The third book in the Gormenghast series turned out to be very different from the first two. It had some of the same hyper-reality that made Titus Groan and Gormenghast so appealing, but the focus on setting seemed thinner, with many more places described, but in much less detail. The world beyond Gormenghast has some striking and beguiling places, but they don't feel as real as the castle did.

The characterization was also less striking, though this was in part because Peake wasn't dealing monomaniacal characters this time around. This set seemed multifaceted in a way that was never apparent in the first two books. It was hard to understand even the major characters (with the possible exception of Muzzlehatch) in the same way that it was possible to understand Flay or Steerpike, and there were several important characters (The Helmets, Anchor), who seemed to appear from nowhere and disappear without any real explanation of their presence.

Reading the critical commentary included in the omnibus edition sheds some light on the difference. Titus Alone was published from manuscript fragments after Peake had been essentially incapacitated by Parkinson's disease. I wonder how much more density the world beyond Gormenghast might have had if Peake himself had finished it.