December 2014: Tigana - Second Half and Final Thoughts

[Joel]

Read Tigana? What did you think? What do you want to discuss about the latter half? What were your overall thoughts? Spoilers are allowed in this thread. Thanks!

[Anders]

Read this last year, I enjoyed it and hope the rest of you will as well.

[Duncan]

I read this one a while ago. If memory serves, the writing is beautiful. I had an issue with the characters though; they were all too perfect. That said, the book was still well worth it for the writing alone, especially the cliff diving scene.

[Michael]

Great book. I thoroughly enjoyed it except for two things. The 40 odd pages leading up to the sanctuary and Alessan's mom were boring beyond belief. It took me two days to get through those forty pages. Also, Catriana should've stayed dead. There were no personal stakes for any of the characters. When a wizard can save you from suicide when your other wizard friend can't or your personal healer can instantly repair your giant sword wound in your side, you might as well just be immortal. However, it didn't bother me that much, being a fantasy reader, I'm quite used to suspending belief. Overall, I had a good time with this one

[Andrea]

I hated all the crying in the book-all of these men crying. It seemed like every 40 pages you could bank on one of the characters bawling. I agree with Duncan-some of the characters were just a little to perfect. I also did not see the love interest of Alessan coming at all. That felt totally out of left field for me.

[Nazir]

Characters were too good to be true and too much of secondary emotions that gave a forced feeling to the whole story. Overall concept was great.

[Matt]

For an epic fantasy I couldn't ask for anything more. Sure the characters were almost too perfect, and I felt like in the long run everything was going to work out, but I wouldn't have wanted the book to end any other way. Very happy with this book. Going to check out Kay's other work. Has anyone read his other stuff and have anything good to suggest?

[Chris]

It's all pretty good, truth be told. I'd go with Sailing to Sarantium/Lord of Emperors next, if you don't mind two books. Single entry-wise, The Lions of Al-Rassan is also ace.

[Paul]

My review: http://commontouchoffantasy.com/book-...

Youtube Review: http://youtu.be/HFgnWNYyM8I

I enjoyed this book, I gave it a 4/5. I disagreed with most of you guys that the characters seemed too perfect. I thought they carried around a lot of emotional baggage and issues that really made me believe the characters. The characters overall felt very honest to me. I do agree that Catriana dying would have been better.

The world was outstanding. For a stand alone fantasy book, the world was more flushed out than some trilogies or series that I've read. The Palm is such a real place to me now.

My biggest gripe is that there was a ton of back-story in this book. I wanted it to get to the present and some of the back-stories just kind of dragged on. It threw the pacing off and was difficult to get through at times. That lodge scene was one of the best scenes I've ever read in any fantasy book. Chapters 4/5 woo.

It is really difficult to find that balance between creating this amazing world and having interesting back-stories for your characters without it being too winded. The thing I praised it for the most, it's world, might not have been as strong without all the back-story.

I was actually really happy with the choice that Dianora made. I felt it was in line with her character and it really made me think about her and Brandin's relationship. To fall in love with someone you should hate so much is an interesting concept to me.

[Kamal]

Really enjoyed this book. I haven't read many standalone fantasy novels before (mostly stuck to series), so this was a new experience. I'll go in detail about all my thoughts in my review, so basically: I'm surprised to find that this is possibly the first book I've enjoyed this much, yet was not left with a heavy-hearted feeling when I finished it. Tigana had a well build world and the way all the separate story-lines ended up together in the end was great, but I do have to agree with a lot of the things people say about this novel - the characters are just a little too perfect, and I've yet to read a book where the author focuses on feelings so much. I could've sworn that almost every couple of pages someone gazed into someone's eyes and saw a truer pain than they've ever imagined, or something similar. 4/5 for me.

Now, a couple of questions. Devin, Baerd and Sandre saw a riselka at the end of the epilogue. Does that mean one of them is going to die? Why do you think the author put this little twist in the ending, and what are your speculations as to what happens?