The concept of a group of refugees who lose parts of themselves when their sense of place and home are forcibly excised from their memory, is just a fantastic concept for a fantasy novel. And the worldbuilding mostly supports the concept and premise, which is, essentially, this group gets together and attempts to get revenge on the wizard that magically made it no longer possible for them to remember parts of themselves tied to Tigana.

I think of the characters in this book as being similarly initially very interesting. Trauma has effected them in various ways, and they are subsequently wound up like wind-up toys and set off. The problem is that on their path they became wildly less interesting than the initial anticipation of their path. They don’t really feel nuanced as they go on, and sometimes stray in the cliche. Very much feels like a fantasy book of the 90s.

On a prose level, it’s uneven. Above average, generally—flowery and descriptive to out-of-the-way, completely forgettable. With such a strong premise and concept I really wanted the character work to be better. There’s way too much plot device sex right away and throughout. And as soon as the characters “thing” is solidified, meaning their motivation or one sort of flourish, it’s generally over. They don’t feel nuanced and feel like they are an archetype set into a mold of a trauma response. They aren’t contradictory, they don’t really stand out stylistically in dialogue (though the dialogue is more than competent, generally). Like I said: wind-up toys set off. No more, no less.

This was pretty satisfying macro experience and a sometimes boring granular one. I know I will remember the ideas in this and not the characters. The craft doesn’t feel able and up to the very ambitious and fantastic concept, I think.