Much worse. Maybe it's the fact that I saw the films first (minus Hannibal) and they were predictable, but I didn't enjoy much about them at all. They read as pretty run-of-the-mill crime thrillers, but Hannibal's even more of an unbelievable, and thus cartoonish, villain in them. The writing's pretty bland too.

They translate really well to film though.

>>8260625
Thanks a lot for the answer

TV series is great, books are okay.

>>8260625

This sums it up pretty well.

Harris basically wrote the rough draft of the character of Hannibal Lecter, and then Hopkins perfected it.

>>8260611
Red Dragon is basically the only good arc of the entirety of the Hannibal franchise, excluding the TV series. I'm not sure if it's Harris' minimalist approach when it comes to writing that allows for such a dark and creepy atmosphere or whether because I watched the films before reading the books, but Red Dragon still blew me away, even after watching the film numerous times. Silence of the Lambs failed to capture any of that and was more or less a story about feminism, really. 100 pages in and there's a lack of incentive to keep reading because of how dull the story is, though that is just my opinion.

If anything, OP, read Red Dragon and watch the TV series. If you're really interested in the films, Red Dragon is the best of the bunch and should suit your needs.