Has somebody read the Gormenghast series by Mervyn Peake?
I listened to the first one. I think I missed a few things, but I thought it was pretty good.
Yah! Gormenghast, --- Hiro jumping up and down, waving his arms ---, it's absolutely brilliant!!
Know what you're getting into, though. The buildup is very, very slow, but the writing is never less than impressive, creative, funny, poetic, incisive etc. You should be ready to slow down and concentrate on the scene or even sentence at hand, instead of wishing to rush to see where things are going. And all this buildup gets terrific, I say fabulous payoffs later on. Peake can write ANYTHING. Great characters, decor, humor, atmosphere, action, set pieces (oh boy!)...go for it!
To warm you up, I have put several quotes here:
http://www.second-apocalypse.com/index.php?topic=768.0