Vethnar

Yes, but as a fellow Gene Wolfe fan, you must be among the guys with good taste. ;) It's hard to get into very much detail about why I disliked Tigana so much without spoiling, but some of the things I disliked were the extremely high level of magic (there is a sorcerer who can kill people by waving his hand and make their heads explode, and and another one who can avoid getting killed by a projectile by momentarily dissolving his body while the projectile passes through him), a cast of characters which with one or two exceptions are dull, annoying, and unlikable, and embarrassingly purple prose. It's not a good story, and it's not well written. I think I would give it a similar rating. I've also just read it once.

After. For Triskele: The Sarantine Mosaic is, in my opinion, by far the best of GGK's books. Consider reading that one next, not A Song For Arbonne (which I found good, but not great) or Tigana (which I hated).

As you have already noticed, opinions differ. Many people recommend Tigana, which I disliked intensely. My favorite is The Sarantine Mosaic, closely followed by The Lions of al-Rassan. Because the latter is a shorter book, it's probably a good place to start. If you start with Tigana and don't like it, please give GGK another chance. It's quite possible that you will enjoy the later books a lot more.