New & Current Releases
Archives: A-Z By Title
Archives: A-Z By Author
Advanced Search

All-Time High Scores
Best Of 2006
Best Of 2005
Best Of 2004
How Metascores Are Calculated
Discuss Books In Our Forums

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed books.

Hannibal Rising
by Thomas Harris


4.4

based on 15 reviews
read critic reviews
how did we calculate this?

based on 23 votes
read user comments
rate this book

Compare prices at pricegrabber.com

Buy it at powells.com

Buy it at amazon.com

Buy it at amazon.co.uk

FILM:

The fourth entry in Harris' series of books about serial killer Hannibal Lecter (which spawned, among other things, the film "Silence of the Lambs") is a prequel to the others, revealing how a young Lecter evolved into a violent criminal.

Delacorte Press, 336 pages
12/05/2006
$27.95

ISBN: 0385339410

Fiction
General Literature & Fiction

All reviews are classified as one of five grades: Outstanding (4 points), Favorable (3), Mixed (2), Unfavorable (1) and Terrible (0). To calculate the Metascore, we divide total points achieved by the total points possible (i.e., 4 x the number of reviews), with the resulting percentage (multiplied by 100) being the Metascore. Learn more...

The Independent Mark Timlin

Hannibal Rising is spot on. It's a superb work of blood and violence where the horrors of war are beautifully, if that's the right word, described, as Hannibal is forced into becoming the cannibal that will later be his trademark.

The Observer Peter Guttridge

Often chilling, sometimes ludicrous but always entertaining.

Washington Post Douglas E. Winter

With his origins told, however, Hannibal Lecter and his creator must consider the fate of too many monsters, real and imagined: The more we know about them, the less fearsome they become.

Los Angeles Times Dale Bailey

One senses Harris straining toward a theme here: Hannibal's inhumanity reflects the inhumanity all around him. Hannibal, the book suggests, is us. Except he isn't, of course — I've never eaten a human cheek roasted with morels, and I'm betting you haven't either.

Boston Globe Chuck Leddy

While Harris has explained, in gripping detail, Hannibal Lecter's mysterious origins, perhaps Lecter is a more frightening character in "Silence of the Lambs," where his childhood traumas, his dark closet of memories remained tightly shut.

Houston Chronicle John Freeman

With each Hannibal novel, Harris' prose feels more and more like a screenplay between two covers. The police-procedural detail that made 1981's "Red Dragon" so sticky has melted away, leaving behind snappy dialogue, cartoonish characters and a penchant for sentence fragments.

The New York Times Book Review Terrence Rafferty

Although this isn't a terrible novel, it never feels like a necessary one: what it most resembles is a deluxe collection of deleted scenes on a special-edition DVD.

The Onion A.V. Club Tasha Robinson

That foreknowledge of Lecter's adult character makes the book largely unsatisfying; its only twist is a minor one portrayed as a major one, and otherwise, it follows a simple, straight line through Lecter's life, suggesting a series of check marks—oh, here's where he first ate human flesh; ah, that's why he has such sophisticated taste.

The Guardian Steven Poole

But though there are still individual sentences and paragraphs to recall Harris's past mastery, the extremely short chapters are telling. Mere sequence, as of a film composed entirely of brief scenes, has replaced rhythm and suspense.

The Independent Boyd Tonkin

Harris is no Dostoyevsky, and this novel ranks as one more superior shocker rather than an incisive dissection of the psychopathic mind. He gives you the sinews of horror, not its soul, and this book accounts for the modus operandi of the "monster" we already know.

Sydney Morning Herald Peter Craven

The first third or so of Hannibal Rising is so dully put together, with such a mishmash of barely distinguishable characters and sloppily articulated incidents, that the mind can barely concentrate for all the turns the stomach is expected to perform.

The New Yorker Anthony Lane

The failure of Hannibal Rising, which seems to me absolute, is easily explained. It stems from the author’s newfound conviction that Hannibal, too, can be easily explained.

The New York Times Janet Maslin

Does that motivation sound primitive? It shouldn’t. It is no more crude than the revenge plot that drives Hannibal Rising or the market forces that impelled Mr. Harris to cough up this hairball of a story.

Entertainment Weekly Tina Jordan

The violence, though stunning, is so poorly described it doesn't frighten.

The Spectator Philip Hensher

It's one of the grosser stupidities of this almost limitlessly stupid novel to think that those readers who have enjoyed the grand guignol of Thomas Harris's other Lecter novels, Red Dragon, The Silence of the Lambs, and Hannibal would welcome an account, even an explanation of his hero's habits.

The average user rating for this book is 4.4 (out of 10) based on 23 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

James P gave it a10:
All Thomas Harris's books are extremely good thanks to Thomas Harris I can read.

Hondo J gave it a9:
Harris has crafted a terrifying masterpiece, complete with a character sure to rank alongside Uriah Heep and Joubert in the literary villain pantheon. The reader will be left wanting to know more about the boy Hannibal, and what the future holds for him. The name itself holds ominous portent (is it no accident it rhymes with "cannibal"?), and surely Lithuania is too small a land to hold such oversized evil. We hope to see more of Lecter in the future, hopefully in America, the only place big enough to produce adversaries worthy of Hannibal's sinister genius. Hopefully a sequel by Mr. Harris is in the offing.

Dange gave it a0:
Very bad. What is supposed to be a historical setting of Lecter’s childhood in Lithuania is not true to history at all. Even the names are all wrong. A castle and a countliving in it at the beginning of WWII? Lithunia was annexed by the Soviets BEFORE the war, and any nobles would have been either gone back to France, killed or sent to Siberia by the time of Blitz krieg. An Estonian medic and an Albanian child? Please...

Joseph K gave it a4:
Don't get me wrong, I loved Lecter. I've read all four novels and seen all five movies and this is the first time that the movie wins over the book. The way Harris wrote this book grated me something fierce. His narrative seemed disjointed and at times I wondered if he was trying to write in futuretense. Dissapointing in almost evey way. At least the movie was great. Stick to scriptwriting Tommy.

Jasmin S gave it an8:
I loved it, i think people have to deal with the fact that Thomas Harris owns the character of Hannibal and can do whatever the heck he wants with him (Hannibal in Space anyone? lol) People, just take a deep breath, sit, relax and enjoy the book Hannibal Rising without prodding through it, because where's the fun in analysing everything?

Bob S gave it a10:
ok...i loved it and the critics are morons... u dont have to be an English major to understand what happened like seriously it wasn't that hard to follow you moron!

Kurt D gave it a2:
One of the worst books ever written. The book is so thinly written that it's obvious Harris wrote the script first, then used it as his roadmap. Unreadable.

Hannibal Rising by Thomas Harris

Hannibal Rising
by Thomas Harris