Tigana
by Guy Gavriel Kay
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Description
Acclaimed author Guy Gavriel Kay has been honored with the World Fantasy Award for Best Novel (Ysabel) and the International Goliardos Award for his work in fantasy. Eight of the nine Palm provinces of the Peninsula have been overcome by warrior sorcerers Brandin and Alberico. But the sorcerers don't know that a small band of survivors is plotting their removal. With tensions mounting, the sorcerers become increasingly at odds as each decides where his own path-and that of the land-should show more truly lie. show lessTags
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reading_fox Both set in vaguely historical Europe with minimal fantastic elements
reading_fox Historical european fantasy
Member Reviews
The world seemed to be a place of more beauty and more pain than he could ever have imagined it to be." (pg. 458).
Guy Gavriel Kay's Tigana is an impressive, stirring and intoxicating fantasy novel. I was swept up in the current of the novel in a way that I very rarely am. I enjoy a great many books but there are rather few that I am consistently eager to devour once opened. Tigana was one of these rare books.
The story is a fascinating one, balancing lofty concepts of freedom and memory alongside an engrossing adventure plotline, with likeable and identifiable characters who you never tire of reading about. Kay matches the richness and colour of the story with a classy, poetic style of prose which had me jotting down dozens and dozens of show more page numbers when a particular paragraph or line or description impressed me, in order to savour them further at a later date.
I was particularly touched by the consistent theme throughout the novel regarding memory and its effects on us. We all have things from our past which weigh down on us with an often unbearable heaviness: regrets, mistakes, a longing for lost love. When one character is described on page 329 as walking "through a world shaped and reshaped every single moment around the knowledge that Tigana is gone", we know how it feels, even if it's not a country we long for. But I've rarely heard such emotions described so eloquently and poetically and heartbreakingly as in Kay's prose. On page 430, Kay uses a phrase, "the keenness of longing and an aching tenderness", and I believe this effectively sums up these more introspective parts of the novel.
But despite its introspection, the book is also a gripping page-turner. The action is well-described and the fantasy locales brought to vivid life. It is important to note that Kay also provides resolution in the story: everything is wrapped up by the end. This might seem like a rather dense thing to say but, if you think about it, it's very rare to find a self-contained, single-volume book in the fantasy genre. Most are ongoing series, and for that reason alone Tigana should be cherished. You know by the end that you're going to get closure on the story. (Ironically, though, I loved it so much I wish there was a follow-up!) But of course, as I've tried to explain, there are many other reasons to cherish this novel.
There were one or two drawbacks, as there always are for ambitious novels, but none so large as to diminish my love for the book. I suppose sometimes Kay gets a bit carried away with some of the lofty things the characters say; most of the time it's appropriate but once or twice it seemed a bit awkward. For the most part, however, the characters' dialogue is believable: I was particularly surprised by and welcomed the amount of humour in the novel, especially the snarky camaraderie which develops between the members of Alessan's group.
The other - larger - problem I had with the book was the whole Brandin/Dianora relationship. I am surprised when people who review the book describe Brandin as a likeable or sympathetic character: an anti-villain as opposed to a tyrant. I mean, yes, he mourns his son, but his son died because of an aggressive and unprovoked war of conquest he started. What he inflicts on Tigana is completely out-of-proportion and sociopathic, and I am really surprised that some readers still say he has inner goodness when even more revelations about what he has done (and continues to do) come to light at the end of the book. The torture he has inflicted for twenty years is not the conduct of a decent chap. Sure, he is affable enough in person but so, by many accounts, was Idi Amin. Even Hitler liked his dog. It is with this in mind that I had a problem with Dianora too. She falls in love with Brandin, a man who has killed her beloved father and, even more importantly, committed genocide against her entire people. I know Kay was trying to inject some romantic tragedy arc into the story, but that's like Anne Frank falling hopelessly in love with Hitler. Some things should just kill the prospect of love for good: your lover systematically murdering and torturing everyone you've ever known or cared about is surely one of them.
In contrast, I loved everything about Alessan's group: the interactions, the adventures, the roaming around in exotic locales. It's everything fantasy should be. I found I could also hear the music (Alessan's group travel under cover as a troupe of musicians) just from Kay's evocative descriptions. He doesn't include lyrics or anything, but nevertheless I feel like I've heard 'Lament for Adaon' in my bones. Kay strives for emotion throughout the novel and if you allow yourself to be swept up by it, Tigana will really touch your heart.
Overall, Tigana is a fine example of what the fantasy genre can achieve. It is a large book, like most fantasy books are, but the time just flies by. It balances its lofty themes of freedom and memory alongside a page-turning plot and characters you care about. As Kay wrote in his Afterword for the tenth anniversary of the book's release, the novel demonstrates "the universality of fantasy... allow[ing] escapist fiction to be more than just that." (pg. 792). Even if it was just escapist fiction that would be fine, but to provide such a great read and still address eloquently and intelligently such poignant themes is incredible. To appropriate a delicious quote from the later stages of the book: what a harvest, Tigana." show less
Guy Gavriel Kay's Tigana is an impressive, stirring and intoxicating fantasy novel. I was swept up in the current of the novel in a way that I very rarely am. I enjoy a great many books but there are rather few that I am consistently eager to devour once opened. Tigana was one of these rare books.
The story is a fascinating one, balancing lofty concepts of freedom and memory alongside an engrossing adventure plotline, with likeable and identifiable characters who you never tire of reading about. Kay matches the richness and colour of the story with a classy, poetic style of prose which had me jotting down dozens and dozens of show more page numbers when a particular paragraph or line or description impressed me, in order to savour them further at a later date.
I was particularly touched by the consistent theme throughout the novel regarding memory and its effects on us. We all have things from our past which weigh down on us with an often unbearable heaviness: regrets, mistakes, a longing for lost love. When one character is described on page 329 as walking "through a world shaped and reshaped every single moment around the knowledge that Tigana is gone", we know how it feels, even if it's not a country we long for. But I've rarely heard such emotions described so eloquently and poetically and heartbreakingly as in Kay's prose. On page 430, Kay uses a phrase, "the keenness of longing and an aching tenderness", and I believe this effectively sums up these more introspective parts of the novel.
But despite its introspection, the book is also a gripping page-turner. The action is well-described and the fantasy locales brought to vivid life. It is important to note that Kay also provides resolution in the story: everything is wrapped up by the end. This might seem like a rather dense thing to say but, if you think about it, it's very rare to find a self-contained, single-volume book in the fantasy genre. Most are ongoing series, and for that reason alone Tigana should be cherished. You know by the end that you're going to get closure on the story. (Ironically, though, I loved it so much I wish there was a follow-up!) But of course, as I've tried to explain, there are many other reasons to cherish this novel.
There were one or two drawbacks, as there always are for ambitious novels, but none so large as to diminish my love for the book. I suppose sometimes Kay gets a bit carried away with some of the lofty things the characters say; most of the time it's appropriate but once or twice it seemed a bit awkward. For the most part, however, the characters' dialogue is believable: I was particularly surprised by and welcomed the amount of humour in the novel, especially the snarky camaraderie which develops between the members of Alessan's group.
The other - larger - problem I had with the book was the whole Brandin/Dianora relationship. I am surprised when people who review the book describe Brandin as a likeable or sympathetic character: an anti-villain as opposed to a tyrant. I mean, yes, he mourns his son, but his son died because of an aggressive and unprovoked war of conquest he started. What he inflicts on Tigana is completely out-of-proportion and sociopathic, and I am really surprised that some readers still say he has inner goodness when even more revelations about what he has done (and continues to do) come to light at the end of the book. The torture he has inflicted for twenty years is not the conduct of a decent chap. Sure, he is affable enough in person but so, by many accounts, was Idi Amin. Even Hitler liked his dog. It is with this in mind that I had a problem with Dianora too. She falls in love with Brandin, a man who has killed her beloved father and, even more importantly, committed genocide against her entire people. I know Kay was trying to inject some romantic tragedy arc into the story, but that's like Anne Frank falling hopelessly in love with Hitler. Some things should just kill the prospect of love for good: your lover systematically murdering and torturing everyone you've ever known or cared about is surely one of them.
In contrast, I loved everything about Alessan's group: the interactions, the adventures, the roaming around in exotic locales. It's everything fantasy should be. I found I could also hear the music (Alessan's group travel under cover as a troupe of musicians) just from Kay's evocative descriptions. He doesn't include lyrics or anything, but nevertheless I feel like I've heard 'Lament for Adaon' in my bones. Kay strives for emotion throughout the novel and if you allow yourself to be swept up by it, Tigana will really touch your heart.
Overall, Tigana is a fine example of what the fantasy genre can achieve. It is a large book, like most fantasy books are, but the time just flies by. It balances its lofty themes of freedom and memory alongside a page-turning plot and characters you care about. As Kay wrote in his Afterword for the tenth anniversary of the book's release, the novel demonstrates "the universality of fantasy... allow[ing] escapist fiction to be more than just that." (pg. 792). Even if it was just escapist fiction that would be fine, but to provide such a great read and still address eloquently and intelligently such poignant themes is incredible. To appropriate a delicious quote from the later stages of the book: what a harvest, Tigana." show less
A song of grief, a triumph of memory.
I finished Tigana at 2 AM, closed the cover, and sat in the dark for twenty minutes. Not because I was confused. Because I was grieving for a country that never existed, for names that cannot be spoken, for a melody I will never hear again. That is what Guy Gavriel Kay does to you.
What it is:
A peninsula called the Palm, resembling Renaissance Italy, divided into nine provinces. Two tyrants have conquered it: Brandin of Ygrath in the west, Alberico of Barbadior in the east. But this is not a simple war story. Brandin, a sorcerer-king of terrifying power, committed an act of such profound cruelty that it defines the entire novel: when the province of Tigana defied him, he wiped its very name from show more existence. Anyone born in Tigana forgets their homeland. Anyone from elsewhere cannot hear the name "Tigana." It has been erased from memory, from language, from reality. Only the descendants of Tigana, those born before the spell remember. And they are dying.
The story follows a small band of rebels who dare to remember. Their goal is not to defeat Brandin militarily. Their goal is to make the name "Tigana" heard again to break the spell, to restore the dead to memory, to give their lost province a second life in the hearts of the living.
Why it's a masterpiece (and why it will break you):
1. The prose is among the most beautiful in fantasy. Kay writes like a poet who loves history and a historian who loves music. Every sentence is crafted. Descriptions of food, weather, architecture, and the shifting light of the Palm are rendered with a tenderness that makes the world feel alive. But it is the dialogue, the things left unsaid, the pauses, the weight of grief behind a simple "Goodnight" that haunts me most.
2. The central moral tension is devastating. Brandin, the tyrant who erased a people's identity, is also a loving father, a patron of the arts, a man capable of tenderness. Kay refuses to make him a cartoon villain. When the rebels' plan forces a choice between vengeance and mercy, between restoring Tigana and destroying Brandin's last remaining reason to live, the novel asks: Is the suffering of one innocent worth the freedom of many? There is no easy answer. You will argue with yourself for days.
3. The characters are unforgettable. Devin d'Arro, the young singer who discovers his heritage. Alessan, the prince of Tigana in hiding, carrying the weight of a dead nation. Catriana, a woman torn between vengeance and love. And Dianora, the woman who has infiltrated Brandin's court to assassinate him, only to find herself torn in ways she never anticipated. Her chapters are some of the most agonizingly beautiful passages I have ever read. Kay makes you sympathize with a woman who is planning to kill a man she has come to love, for the sake of a country she has never seen.
4. The theme of memory as resistance. In a world where tyrants can erase history, the act of remembering becomes revolutionary. The rebels do not fight with swords alone; they fight with songs, with stories, with whispered names. "Tigana." Just saying the word is an act of defiance. This book made me think about what I would be willing to die for and what I would be willing to live for.
5. The ending is perfect. Not happy. Not tidy. But earned. I cried. Then I sat in silence for a long time.
Where it might lose some readers (honest critiques):
1. The pacing is slow. Kay luxuriates in description, in interior monologue, in the quiet moments between action. If you need constant plot momentum or battle scenes every fifty pages, this will frustrate you. Tigana is a book to be savored, not devoured.
2. The geography and names can be confusing. A map is provided; use it. The Italianate naming conventions (Sandre, Tregea, Certando, Astibar) blur together if you are not paying attention.
3. Some readers find the Brandin sympathy arc unforgivable. If you believe that a tyrant who commits cultural genocide cannot be humanized, you may struggle with Kay's refusal to condemn him outright. The novel does not excuse Brandin. It asks you to understand him. For some, that is a bridge too far.
Who should read this:
Lovers of literary fantasy (Ursula Le Guin, Patrick Rothfuss, Susanna Clarke).
Readers who want fantasy that engages with politics, ethics, and grief.
Anyone who believes that memory and identity are worth fighting for.
Musicians, poets, and artists; this book is, at its core, about the power of art to resist erasure.
Who should skip it:
If you need fast-paced action and clear good-vs-evil binaries.
If you are uncomfortable with moral ambiguity and sympathetic villains.
If slow, lyrical prose bores you.
Final verdict:
Tigana is not a book. It is an experience. It is a song sung in a minor key, a requiem for a place that never existed but that I will mourn as if it were my own homeland. Kay has written other masterpieces (The Lions of Al-Rassan, A Song for Arbonne), but Tigana is the one that carved itself into my chest. I finished it, closed the cover, and immediately turned back to the first page to find the line: "The summer that Brandin of Ygrath came down from the north, the leaves of the great forest turned gold before their time."
I will never forget that summer. I will never forget Tigana.
Five stars. A thousand stars. Read it with tissues nearby and a quiet evening ahead. show less
I finished Tigana at 2 AM, closed the cover, and sat in the dark for twenty minutes. Not because I was confused. Because I was grieving for a country that never existed, for names that cannot be spoken, for a melody I will never hear again. That is what Guy Gavriel Kay does to you.
What it is:
A peninsula called the Palm, resembling Renaissance Italy, divided into nine provinces. Two tyrants have conquered it: Brandin of Ygrath in the west, Alberico of Barbadior in the east. But this is not a simple war story. Brandin, a sorcerer-king of terrifying power, committed an act of such profound cruelty that it defines the entire novel: when the province of Tigana defied him, he wiped its very name from show more existence. Anyone born in Tigana forgets their homeland. Anyone from elsewhere cannot hear the name "Tigana." It has been erased from memory, from language, from reality. Only the descendants of Tigana, those born before the spell remember. And they are dying.
The story follows a small band of rebels who dare to remember. Their goal is not to defeat Brandin militarily. Their goal is to make the name "Tigana" heard again to break the spell, to restore the dead to memory, to give their lost province a second life in the hearts of the living.
Why it's a masterpiece (and why it will break you):
1. The prose is among the most beautiful in fantasy. Kay writes like a poet who loves history and a historian who loves music. Every sentence is crafted. Descriptions of food, weather, architecture, and the shifting light of the Palm are rendered with a tenderness that makes the world feel alive. But it is the dialogue, the things left unsaid, the pauses, the weight of grief behind a simple "Goodnight" that haunts me most.
2. The central moral tension is devastating. Brandin, the tyrant who erased a people's identity, is also a loving father, a patron of the arts, a man capable of tenderness. Kay refuses to make him a cartoon villain. When the rebels' plan forces a choice between vengeance and mercy, between restoring Tigana and destroying Brandin's last remaining reason to live, the novel asks: Is the suffering of one innocent worth the freedom of many? There is no easy answer. You will argue with yourself for days.
3. The characters are unforgettable. Devin d'Arro, the young singer who discovers his heritage. Alessan, the prince of Tigana in hiding, carrying the weight of a dead nation. Catriana, a woman torn between vengeance and love. And Dianora, the woman who has infiltrated Brandin's court to assassinate him, only to find herself torn in ways she never anticipated. Her chapters are some of the most agonizingly beautiful passages I have ever read. Kay makes you sympathize with a woman who is planning to kill a man she has come to love, for the sake of a country she has never seen.
4. The theme of memory as resistance. In a world where tyrants can erase history, the act of remembering becomes revolutionary. The rebels do not fight with swords alone; they fight with songs, with stories, with whispered names. "Tigana." Just saying the word is an act of defiance. This book made me think about what I would be willing to die for and what I would be willing to live for.
5. The ending is perfect. Not happy. Not tidy. But earned. I cried. Then I sat in silence for a long time.
Where it might lose some readers (honest critiques):
1. The pacing is slow. Kay luxuriates in description, in interior monologue, in the quiet moments between action. If you need constant plot momentum or battle scenes every fifty pages, this will frustrate you. Tigana is a book to be savored, not devoured.
2. The geography and names can be confusing. A map is provided; use it. The Italianate naming conventions (Sandre, Tregea, Certando, Astibar) blur together if you are not paying attention.
3. Some readers find the Brandin sympathy arc unforgivable. If you believe that a tyrant who commits cultural genocide cannot be humanized, you may struggle with Kay's refusal to condemn him outright. The novel does not excuse Brandin. It asks you to understand him. For some, that is a bridge too far.
Who should read this:
Lovers of literary fantasy (Ursula Le Guin, Patrick Rothfuss, Susanna Clarke).
Readers who want fantasy that engages with politics, ethics, and grief.
Anyone who believes that memory and identity are worth fighting for.
Musicians, poets, and artists; this book is, at its core, about the power of art to resist erasure.
Who should skip it:
If you need fast-paced action and clear good-vs-evil binaries.
If you are uncomfortable with moral ambiguity and sympathetic villains.
If slow, lyrical prose bores you.
Final verdict:
Tigana is not a book. It is an experience. It is a song sung in a minor key, a requiem for a place that never existed but that I will mourn as if it were my own homeland. Kay has written other masterpieces (The Lions of Al-Rassan, A Song for Arbonne), but Tigana is the one that carved itself into my chest. I finished it, closed the cover, and immediately turned back to the first page to find the line: "The summer that Brandin of Ygrath came down from the north, the leaves of the great forest turned gold before their time."
I will never forget that summer. I will never forget Tigana.
Five stars. A thousand stars. Read it with tissues nearby and a quiet evening ahead. show less
A small group of men and women set out to overthrow a pair of tyrants who've taken control of their part of the world and stripped their country of its name.
I was initially a little leery of this book. While I love Kay's work, I find that there are often stretches where my attention lags in a pretty big way. With this, his longest book and one of his earliest, I imagined I was in for a large share of that sort of thing.
Much to my surprises, I was hard into it straight from the first page to the last. I continually found myself stopping to whisper, "This is amazing." I fought the urge to run up and tell random people that they needed to read it NOW. It affected me in a huge way, and emerged as my favourite book ever.
How's that for a show more mistaken first impression?
I think Kay chose the perfect place to begin the story. The Palm, (a penninsula made up of nine provinces), has been ruled by conquering tyrants for nearly twenty years. Things are stable, but we see hints of oppression everywhere. Since the "bad guys" have already won, Kay manages to avoid the old fantasy cliche of the good heroes who must keep the evil villains from destroying their way of life. Instead, we get a dynamic of oppressed vs. oppressors. We see just how the tyrants have affected the Palm and what its dissatisfied citizens intend to do about it. This leads to some fascinating questions as to the moral implications of overthrowing an extant government, as well as issues revolving around revisionist histories and practices such as damnatio memoriae.
And through it all, everyone involved has depth. It's possible to see where these people are coming from, even when they act in ways that seem unacceptable to us. The characters and their choices are really key here, and they're the thing that made this book come alive for me. There are a lot of them, and not everyone gets as much stage time as I would've liked, but they all come across as real people. Kay shows the reader snippets of their lives and their feelings in such a way that they become real. I felt for absolutely everyone except Alberico, who is very likely the only character we're meant to loathe. I was desperate to read on partially because I wanted to see these people accomplish their goal and partially because I'd become so very fond of them all.
The story builds up gradually as the conspirators put all the pieces in place, coming to an explosive head. Though there's only a single battle near the end, (which admittedly lacks the sort of description that makes such literary military encounters come alive), it serves to bring everything together in such a way that it all clicks. It resolved very nicely.
And man, does Kay have a flair for endings! The last line of the epilogue was both perfect and maddening.
All in all, this was a fantastic book that was even better the second time through. I engaged in a great deal of wretched sobbing, particularly in the first half, and cannot recommend it highly enough. Stories like this make me wish there were a way of awarding certain books more than five stars. On a scale of one to five, this deserves at least a seven. show less
I was initially a little leery of this book. While I love Kay's work, I find that there are often stretches where my attention lags in a pretty big way. With this, his longest book and one of his earliest, I imagined I was in for a large share of that sort of thing.
Much to my surprises, I was hard into it straight from the first page to the last. I continually found myself stopping to whisper, "This is amazing." I fought the urge to run up and tell random people that they needed to read it NOW. It affected me in a huge way, and emerged as my favourite book ever.
How's that for a show more mistaken first impression?
I think Kay chose the perfect place to begin the story. The Palm, (a penninsula made up of nine provinces), has been ruled by conquering tyrants for nearly twenty years. Things are stable, but we see hints of oppression everywhere. Since the "bad guys" have already won, Kay manages to avoid the old fantasy cliche of the good heroes who must keep the evil villains from destroying their way of life. Instead, we get a dynamic of oppressed vs. oppressors. We see just how the tyrants have affected the Palm and what its dissatisfied citizens intend to do about it. This leads to some fascinating questions as to the moral implications of overthrowing an extant government, as well as issues revolving around revisionist histories and practices such as damnatio memoriae.
And through it all, everyone involved has depth. It's possible to see where these people are coming from, even when they act in ways that seem unacceptable to us. The characters and their choices are really key here, and they're the thing that made this book come alive for me. There are a lot of them, and not everyone gets as much stage time as I would've liked, but they all come across as real people. Kay shows the reader snippets of their lives and their feelings in such a way that they become real. I felt for absolutely everyone except Alberico, who is very likely the only character we're meant to loathe. I was desperate to read on partially because I wanted to see these people accomplish their goal and partially because I'd become so very fond of them all.
The story builds up gradually as the conspirators put all the pieces in place, coming to an explosive head. Though there's only a single battle near the end, (which admittedly lacks the sort of description that makes such literary military encounters come alive), it serves to bring everything together in such a way that it all clicks. It resolved very nicely.
And man, does Kay have a flair for endings! The last line of the epilogue was both perfect and maddening.
All in all, this was a fantastic book that was even better the second time through. I engaged in a great deal of wretched sobbing, particularly in the first half, and cannot recommend it highly enough. Stories like this make me wish there were a way of awarding certain books more than five stars. On a scale of one to five, this deserves at least a seven. show less
Wow. Tigana is the complete deal, and of a maturity not seen enough in Fantasy literature.
I love the elegiac tone Kay uses, and the rich humanity of his characters. The dense moral ambiguities are really more satisfying than childish good/evil dichotomies and all actions have their consequences, even ones that play out over generations. I expect I'll return to this book again, to visit with my friends there and look on the towers of Avalle.
I love the elegiac tone Kay uses, and the rich humanity of his characters. The dense moral ambiguities are really more satisfying than childish good/evil dichotomies and all actions have their consequences, even ones that play out over generations. I expect I'll return to this book again, to visit with my friends there and look on the towers of Avalle.
One of the finest novels I've read. Kay beautifully explores the power, love and grief of history and memory without it ever slowing down the page-turning thrill of following a small resistance movement on a peninsula ruled by two invading tyrants. Kay has throughout his novels always had an admirable ability to wed heightened sentiment to mundane realism, and that, too, is on splendid display here, the sixth (and so far my favourite) novel I've read by him.
Tigana - G. G. Kay
audio performance by Simon Vance
4.5 stars (round up to 5)
The story begins with a conversation on the eve of a battle. The King and his sculptor, knowing that they will lose the coming battle, are reflecting upon their legacy and taking comfort in the fact that they will be remembered by the coming generations. The problem is, they will not be remembered. They are fighting a great and vengeful sorcerer. He casts a spell to remove any trace of the entire kingdom, Tigana. After the slaughter and destruction, only a few survivors can still remember, or even hear, the word Tigana, if it is spoken aloud. The seeds of a rebellion are planted in those survivors by a prince in disguise. This prince is not contented to plan show more vengeance against his father’s killer. He chooses to unite the people from eight adjoining kingdoms to overthrow two despotic sorcerers. The political and magical complications are enormous.
This book reminded me of Robert Silverberg’s Lord Valentine’s Castle. Silverberg’s Valentine has lost his own memory and is left wandering with a troupe of jugglers until he regains power. Kay’s Alessan is a wandering troubadour in a land where no one is permitted to remember that his kingdom ever existed. Both of these deposed rulers surround themselves with loyal and multi-talented followers who help them to regain their rightful kingdoms. Shared dangers and adventures create the binding friendships that are the best part of the book.
I became thoroughly involved in this story. The characters were engaging.The world building was believable and the plot moved along steadily. The book is more than good escapist storytelling. Kay uses his magical world to tackle an ambitious number of serious themes: the necessity and the dangers of memory, the manipulation of history by an oppressor, divided loyalties, evil done in the name of goodness. There are obvious metaphorical parallels between the world of Tigana and our own reality, but the similarities never overwhelmed the story. I appreciated Kay’s very articulate discussion of these themes in the author’s Afterword.
show less
audio performance by Simon Vance
4.5 stars (round up to 5)
The story begins with a conversation on the eve of a battle. The King and his sculptor, knowing that they will lose the coming battle, are reflecting upon their legacy and taking comfort in the fact that they will be remembered by the coming generations. The problem is, they will not be remembered. They are fighting a great and vengeful sorcerer. He casts a spell to remove any trace of the entire kingdom, Tigana. After the slaughter and destruction, only a few survivors can still remember, or even hear, the word Tigana, if it is spoken aloud. The seeds of a rebellion are planted in those survivors by a prince in disguise. This prince is not contented to plan show more vengeance against his father’s killer. He chooses to unite the people from eight adjoining kingdoms to overthrow two despotic sorcerers. The political and magical complications are enormous.
This book reminded me of Robert Silverberg’s Lord Valentine’s Castle. Silverberg’s Valentine has lost his own memory and is left wandering with a troupe of jugglers until he regains power. Kay’s Alessan is a wandering troubadour in a land where no one is permitted to remember that his kingdom ever existed. Both of these deposed rulers surround themselves with loyal and multi-talented followers who help them to regain their rightful kingdoms. Shared dangers and adventures create the binding friendships that are the best part of the book.
I became thoroughly involved in this story. The characters were engaging.The world building was believable and the plot moved along steadily. The book is more than good escapist storytelling. Kay uses his magical world to tackle an ambitious number of serious themes: the necessity and the dangers of memory, the manipulation of history by an oppressor, divided loyalties, evil done in the name of goodness. There are obvious metaphorical parallels between the world of Tigana and our own reality, but the similarities never overwhelmed the story. I appreciated Kay’s very articulate discussion of these themes in the author’s Afterword.
show less
Usually you can give me a set of likable, oppressed rebels, and you can pretty much automatically sign me up for the revolution. The kinds of heroes who fight for freedom in these stories were always celebrated in my home, in the kinds of media my family was excited about. I liked the characters in Tigana well enough, but some of the actions that they took in their fight for freedom made me question whether I would be that resolved. So I was surprised to survey myself, and then realize that I had never before surveyed myself, as to whether killing individuals, say a man guarding a barn, in the name of some political setup for the promotion of "freedom," is something I value or am capable of. Surprising thing not to have really show more considered before...
The curse that one of the oppressors puts on a city in the book of taking its name and identity is an interesting one. And the theme of identity for the individual characters from the city throughout was good to follow. I wasn't thrilled with the magic system, since it wasn't explained or terribly intuitive, just kind of mysterious, even though there were several sorcerer characters. Anyway, an enjoyable enough read. show less
The curse that one of the oppressors puts on a city in the book of taking its name and identity is an interesting one. And the theme of identity for the individual characters from the city throughout was good to follow. I wasn't thrilled with the magic system, since it wasn't explained or terribly intuitive, just kind of mysterious, even though there were several sorcerer characters. Anyway, an enjoyable enough read. show less
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Talk Discussions
Past Discussions
Tigana Spoiler Thread: Fantasy February Group Read in 75 Books Challenge for 2013 (February 2013)
Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay: Fantasy February Group Read in 75 Books Challenge for 2013 (February 2013)
Tigana discussion! Part Four: The Price of Blood in The Green Dragon (July 2008)
At last, it is time to begin discussing Tigana! Part One Discussion in The Green Dragon (June 2008)
Tigana Part Five Discussion: THE MEMORY OF A FLAME in The Green Dragon (February 2007)
Tigana Part Three Discussion: EMBER TO EMBER in The Green Dragon (October 2006)
Tigana Part Two - Dianora - discuss in The Green Dragon (October 2006)
Author Information
Guy Gavriel Kay was born on November 7, 1954 in Weyburn, Saskatchewan, Canada. He became interested in fantasy fiction while working as an assistant to Christopher Tolkien. He assisted him with the editing of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Silmarillion. After receiving a law degree from the University of Toronto, he became principal writer and associate show more producer for the CBC radio series, The Scales of Justice. He also wrote several episodes when the series moved to television. He has written social and political commentary for several publications including the National Post, The Globe and Mail, and The Guardian. His first fantasy novels were The Summer Tree, The Wandering Fire, and The Darkest Road, which make up the Fionavar Tapestry Trilogy. His other works include A Song for Arbonne, The Lions of Al-Rassan, Beyond This Dark House, The Last Light of the Sun, and Under Heaven. He has received numerous awards including and the Aurora Award for Tigana and The Wandering Fire, the 2008 World Fantasy Award for Best Novel for Ysabel, and the International Goliardos Award for his work in the fantasy field. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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Awards and Honors
Awards
Series
Belongs to Publisher Series
Work Relationships
Contains
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- Tigana
- Original title
- Tigana
- Original publication date
- 1990-09
- People/Characters
- Alessan bar Valentin; Baerd bar Saevar; Devin bar Garin di Tigana; Duke Sandre d'Astibar; Brandin of Ygrath; Alberico of Barbadior (show all 16); Dianora bren Saevar; Catriana d'Astibar; Marius of Quileia; Alienor of Castle Borso; Rhovigo d'Astibar; Alais bren Rovigo; Erlein di Senzio; Scelto; Rhun; Elena
- Important places
- the Peninsula of the Palm; Astibar; Quileia; Chiara; Tigana; Senzio (show all 9); Ygrath; Barbadior; Tregea
- Epigraph
- All that you held most dear you will put by
and leave behind you; and this is the arrow
the longbow of your exile first lets fly.
You will come to know how bitter as salt and stone
is the bread o... (show all)f others, how hard the way that goes
up and down stairs that never are your own.
—Dante, The Paradiso
What can a flame remember? If it remembers a little less
than is necessary, it goes out; if it remembers a little
more than is necessary, it goes out. If only it could
teach us, while it burns, to remember correctly.... (show all)
—George Seferis, "Stratis the Sailor Describes a Man" - Dedication
- For my brothers, Jeffrey and Rex
- First words
- Both moons were high, dimming the light of all but the brightest stars.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)And it is there that they see the riselka, three men see a riselka, sitting on a rock beside the sunlit path, her long sea-green hair blowing back in the freshening breeze.
- Blurbers
- McCaffrey, Anne
- Original language
- English
- Disambiguation notice
- This is the complete story in one volume. Please do not combine this with either part one (Tigana Chapters 1 - 12) or part two (Tigana Chapters 13 - 20).
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