TIG: Anyone not like the book AFTER chapter 5?

[Vance]

There has been a lot of discussion about many finding the first few chapters difficult, boring or confusing. And many have encouraged them to stick with it, leading to a lot of "I stuck with it, and now am in love with this book!" comments. But is that everyone? Has anyone gotten "over the hump" and into the action and still not found it satisfying?

It seems as if, other than some "meh" feelings over Dianora's backstory, that it is smooth sailing for everyone after that. No?

[Napoez3]

I started chapter eight and I'm losing interest with every new thing that happens.


The Dinora's part broke too much with the rest of the story. When things are getting interesting you get sent some other random place you don't know, and after that 6 months had pass... The worst part is, that when I get on the track with Devin's group I'll go back to Dinora's story line, and I'll have to read what happened in the last 6 months we left her there.

[Nimrod]

Napoez3 wrote: "The worst part is, that when I get on the track with Devin's group I'll go back to Dinora's story line, and I'll have to read what happened in the last 6 months we left her there. "

I actually liked that, it was interesting towards the end to see the same thing play out from various viewpoints... but I can understand it not being to your liking...

I guess I liked that this was Kay's way of being able to take you back and forth between the two groups and not have to say "meanwhile, six months later..."

[Linguana]

I just started reading Dianora's point of view and I'm still in love.
What you say, Nimrod, about the same thing being told out of different perspectives is actually a thing I totally go for. I liked it in the Dragonriders of Pern books and in the Song of Ice and Fire. If an author does it right, he can really take my breath away by showing a scene, have me make up my mind about it, and then show it to me thorugh another character's eyes and make me rethink the whole thing.

I just love when writers fuck with my brain :)

[John]

I loved chapters 4-6, but I found myself not caring for chapter 7 and Dianora, at least not when compared to Devin and the others. It's just too disconnected for now, and it's mostly about Dianora's back story of how she got to Chiara, which I don't find interesting or important to the overall story. Hopefully this gets better in chapter 8.

[Vance]

To be honest, her backstory was my least favorite part of the book. So, that should actually be encouraging!

[Dazerla]

I too had some issues with the intial Dianora section, but by the end of the book I found her story as well as that of Devin and the others really compelling.

[Patrick]

I am struggling a bit with the Dianora section, but loved the Devin side of the book. I'm looking forward to seeing what is in store down the road a bit.

[David Sven]

I found Dianora a lot more interesting than Devin as a character - but her back story not so much. I was more interested in her rise in the saishan and in her present circumstances. But I couldn't have enjoyed that so much without taking the time needed to learn her past I suppose.

[Joe Informatico]

The Dianora sections are good, and they give you a lot of much needed information on Brandin--without them, Brandin's just a worse version of Alberico as far as the other Tiganese characters are concerned. Their problem is they are exclusively from Dianora's POV and have much slower pacing than the other sections. Also, Dianora only interacts with a small handful of other characters, often in very routine ways, so most of her story is written as internal monologue. That can be dull when stretched out over dozens of pages.

The other sections favour Devin's POV, but not exclusively, and feature an ensemble of interesting characters.

Basically, Dianora's sections in Tigana are functionally similar to Daenaerys' from A Song of Ice and Fire.

[Rhenus]

I'm almost finished (p 580) and to be honest I've found the style of writing frustrating.

Its clear to see the author is heavily influenced by Tolkien, but such endlessly descriptive onslaught tires the reader and makes a simple prose into chore.

I loved the characters and ideas contained between the drivel, however I felt at times as complex as the morals of the characters were there was really no main protagonist in this book and therefore no emotional anchor to it. The characters of Catarina and Divan lacked depth and try as Might I couldn't bring my self to really give a crap about their internal struggles.
4 out of 10

[AndrewP]

I think chapters 7 and 8 could have been edited down to just one chapter. I was losing interest at this point and almost lemmed it. Luckily it picks up in chapter 9.

[Tamahome]

We need a diagram of lem points, a Lem diagram as it were.

[Charles]

As people have commented, the initial bits on Dianora are slower than the rest, however, I believe they are worth it when everything gets tied together.

I also have to say that I really enjoyed all the language that people are complaining about!

[Tamahome]

Chapter 7 is brutal. Almost done. :)

[David Sven]

Charles wrote: "I also have to say that I really enjoyed all the language that people are complaining about! "

I concur.

[Vance]

yes, it is so interesting to hear such diverse reactions to the same text. Some find it wordy and over descriptive well others find the same text rich and poetic

[Sam]

Samurisloth wrote: "Its clear to see the author is heavily influenced by Tolkien, but such endlessly descriptive onslaught ti..."

I don't know if you're aware, but this is at least partially an unconsciously learned thing for Kay - he helped Christopher Tolkien edit the Silmarillion after JRR passed away. The influence is also heavily evident in Kay's first work, the three-part Fionavar Tapestry.

Also, I enjoy Kay's use of language even if it usually does take me a while to get up to my full speed when reading his books.

[Alu]

I'm about 50% through the book right now and honestly I'm struggling. I'm not sure what it is exactly, but I'm not enjoying this book as much as I wish I did. I don't hate it, but I find myself wanting to skip things because it just feels like it isn't progressing well enough for me. I see so many people talking about how much they love the book and it just being amazing, but I'm honestly not sure if I'll get there. I'm trying to tough it out though. I've actually started reading another book and I'm going back and forth between them just so I don't get burnt out.

[AndrewP]

Around page 400, so about 2/3 the way through. Up to the second Dia-snore-a section and beginning to wonder if anything much is ever going to happen.
The writing is very elegant and enjoyable, but I would have to put this book up as an example of what Lev Grossman was talking about in his article on 'Literary v Genre'. It's a literary novel desperately in need of a plot from a genre book.

[Dustin]

I didn't like the first Dianora section. It was too harsh a divide and took me too far away from the characters I cared about. I also found it sort of confusing for a little while and didn't really like Dianora that much (and I never really did) but I warmed up to it. It certainly didn't shake my overall enjoyment of the book.

For me the Dianora sections were really Brandin sections. Opening his story up and shedding light on the effects of the groups prodding.

[Ruth (tilltab) Ashworth]

I'm struggling to get through it. It's not completely the book's fault, as I'm really busy now, and have an awful lot of other things which I HAVE to read for university. I think after all that, I really do still want to curl up with a good book, but this one seems to have so much unnecessary detail clogging up the plot. Now, generally, I do like lots of detail and rich description, but there are times in this book where I really feel I'm lacking something solid to hang all this decoration upon. I don't want to lem the book, I really don't, but time restraints may force me to, which is such a shame. I kind of feel like maybe at another time, I could enjoy this book more, and that's it's just a bad fit for me right now.

That said, I'm off to get through a little more of it before bed. :)

[Richard]

While this was, for the most part, very well written, by the time he hit 500 pages & was still setting things up, I just didn't care anymore. I went ahead & finished the book, but I was too tired of it to find any surprise or satisfaction in the climax or the ending.

[Rhenus]

I don't know if you're aware, but this is at least partially an un..."

Actually Sam his work on Silmarillion was what I was alluding to, I assumed most people would know that he worked on it, sorry .

He seems to have adopted Tolkeins writing style, whilst trying to sound like Tolkein for Silmarillion.
This in part is why the style of tigana grated on me.

Also I was reading “ready player one" simultaneously which is very fast paced and punchily written,
Tiganna seemed like a lumbering dinosaur by comparison.

Don’t get me wrong I loved the book, but in places I got frustrated with the authors reluctance to be succinct.
.

[Daniel]

It's a very bumpy ride for me, with my interest wavering for the n'th time. I've found myself starting to skim read the book, in the hope that it gets better, then reading the more interesting bits "properly".

Books shouldn't be this hard to read. It's like hitting myself on the head with a frying pan repeatedly.

[Daniel]

Scrap that last. It got me eventually. I'm hooked! (after a very slow read to 70%!)

[Jonathan]

i'm just having issues with the book in the fact that the story, from time to time, just feels like its getting bogged down by the writing. the story itself is not bad. it just feels like the writer is calling too much attention to style of storytelling, especially in the beginning, rather than really letting the story itself be the focal point.

[Ja]

Daniel wrote: "Scrap that last. It got me eventually. I'm hooked! (after a very slow read to 70%!)"

Same here. Just hit 70% and feel like I might finally be getting some pay-off for the 500 page investment.

[Kweli]

Im glad im not the only one who thinks this book so slow. I feel like a college philosophy major was high on lsd and wrote this some of it is way to wordy. I guess im going to finish.

[Jonathan]

Kweli, I was a Philosophy major in my undergrad years and I wasn't even as wordy as Kay. That's even when I was falling into the altered mindsets that are part of the philosopher stereotype.

[Andrew]

I finished the book, but there are whole sections that I don't remember. I just couldn't keep my focus while listening. I kept getting lost in the meandering style. I like the idea of Tigana, but I think it got lost in the execution.

[AndrewP]

If Tigana was edited down by about 200 pages I think it would be a much more enjoyable read.

[Vance]

Michaela wrote: "AndrewP wrote: "If Tigana was edited down by about 200 pages I think it would be a much more enjoyable read."

I have to agree with you on this. The tendency to spend a whole paragraph describing ..."

Yes, this seems to be the basic split between the two camps of readers: those who absolutely loved the flow and language of those descriptions and those who found them tedious.

[Ruth (tilltab) Ashworth]

Finished, and it wasn't the greatest book. There were bits I liked, but mostly my opinion before chapter 5 remained unchanged.