A very good work of fantasy playing with deeper concepts than “magical secret orphan prince” tropes. The long time I spent reading it is unrelated to its quality (but more related to my brain's bandwidth capacity these last 6 months).
The characters are compelling, the Aragorn-type is way more human than Tolkien’s Aragorn and the bad guys are well rounded and have interesting motivations. On the other hand I don’t remember if the book passes the Bechdel Test and the women roles could have been bigger.
I'd recently finished [b:The Lions of Al-Rassan|104101|The Lions of Al-Rassan|Guy Gavriel Kay|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348007861s/104101.jpg|955081] by [a:Guy Gavriel Kay|60177|Guy Gavriel Kay|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1218804723p2/60177.jpg] and loved it. Tigana is his older work, and is far more widely read. I'd tried reading it in the past, but never gotten past the first few chapters. It recently won the /r/fantasy vote on the best stand-alone fantasy and I decided to finally finish it.
Its definitely worthy of the praise, that's for sure. However, the pace of the book is somewhat unexpected. More than two-thirds of the book is spent in developing the characters and setting the stage for far-reaching events. Most fantasy authors would have decided that they needed a second book to properly depict the battles and the consequences of these actions. However, Tigana abruptly rolls the dice and turns into a page-turner at the start of Part 5.
My only complaint of the book is with …
I'd recently finished [b:The Lions of Al-Rassan|104101|The Lions of Al-Rassan|Guy Gavriel Kay|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348007861s/104101.jpg|955081] by [a:Guy Gavriel Kay|60177|Guy Gavriel Kay|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1218804723p2/60177.jpg] and loved it. Tigana is his older work, and is far more widely read. I'd tried reading it in the past, but never gotten past the first few chapters. It recently won the /r/fantasy vote on the best stand-alone fantasy and I decided to finally finish it.
Its definitely worthy of the praise, that's for sure. However, the pace of the book is somewhat unexpected. More than two-thirds of the book is spent in developing the characters and setting the stage for far-reaching events. Most fantasy authors would have decided that they needed a second book to properly depict the battles and the consequences of these actions. However, Tigana abruptly rolls the dice and turns into a page-turner at the start of Part 5.
My only complaint of the book is with the writing. "Show, Don't Tell" is the writers mantra for a reason. Characters very often think in monologues that span pages, wondering about the events and motivations of other characters. This happens far too often in the book, and ruins the world-building for me. Another thing that I disliked was that certain events (such as the dive) could have done with a slight more foreshadowing.
Having read both Lions and this, I have to recommend [b:The Lions of Al-Rassan|104101|The Lions of Al-Rassan|Guy Gavriel Kay|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348007861s/104101.jpg|955081] over this. The writing is far more superior and mature in that book. Once you have read Lions, do read this as well.
