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“The first book in Peake’s series of Gormenghast novels (commonly referred to as a trilogy, but this seems wrong since the term carries with it a sense of intent - Peake envisioned a series of many books; only his death determined three to be the final tally) covers only the first two years or so of it’s eponymous character’s life - the real focus of the book is either on the fascinating antihero Steerpike or the life of the sprawling stone castle itself. Something of a fantasy cult classic, the novel feels more than any other book i’ve read to be architectural in nature - it sprawls and covers ground the way its marvelous castle setting does, and at times the strange odd little characters it follows seem drowned in both the place and the book they inhabit. A favorite of writers such as Anthony Burgess, Peake doesn’t have the wide-ranging fanbase of his contemporaries Tolkien and Lewis but he certainly deserves to be better known.”
RyanG wrote this review Saturday, July 5 2008.
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