Hannibal Rising: It's a movie and a book.

During my weekend away, I was able to finish reading Hannibal Rising by marginally great writer Thomas Harris. I like his writing a lot, but it drags in places and uses some of the same conventions (to good effect, of course) again and again. Even so, I was excited to read this new book, after thinking Hannibal was pure genius.
It took me a while to get in to. Having read Hannibal, I already knew about Mischa and all the horror that entailed. So there weren't really any surprises. In fact, after a horrors-of-war chapter and a chapter or two about his days at school, Hannibal Rising is a book about art theft and poetry. It's not until the final third of the book that you get the zany Hannibal-style killings that you picked up the book for. Overall, I think this book lacked the psychological development I was looking for. And the violent scenes were awesome, but could have been spaced out a bit more.

Tonight, I figured I'd go ahead and Demand Hannibal Rising the unedited edition. I didn't have high hopes, seeing as how Rotten Tomotoes has it firmly at 16%. As expected, all the poetry and art theft was omitted in favor of all the racy, bloody, or funny bits of the book strung together to make a fairly entertaining movie.
This Gaspard Ulliel who plays young Hannibal is pretty good. He's a little over the top during the kills, but let's face it, no young actor is going to be able to thrill and chill us like Sir Anthony Hopkins and we are silly if we think they are. Still and all, the new kid was pretty good. Kevin McKidd from ROME also makes an appearance as Kolnas. His death is cartoony, like most of the murder death kills in this movie. I can see how that might ruin the movie for some people, but there really was a lot to enjoy here. When it comes on HBO, you really should take the time to watch it.

( here are some mock ups for the cover art for Cat's Apprentice )

I love how my name is above the title. Not sure if it will stay like that, but for now I likes it. I think the woman's face should be sexier and more sinister looking, which the artist is working on. Frankly, I'm bummed that H isn't doing my designing for me, but he doesn't want to for some reason. At least the artists they've hooked me up with are good and easy to work with. Anyway, lemme know what you think.

Here it is again, after some tweaking.

Clicky to make Biggie!
The back has a pic of Clarence:


In Consumer Product Watch news, Cinnamon Sun Chips are delicious. They have a nice, buttery flavor that makes them seem much more caloric than they are.

I ordered a gift for my officiant from Magickal Omaha that was on clearance. Turns out, they didn't have any more, which was a drag. I thought I was getting a cool amethyst pendant that I couldn't get. Fie, right? So I cancel the order even though they offered me 45% off one item--I just couldn't find anything suitable for that price. So I ordered my officiant something from lirrin instead, which is actually quite beautiful. So then, the rest of my Magickal Omaha order arrives (some fancy soaps for H's grandmother) and they included a tiny but beautiful amethyst pendant. I must say, that was pretty slick on the customer service side of things. So mad props to them.

Full steam ahead on JulNoWriMo business. I just posted a new chappie over at wednes_writes which is a super scary murder chapter. Oooooh, the terror!

Also, I got a free box of Nag Champa today. 100grams no less!