Before the dragon roared and before the lambs were silent, there was just a small boy. A boy who would become Dr. Hannibal Lecter, one of the most prolific villains of movie and literary history in the last fifty years. But what caused Hannibal to become Hannibal the Cannibal? Was it his upbringing? His life experiences? Or was he simply evil given life? Author and creator Thomas Harris takes us back in time to answer these questions in his new book Hannibal Rising, which chronicles his days before infamy.

I quickly and greedily picked Hannibal Rising off of the bookshelf and immediately sat down to digest what I was sure was going to be a seven course meal of epic proportions. Harris's other books were all delicious in their own ways, although I did find Hannibal a bit tough at the beginning, by the end I was truly pleased with the entree on the whole, so I tore into Hannibal Rising and rapidly devoured it's paltry 323 page buffet. In the end, however, I was left unfulfilled as the book had more dressing than meat to sink my teeth into.

Hannibal's origin was briefly highlighted in Harris's last novel Hannibal, as we learned that a traumatic childhood event involving him and his little sister Mischa started the gifted young boy on his dark journey. Hannibal Rising goes into the full back story of this event and sheds light onto the noble heritage of the Lecter family tree and its downfall thanks to the events of World War II. From here the story shifts into Hannibal's formative "tween" years as he wanders the halls of an orphanage to his eventual rise in his teens to the dark revenge he seeks out as a young man and finally to his destiny as we know it today.

But aside from a few moments of true utter brilliance, the story is very drawn out and at times overly detailed about mundane things. This always seems to happen when a villain reaches the icon status that Dr. Lecter has, people want more and more of the character and they seem to become victims of their own fame and then in the most tragic turn of events, the villainy that we love the villain for, gets changed to where we want them to become the hero of the story, which is a terrible flaw. I like the fact that I fear Hannibal Lecter and the fact that him sitting in a jail cell is enough to make me keep the lights on at night after reading or watching his exploits, I don't need my villain to have a good side to him, it happened with Darth Vader and it has now happened with Hannibal, it's not that I'm still not a fan, it's just I feel like a jilted fan.

With the movie coming out in just a few weeks, this could be one of those rare exceptions where it could be better than the book, I'm not saying the book is terrible, I'm just saying it didn't do it for me, but in all honesty it would be nearly impossible to top the character that Harris created in my mind in the pages of Red Dragon and Silence of the Lambs, maybe he raised the bar too high himself with his own work.

5 of 10