Hannibal Rising

What Does Not Kill You Does Not Always Make You Stronger:
Let me preface this review with the fact that I am a Hannibal Lector/Tom Harris fan. However that does not mean I must give all of his works five stars out of slavish devotion. 'Hannibal Rising' I thought was good, but definately not the best of this series. First of all as it is a prequel to a well know series and character, the tension can only be ratcheted up so high. We know that Hannibal lives a long and relatively happy life with only a brief stop in prison. Essentially he gets to live the majority of his life doing those things that bring him...ahem...joy. So in that respect I think that this book would have benefited as being more of a case study than a dramatic narrative. Now I disagree with other reviwers that the experience in the hunting lodge isn't enough to break him down to such a degree that it kills him in all ways except physical. I can see this as being what brings him to being "Hannibal the Cannibal". In his quest to met out to Mischa's killers and his tormenters exactly what they had done to him, he ends up becoming them. Between the horrific events in the lodge and his actions afterwards, he loses too much of himself to ever truly be put back together again. So that I can get behind. However where all of this wonderful potential gets bogged down is in the execution. Hannibal becomes too sympathetic of a character. Instead of being a villian, he becomes an anti-hero. You may not whole heartedly approve of his actions, but you can't really fault him for them either. It stops becoming a descent into madness and instead becomes a meditation on justice and vengence. You get the feeling that too much of Hannibal losing his mind and, perhaps, eating other people that have nothing to do with his mission of revenge is happening off the page (and later, in the film, off screen). So, in my opinion, this book is good to read. However in the end it is not essential to the Hannibal character. If you feel the urge to complete your set, buy it and read it in good health. Otherwise, it won't kill you not to have this book.

A cut above the usual murder story:
This book is, in some ways, more chilling than the previous installments of Harris' Hannibal Lecter books. Set during and after World War II, we see how wartime horrors bend the already unique mind of a brilliant, sensitive child, and how, in the search for postwar revenge, a monster emerges. What makes it chilling is less the young Lecter's ingeniously murderous capabilities, than it is what triggers them. If the subject of the worst atrocities being visited upon children disturbs you - as it should - you may need, as I did, to stop reading from time to time. It's still a fine book. Lecter's unique persona - his exquisite intelligence combined with his psychopathic creativity - helps drive all these books, and getting inside his mind to see how it was shaped puts this a cut above the usual murder story.

Meh.:
Wow. Cash in, much? Christ, man. You're a fantastic writer. I've read all of your novels. This dreck is beneath you.

Disappointing:
Harris here fails to deliver on the dense plotting and narrative thrust of his previous books. Even "Hannibal," while a bit farfetched, still demonstrated his craft. This one feels like it was written by his intern. And let's be honest: As an origin story, it's wholly inadequate. Lecter's mental pathology cannot be explained by trauma early in life. The character established in "Red Dragon" and "Silence" is a mostly evil psychopath, not a sympathetic avenging angel.

A blight on the series.:
Had someone other than Thomas Harris written this book, it would not have been published. Unbelievable story with an appalling lack of character development. I would have rather read a collection of raw half finished back story notes than this sorry fare.