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I have finished Gormenghast (i.e. book 2 of the Gormenghast series) and am quite impressed. Below are random reflections and a discussion of why I find myself choosing to read older SF&F vs. recent works. tl;dr: I’m finding recent works, as a generalization, overly didactic. Trigger warning for discussion of sexual assault in fiction, and spoilers through book 2 of the Gormenghast series.( Read more... )
Gormenghast (Titus Groan) - Ramble Review
Aug. 8th, 2023 06:16 pmBack in what Wikipedia informs me was the year 2000 (sounds about right), I watched the PBS adaptation of Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast, having never before heard of the books. The commercials had me really excited: it looked atmospheric, weird, and otherworldly, and I'm always hungry for a story that can transport me like that. So I eagerly sat down to watch it and was very quickly bored and disillusioned by an unbroken host of unlikable, one-dimensional caricatures who seemed a sad waste of the visually enthralling world they'd been set down in.
From that day on, I dismissed the books as "not my thing," until a few weeks ago, I came across a tattered copy of book 1, Titus Groan, in a little free library and thought, "Why not. I'm curious what it's like." tl;dr: The book is better. I may even have turned into a mild fan. Spoilers for Titus Groan follow( Read more... )
From that day on, I dismissed the books as "not my thing," until a few weeks ago, I came across a tattered copy of book 1, Titus Groan, in a little free library and thought, "Why not. I'm curious what it's like." tl;dr: The book is better. I may even have turned into a mild fan. Spoilers for Titus Groan follow( Read more... )
