Tigana

Rating:
Summary: WOW
Review: I must admit that this book stayed on my bookself for two years before I read it, but it took me one night to finish. Once you pick it up, how can you put it down unless you finish? After reading this book, I have combed the bookstore for more books by Kay. We are lucky that a talent like Guy Gavriel Kay has decided to write in our genre. Should he chose to write in any other field besides Fantasy, I would gladly buy his books. No collection is complete without Kay's "Tigana."

Rating:
Summary: An instant Classic!!!
Review: Not many books find their way to my prestigious "I'll read you in another five years" shelf. But Tigana easily qualified for that honor. In fact, Tigana stands alone on my newly inaugurated "Amazing book I'll have to read again and again" shelf. I wouldn't want to tell you what this book is about, for I don't want to spoil for any prospective reader. Let me just say that once you have read Tigana, you will hardly be able to recall a time when you didn't know its story

Rating:
Summary: FANTASY CLASSIC
Review: kay takes you into a world of haunting beauty, daring deeds and romance. Tigana is a novel that is hard to resist and impossible to forget.

Rating:
Summary: Complex, and wonderful.
Review: What can I say? The most wonderful book I've ever read. So dark, and bright..So evil, and good.. It's complex, and it's HUGE! I love it.

Rating:
Summary: Beautifully written and compelling.
Review: Canadian writer Guy Gavriel Kay is one of the best fantasy authors of our time, and _Tigana_ is his most compelling and richly textured novel. This is a marvelous tale of an almost forgotten land and the people who fight for its memory. Once you've been swept away into Kay's richly detailed and complex world, you'll find it difficult to leave.

Rating:
Summary: A definite must read!
Review: Tigana is one of the most amazing books I have ever read. Not imbued with too much magic, it is a tragic and at the same time joyous epic of love, revenge, hate, adventure, and personal growth. The characters become as alive to the reader as a long time friend. I have read this book 4 times. Don't let the size intimidate you. I laughed and cried (many times) each reading. The story never gets old, and the characters are always fresh. Absolutely unforgettable

Rating:
Summary: One of the best-
Review: I think for those people who like well written Fantasy, this is a must. It is not dark like Martin- it is more along the lines of Robin Hobb. Both Hobb and Kay write beautifully and their characters are very engaging.
Not bloody and warlike like some other fantasy out there, but I completely disagree with those who say that it is adolescent. Not at all.

Rating:
Summary: Great book, but...
Review: As everyone else here has already laid down their reasons for why they LOVE this book, I don't think I need to go into too much detail. Kay is able to amazingly create complex, wonderful worlds for his characters to grow and interact in. It is easy to be left in awe of the complexity and detail that he must have in his mind, down to even the tiniest details of people's customs (like closing four fingers over the thumb on the left hand three times to make a wish come true).

That said, I think that the book is deficient in one area. This is the second Kay book I read, after Lions of Al-Rassan. I liked Lions better for one main reason- the characters. In Tigana, there are, in my opinion, too many characters. Kay seems unable to decide exactly which ones should be the "main" characters. And therefore, switching from one person's point of view to another person's several times during the story makes it difficult to give any *one* character any great depth. The only character I really felt like I "knew" at the end was Devin. And maybe Alassan or Dianora. Devin because much of the book is through his point of view, and Alassan because you learn about him through the other characters. Most of the other ones seem fairly one-dimensional to me, especially when compared to the very rich characters (of which there are only about four) in Lions of Al-Rassan. It was hard to really care deeply for some of the characters, or to feel any sort of connection with them, when you really haven't gotten to know them throughout the book. For that reason, I rank Tigana below Lions of Al-Rassan, though the storyline itself is on the same level.

Rating:
Summary: Great Read
Review: This book follows in the footsteps of Guy Gavriel Kay's other great work. I would not say it is his best, but it is most definitely a fantastic book, filled with a culture seemingly different, but implicitly similar to our own. The characters and settings are richly detailed and enjoyable. Overall, Tigana is well-worth your time and I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys epic fanatasy.

Rating:
Summary: What can I say?
Review: The first books I ever read by GGK were the Fionavar Tapestry. I thought those were pretty good, maybe even great. Then I read Tigana, and it became totally obvious that this book was above and beyond his earlier works. Since then, I haven't really found a fantasy to compare. I love all his later works (The Lions of Al-Rassan especially) but for some reason Tigana is just *it* for me. I love the idea of the curse that prevents anyone not born in Tigana from hearing its name. I won't go into detail on the plot since a lot of other reviewers did that. I'll just say, if you like fantasy and you're tired of reading the crap that passes for it these days, read Tigana. However, if you're satisfied with Jordan and Goodkind and others of that type, you may not like it. But read it anyway.