Timothy Rice
Tigana
There are no wrong turnings. Only paths we had not known we were meant to walk.
Rating: 3/5
– Pretty okay
Read if you like:
Fantasy Novels
Tigana was…okay. I don’t have anything particularly bad to say about it, but I also don’t have anything particularly good, either. The plot was novel enough, the prose quite good, and the characters all enough depth and dimension. It just didn’t stand out in any particular way that I can think of.
I think the book would have benefited through a more focused narration. In particular, I found Devin’s perspective to be by far the most compelling and would have preferred that the book be written exclusively from his point of view. Many of the chapters that centered on other characters were interesting (I particularly loved every chapter with Alberico), but I think they didn’t add as much to the story as they could have.
The only truly memorable part of the book for me was this passage, which beautifully illustrates the corrosive nature of ambition for ambitions sake:
There is no passion in him, no love, no pride. Only ambition. Nothing matters but that. Nothing in the world can move him to pity or grief but his own fate. Everything is a tool, an instrument. He wants the Emperor’s Tiara, everyone knows it, but he doesn’t want it for anything. He only wants. I doubt anything in his life has ever moved him to feel anything for anyone else . . . love, loss, anything.
I probably would have liked this book more in my early 20s, but at this point in my life I need more from my novels. I want challenge and emotional investment and Tigana gave me none of that.