Black Sunday

Thomas Harris' first novel is quite fast, entertaining read. If you liked the film, you'll love the book for being multi-dimensional in explaining how this diabolical plot unfolds from a disturbed American Vietnam POW Michael Lander and his relationship with Palestinian terrorist,Dahlia Ilyad.I believe Bruce Dern did an incredible job in bringing Michael Lander to life onscreen in the film. Marthe Keller did the same for Dahlia. As someone who watched the film and now read the book, I can say that they were perfectly cast and executed their characters to evoke sympathy and understanding of these broken souls.In the book, I began to understand the complexity behind the plot than the film. Super Bowl Sunday has exploded metamorphically into big business and a part of the American culture. This plot of the blimp dropping the bomb on a crowd of 80,000 people including the United States President too is frightening and realistic although the book was written forty years ago. America has been on high alert since September 11, 2001. Harris has made this book a great read but recognizes the collateral damage and disaster in the end. Nobody escapes without scars and horror even those sitting at home watching the game won't be untouched. That is the diabolical nature of terrorism to harm and innocent lives in order to make a statement. The reader must ask if there is another way.For a first time novel, its an impressive debut. I read 300 pages quickly and with excitement.

Thomas Harris has a gift for detail. In this case, it shines when he takes an implausible plotline (rigging the super bowl blimp to explode and kill everyone there, including the president) and finds a way to break it down into plausible chunks that the reader can swallow.Before you know it, you're hooked. You're believing something that doesn't sound remotely realistic, if you just read the blurb on the dust jacket.Usually if a thriller that has explosions, guns, and international intrigue, the reader is asked to put his skepticism on the shelf for a while and just enjoy the typewritten equivalent of an action movie. But this isn't some Brad Thor beach reader, the characters are not cardboard boy scouts or comic book villains. That's also one of Thomas Harris' talents and it makes it almost hard to believe this is his first novel. I found the heros only mildly engaging (a Mossad agent with an FBI sidekick) but his antagonists, particularly Michael Lander, really stick with you. You see (through flashbacks) Michael's progression from the boy who doesn't fit in to the rage-filled psychopath who blends in too well. Nobody recognizes the threat in their midst until it's too late.The flavor of this is a little more Tom Clancy than Harris' later cops-vs-serial-killers books, but don't let that discourage you from taking a chance on it. Good writing is good writing and will keep you turning pages anyway.

Such a good writer, how does Harris manage to get it so wrong? Unless you loathe the Arab people you will find it difficult to finish this book. Demonising a whole race does not sit comfortably with this reader, and certainly, after some of his brilliant earlier books he shows himself to be morally and imaginatively bankrupt.

After reading and re-reading of Harris' stories' about Hannibal the Cannibal (a man we desperately need in America right now!), I wantd to look elsewhere. "Black Sunday" is one of those, like, "I KNOW what's gonna happen but I want to read about it too." So I did.The movie, of course, is nowhere ner as goo as the book...

This is a good read, it is not however, it is not anywhere near as good as any of the books in the Hannibal Lecter series. It is a bit of a slow burn, but a slow burn done in an enjoyable way.

Black Sunday is one of the most exciting thrillers ever written. It's an oldish novel, but it captures you quickly and holds your attention throughout.

A lot of action. That's the point. You don't have a clue how things will end until the very end.

Outstanding read for anyone who likes a thriller with a dose of history sprinkled in. Didn't realize until I had started reading, it was the first book by the man who would go on to create Hannibal Lector and write The Silence of the Lambs

While completely different on the surface from Harris's Lecter novels, this too deals with the nature of madness, evil and guilt. As addictive as Harris's best work, this is dark, densely plotted and utterly compelling, and although focussing on politically-inspired terrorists as opposed to religious fundamentalism this still has a lot to say about MIddle East politics and the intractable terrorist mindset.Probably one of the best terrorist/counter-terrorist novels ever written, this proves that their is more to Harris than Hannibal Lecter. A thrilling and utterly relentless read.

Long winded very disjointed

Great read

Bought as a gift for husband - nothing like the Hannibal books - a great read

Great!