, very long winded, and exceptionally boring. The only really good things about this novel are the beginning in I...more
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This is probably the worst book I've ever read. I read Red Dragon and Silence of the Lambs ages ago before they were movies, and loved them. The only explanation I can imagine for this book is that Thomas Harris got tired of being bugged for another Hannibal book by his publisher, and wrote this as a big "fuck you" to them and everyone else who didn't want him to write about anything else. I would normally never finish a book this tremendously awful, but so many people had read it that...more
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Read in September, 2002
Thomas Harris obviously loves language, and that's one of the main reasons I will continue to reread parts of this book, out of context, for years to come. This is certainly not the best of the 'Hannibal' series, 'Silence of the Lambs' being the standard, but it is still thouroughly enjoyable. An entire chapter is dedicated to Hannibal Lecters shopping appetites, and if we follow our monster's philosophy, it makes perfect sense. Elegance is never forgotten, whether firing a crossbow bolt into a ...more
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Read in January, 2004
Yes, that's right. Zero stars! ZERO!! This book is the worst piece of trash that I have ever set eyes. Yes, I did read the entire thing, hoping it would get better. No, it didn't. As much as I hated the movie version, (and I did) I have to give props to Ridley Scott for actually making an adaptation that was slightly more palatable than this p.o.s. book! It's Jerry Springer in written form. I can't think of one redeeming characteristic of this nightmare. This book is the reason that the...more
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Read in June, 2000
A well written and riveting account of two powerful mad men - one in pursuit of the other.
The title character is the mad genius Hannibal Lecter. He is being hunted by a wealthy, sadistic man named Mason Verger, who he disfigured years earlier.
Lecter is almost caught in Italy, but later is actually caught in the USA. We learn more about his past and how he copes with stress (to say the least).
He is saved by Clarice Starling, who gets injured and he then nurses back to health. He us...more
The title character is the mad genius Hannibal Lecter. He is being hunted by a wealthy, sadistic man named Mason Verger, who he disfigured years earlier.
Lecter is almost caught in Italy, but later is actually caught in the USA. We learn more about his past and how he copes with stress (to say the least).
He is saved by Clarice Starling, who gets injured and he then nurses back to health. He us...more
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Read in August, 2007
recommends it for:
Those who want something mindless
This is the second time I've read Hannibal. Not because it was good enough to keep and re-read, but because I was going on vacation, and I wanted to take books that I wouldn't care if I left behind when I returned.
Hannibal fit the bill perfectly.
The plot is all right, although it has nowhere near the suspense of Silence of the Lambs. A lot of it seemed strained, and there were several places where Harris seemed to think that gross is the same as scary. It's not.
Rent it, don't buy ...more
Hannibal fit the bill perfectly.
The plot is all right, although it has nowhere near the suspense of Silence of the Lambs. A lot of it seemed strained, and there were several places where Harris seemed to think that gross is the same as scary. It's not.
Rent it, don't buy ...more
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Read in February, 2008
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
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Read in December, 1999
Clarice Starling's character would have never behaved in such a manner!
I thought "Silence of the Lambs" was excellent and I so looked forward to reading Hannibal--bought the hardback the moment it hit the store--took it on the Alaska ferry from Sitka, AK to Bellingham, WA--the perfect read for a long winter boat trip, I thought. WRONG! I was so disgusted and angry by the end of the book that I thought about throwing it overboard. Instead, I laid it on a bench and moments later som...more
I thought "Silence of the Lambs" was excellent and I so looked forward to reading Hannibal--bought the hardback the moment it hit the store--took it on the Alaska ferry from Sitka, AK to Bellingham, WA--the perfect read for a long winter boat trip, I thought. WRONG! I was so disgusted and angry by the end of the book that I thought about throwing it overboard. Instead, I laid it on a bench and moments later som...more
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Read in August, 2007
recommends it for:
suspense fans
This book is vastly different from the movie (which was a disappointment, if you ask me). For those who have read the other Hannibal Lecter books, I insist that you finish the original trilogy -- Red Dragon, Silence of the Lambs, and Hannibal. Of the three of them, Red Dragon stands alone, but reading both Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal is necessary to complete the storyline arc of Hannibal Lecter and Clarice Starling. The ending is a real shocker, haunting ...more
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recommends it for:
Hannibal Lecter fans
What a letdown ... after the last two great Lecter books, this came across as a novel Harris felt like he had to write just to appease the fans and those curious with how Lecter turned out. I thought taking Lecter out of his environment [his jail cell], and letting him loose on the world was completely anti-climatic. He was rather creepy and sadistic, but it all went spiraling down into one letdown of an ending that left me quite frustrated with the outcome of "Silence of the Lambs&q...more
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I've loved reading Thomas Harris since I was 19, but I really think he's rather stretched the whole Hannibal Lechter series a little thin (refer to this "review" when you see that I've also read "Hannibal Rising"). But Harris is in my Top 20 because of three achievements: We have (1) Jonathan Demme's incredible film adaptation of "Silence Of The Lambs", and of course (2) Harris' tight and tensely taught "Red Dragon" is a page-turning masterpiece, covered ...more
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i wasn't really a fan of this book. everything that made hannibal so interesting and creepy in the other novels is lost in this one. i felt his character was fake and trite. he just wasn't nearly as clever as he was in the previous novels and his humor, which made him so interesting and at the same time grotesque just completely missed in this novel. plus the story sucked too. i don't think this is worth anyone's time except if you're on a long flight and want to land feeling dissatisfied.
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