oh Tigana! 20 years ago, the warring lands of the peninsula known as The Palm were invaded and conquered by two opposing Tyrants, and split into two. during this time of war and magic, one land was punished, transformed, forgotten. 20 years later, a band of men and women fight to reclaim that land, its history, their memories. oh Tigana!SPOILERS FOLLOWmemories of a distant life can be a strange and beautiful and sorrowful thing. i can remember places, scenes, people in the land where i was born, far away from here, long ago. a dilapidated mansion in the fields. muddy streets, the smell of cooking meat and the sound of laughter, the sour tang of the food, mangos. a great-grandmother in front of a cookpot in a dark house, a grandmother drunk and curled up in a corner, an uncle holding my hand. do these things define me, are they a part of what make me who i am today? it is hard to say. at times, they feel like stories i've read, scenes from a forgotten movie. gone, all gone. but yet they live still, in their way.the tragedy at the heart of Tigana is the erasure of history, the stealing away of memory. the transformed and forgotten land of Tigana lives still in the hearts of its former citizens, in the minds of those who work to see it reclaimed, to see themselves made whole. the idea of Tigana drives them forward. the reclaiming of Tigana is a slow-moving battle, one that costs many lives, innocent and otherwise. the towns burned, the children tortured to death, the battle costing so many lives... is it all worth it? of course it is, of course. but one of the many wonderful things that Kay accomplishes in this novel is to show the ambiguity at the core of this quest. it is not a black & white matter and Kay deals only in shades of grey. memory is a place that defines us; it is a place that we recreate to give our lives meaning. but clinging to memory, using the past as the sole thing that defines who we are, holding past misdeeds in our hearts to give us a kind of furious purpose - that is also a sad place, and a place fraught with peril. the entirety of the novel is a narrative about reclamation, about making a memory and a place whole. but at the very end of the tale, a minor character decides against revealing a key secret, in which the history told would shatter those who heard it. he purposely decides to leave a story un-whole, to allow Tigana's protagonists a kind of peace in their ignorance, to stop the past from continuing to rule the present. it is a brave, quiet, humane decision. sometimes the past should not rule us. that both ideas - dueling conceptions of how to see the past - are able to live in one novel, and so empathetically, is a sublime accomplishment. one of many such accomplishments. where do i even start?props for creating a world that is an alternate version of the city-states of warring old Italy, and yet is entirely its own place. props for balancing heavy themes and brisk adventure. props for Dianora, who whores herself out to her oppressor, no matter her original intent for vengeance... Kay does not reinvent this familiar type - he breathes new life into it, he makes her intentions and her actions understandable, her love real, her death a tragic one - but also a death full of tenderness and meaning. props for his sympathetic and clever gay character, one who uses simpering stereotype as shield and decoy. props for his inclusion of Alienor and her sadomasochism... i've read a score of tales that supposedly explore s&m, and few that so clearly open the heart of this kind of sexuality with such honesty - and brevity. props for Kay's ability to understand sexuality as central to experience, his skill at writing a love scene, his unwillingness to dwell on sex in a way that drools - that makes the experience a stroke fantasy. Kay illustrates sex as somehow both ambiguously mythic and prosaically real; how often does that occur in a fantasy novel? props for centralizing magic in this tale and yet making that magic just one part of the whole. this is not a novel of magic misadventure; it is a novel of people and politics and memory and longing. props for the portrait of one of Tigana's villains - the Tyrant Brandin. the character is larger than life, remote, inaccessible - and so tragic, so understandable. he commits terrible crimes; one of the worst is revealed in the closing pages. and yet this is a father who acts from grief, who destroys out of love for his slain son, who commits unforgiveable atrocities in the name of the most relatable of emotions - the love of a parent for their child, the rage of that parent towards those who have destroyed that child.and BIG PROPS for the writing itself. my gosh, the man can write. his prose is often stunning: impressionistic, delicate and airy, blunt and earthy, real. he is what many writers aspire towards: a poet who writes in narrative prose. he can depict the colors of a sunset and the chill of night without cliché; he can describe a royal garden reshaped to reflect nature's chaos with language that brings you right there, that make a place both real and unreal. he can create mystery and wonder with words that are blade sharp; with sentences that are full of sad and terrible honesty; with paragraphs whose substance and meaning feel ephemeral at first, like the sound of wind through trees, but that can be read again, and again, and gain meaning with each re-reading. he can shape a reader's experience by putting them briefly in a character's life, sharing their perspective, and then smoothly moving the reader along as one voice fades and another one comes into focus - in a flow of prose that is never jarring or abrupt, that feels natural, organic. scenes are viewed from multiple angles, in a way that illustrates the defintion of even-handed.have you heard of the director Otto Preminger? he was a favorite of the French New Wave, a hollywood director reconstructed as a genuine auteur. his defining hallmark: a very specific even-handedness in his storytelling, a visual manner that links all characters in a scene as equals, each having their own personal and equally important perspective and meaning, each potentially key to the narrative. Kay has the same kind of widespread focus. there are heroes and there are villains, and yet they are all recognizably human. and they are linked - by their past, by their goals, in ways that they are often slow to understand, in their shared humanity. each has their own perspective, their own fears and hopes and dreams. one hero enslaves a man. one villain makes the roads safe. another hero callously rejects his son and executes that son's boyhood lover. another villain is a man whose heart nearly died with his son, only to be born again, in love, in an effort to change himself and his ill-gotten world.the novel has a central sequence that details a stark conflict taking place on another world, perhaps another reality. it is in many ways a timeless passage: the story of a fertility rite, a harvest war, a struggle in an alien yet familiar place - a place where actions resonate throughout all of the worlds. this was my special favorite part of many favorite parts in the novel. the timelessness, the simplicity, the sense of many lives, many worlds, linked together so that one skirmish, one win or one loss, has profound impact on all other worlds. i love how Kay is focused on this connectivity between all things. it is a holistic and genuinely spiritual perspective on life. i love how he connects Tigana to his Fionavar Tapestry - the idea of a central world that gives life to all others, one where we may be reborn. patterns of peace and war; myths that resonate beyond one world into many others; a tapestry of worlds. Prince Alessan's quest is a mosaic of small actions aiming themselves towards one great possibility. the Prince's quest parallels the meaning of the novel itself: many parts that compose one great whole; many memories of one great loss, histories forgotten and remembered anew; many voices and many lives, paths that cross and move apart and may or may not come together again, bodies and souls that live and die and may yet live again.
This story is, at its essence, about how the past influences the present. The protagonists are driven to reclaim their homeland not just from a conquering army, but from a magical spell that prevents others from remembering or even hearing their homeland's name, Tigana. Within a generation any knowledge of their land, its history and culture will be forever lost.Instead of a fast paced, sword and sorcery story, Tigana is rather reflective. There are several POV characters that spend a good deal of the text thinking back on their past actions, ruminating on how that has influenced their lives, and how that impacts the decisions they make. Memory and legacy plays a very central role in this story.What I liked:Setting: I found the world Tigana takes place in very fascinating. The Palm, where the story takes place, very much reminded me of Renaissance Italy, with a somewhat common culture found across the land but the peninsula was divided into multiple competing provinces. Much like Renaissance Italy, these division led to it being weak and dominated by foreign empires. The Palm was rather weak in magic, contributing to its domination by the more magically powerful foreign empires. In this way I was reminded of Africa and European colonial powers with magic serving as a stand in for technology.The culture of the Palm was also very fascinating, with religion and customs that felt fresh and were well integrated into the culture of the Palm and the story itself.Writing style: I am a big fan of Kay's writing style, having adored both Under Heaven and River of Stars. Tigana, while perhaps not has beautifully written as these two, still had some great prose and vivid imagery.Unique Story: I liked Kay's twist on the age old "Defeat the evil emperor and free the land" trope. Instead of driving out the evil warlord, our erstwhile heroes must not only kill an immensely powerful sorcerer, but also kill a second one as well least the entire Palm fall under the domination of a foreign power. The heroes don't have a secret army they are marshaling or terribly powerful magics of their own, they must instead subtly influence events to bring about their goals. Misdirection, small pokes here and there are needed to win the day instead of the typical climatic encounter with the big bad boss.What I thought was a bit weak:Characters: Don't get me wrong, the characters weren't flat or two dimensional. They were, for the most part, interesting and complex. My issue with them is that they were a bit too pure. I didn't see very many flaws in them. They were almost too pure in their motivations, more in the class of Tolkien's heroes instead of the more modern and nuanced characters you will find in fantasy. The Prince is ever noble, his friends are ever loyal, and nary a thought is given to anything less than some high ideal of restoring Tigana.I will say, however, that I really liked the POV of one of the conquering Tyrants. The dude was 125% pure ambition. It was nice to read the perspective of such a base and power hungry (though also very disciplined and rational) character. The book should have had more of him in it.Magic: I am a huge fan of Brandon Sanderson. What I particularly like about his writing is that he lays out the abilities and limitations of magic in his world. That way the use of magic doesn't come off as a Deus Ex Machina. The magic in Tigana was very vague and unspecified. There were hints and indications about what some of it could do (weaken a large number of people, teleportation, blow people up, immunity to poison, shield from projectiles, etc.) but nothing was really laid out as hard and fast rules. As such, I would the magical confrontation in the end a bit underwhelming because I had no basis for assessing the battle. When magic is kept vague I get no sense of its importance when it is unleashed.The Big Plan: As I stated above the heroes can't really meet the Tyrants force for force, so they have to carefully manipulate events. Then there is a huge change in the balance of power on the Palm potentially jeopardizing The Plan. However, it didn't seem to me that much, if anything really changed and our heroes' plans. It felt to me that the Last Prince of Tigana was a master of Zanatos Speed Chess and there was actually no risk at all to the plan. Sort of felt a bit anticlimatic, that the big plan they had been setting up since way before the book started didn't get changed much at all as circumstances changed. It just seemed to go a pit too smoothly.All in all this was still a nice change of pace from most Fantasy novels out there (slower, more reflective) and was a very enjoyable read for me. I would suggest setting aside chunks of time to read this as you will likely not be able to fully appreciate its style by reading it in small chunks.
What do You think about Tigana (1999)?
Executive Summary: An enjoyable stand-alone fantasy book that is a little uneven in places but really brings shades of gray to the characters and the story.Audio book: Simon Vance seems like the perfect reader for this book. I first encountered him as part of the great ensemble readers for Dune. I don't recall any particular voices of note, however. He does do Scottish accents for folks from "The Highlands". Overall I think he does an excellent job that is a good fit for the tone of the story. Full ReviewThis book is a case study in shades of grey. It came out in 1990, 6 years before A Game of Thrones and 9 years before Gardens of the Moon which are the oldest fantasy fiction that I've read that do an excellent job of this. There are probably others I'm just not aware of, but both of those titles are what came to mind for me.Perspective is everything. Good and Bad are subjective. The guy who looks bad in chapter 1 may look less so when you see things from him point of view, or of that of someone near him.While this book doesn't go quite to the extremes of the previously mentioned novels it does add a lot of depth and complexity to its characters simply by letting you see them from different perspectives. Is revenge justified for horrible acts? Is achieving that revenge for your family and your home worth any cost? What's in a name? How important is it for history to remember the names and people who came before? These are just some of the questions posed in this book.There is a lot of depth here that made this an enjoyable read for me. The language is very flowery though, and that may be a turn off to some readers. It's also a little slow in places. Part two was a struggle for me, and pretty much ruined any shot this book had at 5 stars which all but like 1 or 2 of my friends seemed to have given this book. That's a lot of hype to live up to.While I don't seem to share their same sense of love for this book, it has one thing that is hard to find these days. It's a stand alone novel. In a world overrun with sequels and long fantasy series, over 20 years later and this book still stands alone.Now the ending is open enough to allow for a sequel, but I still found it satisfying and I'm not about to start/join a petition for the author to write another book. Some things are best left alone.Overall, this was an enjoyable read and one that I think is well suited to group reads as there is much worth discussing.
—Rob
This book has been sitting on my bookshelf for *coughcough* six years. And then, wouldn't you know it, but I don't even read it, but instead download an audiobook. Because knitting. (I do that a lot, actually.) This is my second GGK novel, and I liked this one quite a bit more than I liked the first one, though apparently that makes me a heathen or something. I DID like The Lions of Al-Rassan, but I just didn't love it. Jeez! I'm not sure that I necessarily loved this one either, but it spoke to me much more than Lions did. I really liked the themes in this one - loyalty, pride, love, duty, honor - and how those things can hurt us as much as anything else in life. I loved how the characters (the main ones - Brandin, Alessan, Dianora, Sandre, Erlein...) all existed in this gray area. That was by far my favorite thing about this book... I loved how the characters were, all in their own ways and for their own reasons, striving to right wrongs that they feel have been inflicted on them, and must do terrible things at times to make that happen. I love morally ambiguous characters... even if I don't necessarily like them at times. Dianora was my favorite and least favorite of the characters for this reason. She is from Tigana, has lost her father, her country, her heritage, and her family has been shattered by all of this. She decides to infiltrate Brandin's court as part of his harem to get close enough to try to kill him... but time has a way of altering things. I could understand that, and identify with her conflicted feelings about Brandin and her role in his court and his heart... But there were other things I couldn't get past with her, and couldn't forgive. There are levels of cruelty that are unforgivable. I did have a few issues with the book though. The writing often felt a little too... purple for my tastes, and the pacing was a little off. There was a ton of build-up and political maneuvering, and then the end just felt rushed to me. And I couldn't quite help but roll my eyes at all of the sex in the book and how it was portrayed. Devin's getting more ass than a donkey herder (is that a thing?) and I kept feeling like it was supposed to represent something, but I'm far too dense to get those kinds of things, so it just felt gratuitous and out of place to me. Aside from those things though, I did like the book and I'm glad that I finally got around to reading it.
—Becky
ORIGINALLY POSTED AT Fantasy Literature.Nobody remembers Tigana — a land bright with beauty, culture, and wealth — nobody but those who lived there before the land was cursed by the conqueror Brandin of Ygrath after the prince of Tigana killed Brandin's son in battle. When the now-oppressed Tiganese try to tell outsiders about Tigana, the name just slips out of the listener's mind. Only those born in the land are able to keep its beautiful name in memory.But the prince of Tigana's son still lives and he and his companions plan to restore their land's name. But, not only must they kill Brandin of Ygrath, but also Alberico of Barbadior, who rules the other half of their peninsula. Otherwise, they will merely be consumed by a different tyrant.I was entranced by Tigana right from the first page. What I noticed immediately was the passion — this is a story lovingly wrought by an author who loves language, loves his characters, and loves the world he's created. Guy Gavriel Kay's prose is heavy with imagery and emotion yet it reads, for the most part, easily (except for the occasional unexpected shift in point-of-view).Kay's characters are distinct, well-developed, and likable. The prince's companions are a diverse group, each with his/her own personality, strengths, and weaknesses. The actions and motives of the villains are completely understandable — in fact, I felt sympathetic toward them.The story of the struggle to free Tigana was fascinating. There were some slightly unbelievable or contrived plot devices, but the rest of the story was excellent enough that I was perfectly happy to overlook them. The end was surprising and bittersweet.I listened to most of Tigana on audio (and read some of it in print). Simon Vance is the reader, and he is one of the very best. If you're an audiobook listener, I'd definitely suggest that format for Tigana. But, either way, Tigana is a must-read. Read more GGK reviews at FanLit.
—Kat Hooper
