SILENCE is its own book, and a damn good one. I had to replace my copy 5 times before I stopped "loaning" it to people--lol. RED DRAGON was made into 2 movies: MANHUNTER (my favorite) and RED DRAGON. it takes place before SILENCE, and is also a great book. I didn't think that HANNIBAL or HANNIBAL RISING were nearly as good.Silence was based on Thomas Harris' book,Red Dragon,which is even better than the movie if you can dig it,give it a read if you get a chance..don't think the sequel movies lived up to the original silence movie or this book..