And now I have fully completed the Hannibal series by finishing up "Hannibal Rising"!
Essentially what I read was pretty much Hannibal Lecter's origin story. A story that begins on the Eastern Front during the second world war that provided the main ingredients to create the monster that he would eventually become.
Orphaned and brilliant, but with demons that are hiding inside of his memories, gouging him with the fragments of his horrible past. And if he can find and confront them in his heart and brain, he can find them in the flesh and then hunt them down to achieve a kind of peace.
While on the other hand a beautiful exotic woman takes him into her heart, and she uses every weapon and wile she has at her disposal in order to save him from the darkness, and to keep the horrible forces stemmed that were unleashed by Hannibal.
Some of Hannibal's past life was hinted at in the third book, but here in the fourth, and final, book in the series we get the full story. It is in "Hannibal Rising" we have a complete picture of how Lecter ended up being the way he is. Along with all the horror and intrigue there is also this very strong sense of tragedy that goes along with it, especially in some scenes.
In my mind this, and also including "Hannibal", is pretty solid book. It isn't in the same level of greatness as "Red Dragon" or "Lamb", but still very solid. And it is also not as long as "Hannibal", but I still got quite a lot out of it. And since it is the last book in the series it is time bid Lecter adieu as soon I will be heading and reading a different book from a different author.
by i-the-muso-1968