He tells Hannibal Lecter's early life story so deftly that to expound upon what is there would spoil the broth. Its brevity, however, is where the author's skill truly lies. Certainly, it is shorter by far than most of Harris's previous novels in the series. This is not a long book, by any stretch of the imagination. He is mute and scarred, but something has shifted within him and in spite of his youth, a great malevolence is dawning. He is picked up by a Russian tank patrol and taken to an orphanage. The darkness lifts and Hannibal is wandering alone, through the forest. These are desperate men Hannibal justly fears for his and Mischa's lives. It is days rather than weeks before a band of half-starved army renegades and deserters find their way to the hunting lodge. Cold and frightened, Hannibal cares for Mischa, ensuring she has the lion's share of their meagre supply of food, to the detriment of himself. In freakishly unfortunate circumstances as the war draws to its conclusion, Hannibal and his baby sister Mischa suddenly find themselves alone. Looting, pillaging and scavenging are the order of the day. Winter has descended and food in any manifestation is in desperately short supply.
A little over three years pass before the Eastern Front collapses, the Russian Army rolling like lava across Eastern Europe, leaving behind a landscape of smoke and ashes, peopled by the starving and the dead. The aristocratic Lecter family and a few close hand servants are hiding from the marauding Waffen SS, in a small hunting lodge in the woods on the land that surrounds Lecter Castle. Hannibal Rising is set, as we begin the tale, half-way through the Second World War. It is much harder to write a screenplay, I am told, than to draft a novel. The fact that both of their respective works translate so easily to the big screen, for my money, tells of their superlative writing talent. He has the same erudite skill at setting a thrilling and horrifying but captivating scene, as Stephen King. Without leaning on a heavy bias, I will tell you right off the bat that I am a Thomas Harris fan and have read all of his novels.
Hannibal Rising is the first episode of the story of Hannibal "the Cannibal" Lecter, the terrifying doctor from the Silence of The Lambs, Hannibal and Red Dragon novels and it is gripping, nerve-jangling and masterful in equal measure. Summary: Is this the final chapter in the tale? A question only Thomas Harris can answer, but I hope not.
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