Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay (Roc, 1999)

★★☆☆☆

On a peninsula occupied by two sorcerous tyrants, a group of survivors from Tigana—a province whose name has been magically blighted out of everyone else’s minds—fights to regain what has been taken.

Originally read in 2016 and rated five stars, with the comment:

I read this because all the Amazon reviews said “best book I’ve ever read.” And it WAS really good. Complex characters, tons of action right off the bat, lovely exploration of dark themes about memory and identity. Agree with another review about the contrasting antagonists—very humanized and well done. Beautiful, lyrical writing. Kind of drags in the middle though, and the ending didn’t blow my mind quite as much as expected. I really liked the treatment of Erlein—my palms were sweaty while reading about the encounter with him, and the depiction of the ensuing complex, raw emotions was just on point.

Five years later, I still believe Tigana accomplishes what it sets out to do. But I’m a sharper reader now, and take more issues with it.