I did feel it was a little too drawn out in a few parts but overall for my first experience with Kay I thought the book good. I thought he did a very good job of humanizing Branden which is what most of the reviews I read of the book pointed out. I don't like over the top magic and Tigana's magic certainly wasn't that, it was believable and several of the characters grew on me even though I didn't like them at first. Anyway, I was referencing more just his writing style and "prose" if you will. Gaiman's Neverwhere read to me in a very simplistic style as if written for a 12 year old. The entire story came across that way. In all fairness, given his success at kids/young adult stories, that might just be his style and not my cup of tea. I do admit the novel American Gods seems to have an interesting premise and maybe I'll try him again in the future, I'm open to it but I think Kay's style is just more my level of story.