oh my goodness, someone else has read Gormenghast besides me and my father!! He told me how fabulous they were, so in deference to him, I read the first one. And I pretty much hated it, I have to confess. He told me afterwards that he'd read them like 30 years ago and didn't really remember them, he just remembered the image of the castle itself looming over everything. I guess that's fair, I have that image too, but it didn't make me like the book.