Reviews

ACAB: check.
Luddite anarchism: check?

Still some problematic treatment of women.

Very interesting book, but very different from the first two. The setting is quite the shift. Events in book two and this one kind of make me look at

Titus

as a villain… or at the very least not a great guy.

ellikiress's review against another edition

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dark funny mysterious slow-paced

tamsinese's review against another edition

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4.0

A word to the wise, apparently the audiobook and the physical copy in the trilogy set are vastly different? Like the physical edition I read had 10 or more chapters that the audiobook did not, and tons of passages that the audiobook cut out. The audiobook was clearly an updated revision of the novel. But the introduction didn’t mention any of this! So if you get the Illustrated Gormenghast Trilogy with an intro by Michael Moorcock then I guess just know that going in.

nicolef's review

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adventurous challenging dark medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

zeldazonks's review against another edition

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Decided not to finish this one, it feels a bit mean spirited to be critical of a book that was published following the death of the author and based on their manuscripts/drafts but despite having the same main character it feels like a completely different story from the first two. Rather than a gothic vibe it's more Sci fi and frankly I found Titus irritating. All of the characters I loved in the preceding two books are completely cast to the wayside. Instead we get Titus dropping in and out of several Gormenghast lite situations, and as the book is so short it's almost a whistle stop tour and so I found it hard to get much from it.

mattirubin's review against another edition

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2.0

I think the writing and the imagery is amazing. It's excellent prose, but as a story, I did not understand where this book was going at any time or what characters mattered. After reading it, I still don't know. At no point did it come together. At no point did I feel like I understood why I read this series or why many things that were talked about endlessly mattered at all. I struggled throughout the entire series to get through it, to continue reading, and to care. I expected in the end for this beautiful writing to pull it together somehow, and I just don't feel like it did, for me.

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