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Hannibal
by Thomas Harris
Product Group: Book
ISBN: B00009EF82
Binding/Media: Hardcover - 484 pages
Edition: Hardcover
SKU: 59029
Condition: Collectable Like New
Comments: --THE HARDBACK BOOK WITH A DUST COVER!-- EARLY PRINT. THE HARDBACK BOOK, DUST COVER AND PAGES ARE IN GREAT CONDITION, CLEAN AND TIGHT. SHIPPED RAPIDLY BY EXPEDITED POSTAL MAIL, AND BY AIR MAIL, ALSO TO APO/AFO
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Customer Reviews
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Did Harris Set Out to Write a Book This Bad?
Rating  (1)
Date: 2008-08-31
0 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
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.
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The best of the Lecter series
Rating  (5)
Date: 2008-03-19
1 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
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.
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The Dark Side is not so Evil
Rating  (4)
Date: 2008-03-17
1 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
"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.
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Hannibal
Rating  (3)
Date: 2007-02-20
1 out of 3 customers found this reveiw helpful
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.
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Hannibal by Thomas Harris
Rating (5)
Date: 2007-02-14
1 out of 3 customers found this reveiw helpful
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.
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