Reviews with content warning for Sexual content - Tigana

Tigana tells the story of a people, the Tiganisa (from the eponymous land of Tigana), living on a fictional peninsula called the Palm (loosely inspired by/based on Early Modern Italy and its city-states), whose identity, whose very name has been erased, by magic, after conquest by a tyrant sorcerer from somewhere... 'up North, in their world. Okay, not quite: what I described there is the setting and basic premise of Tigana.

Its actual plot centres on a set of characters who all, originally, come from conquered and "spiritually erased" Tigana, and who want to overthrow its tyrant in order to, at the very least, restore their cultural identity to broader awareness... because his spell literally makes it impossible for anyone but Tiganisa to hear and remember the name of their homeland. A few secondary characters hail from the eastern side of the Palm, which was, for its part, conquered by another tyrant sorcerer from... somewhere 'up North as well. They also want to bump him off.

I principally read this because my ex liked it and, to a lesser extent, because Mr Kay is known for 'beautifully written', historical-feeling fantasy. I thus figured I might as well sample his work, but alas... I did not care for it.

I didn't care about anything in this book – barring Dianora and her plot line, though I didn't much like its conclusion. I could tell Tigana wanted me to experience tragic, or more broadly grandiose feelings of cultural, and personal grief for one's identity, homeland, freedom, etc... yet none of it landed. It just felt like the book was trying too hard to tug at my heart strings... but, outside of a mild initial interest, and a mild interest in a supernatural element that was thrown in mid-plot (and wasn't ultimately made much of), all I really experienced was a feeling of boredom and disconnection.

The prose was fine, to good. Hell, I'll be nice and say I found it decently inspiring in a few places. The pacing, however, was uneven: there wasn't much narrative tension for most of the book then, all of a sudden, the story shifted into violent, armed conflict during the span of its last chapter. And, once again: none of it landed on an emotional level.

The world-building was... fine as well. Tigana read like pseudo-historical fiction in places; magic exists in novel's world, but it had no rules that I could glean. Demonic, zombie-like spirits popped up at one point, which piqued my interest like I already said, but nothing much was ultimately made of them so... whatever I guess. I liked the pagan-feeling theology, and theological imagery of the Palm, and that's about it.

As to the theming: I can sort of see, as through a glass darkly, what the author wanted to accomplish with Tigana (his own afterword also helped), with regards to discussing cultural identity, its disappearance, and the dilemma posed by a (nationalistic-adjacent?) desire to preserve it at all costs. Or, in terms of discussing the value of trans-national and/or trans-cultural co-operation in the fight against foreign oppression, and tyrannical rule. These are certainly interesting and weighty themes, but I don't think they were particularly well executed in Mr Kay's novel.

So yes, this was, unfortunately, a rather poor start to my reading year. I'll concede it's always possible the fact I listened to this on audiobook – and over the course of a trip to Ireland that had my attention firmly centred elsewhere (chiefly, on my boyfriend) – didn't help me to feel engaged with the story, in this case. But still... I stand by my appraisal of the material: it was mediocre overall.

PS: and yes, it is true that #MWSARP (Men Writing Sex And Romance Poorly 🤪) struck again with this one. A romance with absolutely no set-up whatsoever drops in the book's penultimate chapter (or thereabouts); a couple others also counted as instances of Instalove™ as well, blegh. And basically all of the sex scenes in Tigana felt contrived, to greater or lesser extents. To be clear: I was never offended, as such, by the book's sex scenes or female characterisation... but also, do keep in mind my bar for this is pretty low at this point, given some of the shit I've read (Lady have mercy on my soul...). 🫠

Content Warnings

pineapplesurvivor's review against another edition

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adventurous hopeful lighthearted slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

1.75

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manda_ruthie's review against another edition

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My loan came due from the library and this book wasn't worth renewing. Some parts were great, and of course the author is so good at sucking the reader into particular scenes, but for the most part it was pretty slow and boring. The politics of the land are a large part of the book, but they aren't very interesting. The Fionivar Tapestry series from Guy Gavriel Kay is way better.

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hopeboyce's review against another edition

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adventurous medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.25

Pros : concept, scope, theme, writing, pace

Cons : the female characters oscillated between stereotypical “men writing women” and moderately compelling, but by the end they each had aspects that left a bad taste in my mouth.

It’s frustrating to read a story with such interesting themes, compelling emotional beats, and practically perfect pacing, and be repeatedly let down by this. And there are several POV female characters - each with distinct voices, motivations and lives - it wasn’t all terrible, it just became disappointing by the end how each arc revolved around sex in some way, either as a tool of agency, a way of measuring innocence, a scene of trauma, or a moment of reward for a male character. I kept giving it slack for being written a few decades ago to just being tired of reading each and every woman be framed through the lens of her sexuality in varying ways.

Also why the hell did Dianora love Brandin? Sure, it would be an interesting dynamic to explore but there’s no convincing development or explanation for why she falls in love. And she is horrified by what happens to Rhun but that doesn’t somehow affect her feelings or convictions?

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novelideea's review against another edition

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dark medium-paced

2.0

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thecriticalreader's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Why I Read It:

I borrowed Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay from my library because I loved A Song for Arbonne.

Review:

Guy Gavriel Kay is an amazing storyteller, and Tigana exemplifies his abilities. Despite the book’s grand scope and numerous point-of-view chapters, the central thread of the story remains strong. The characters are so complex and well-written that at times Kay made me root for the villain and denounce the heroes. Their actions serve as fascinating explorations into trauma and grief’s role in morality. His world feels real and textured, but he does not indulge in any unnecessary paragraphs describing aspects of the world just for the sake of it. Kay also has a strong grasp of how politics—both at the macro and micro level— are shaped by the environment, the actions of individual rulers, chance, and the actions of common people.

My favorite part of Tigana is the ending. It is rare that I find a book with an ending as perfect as this one. He somehow manages to produce a satisfying, dramatic, well-earned ending (with a twist!) that perfectly balances between triumph and believability, conclusion and open-endedness.

My only complaints about this book lie in minor details. There is a wholly gratuitous (non-consensual) sex scene that probably should not have made the final cut, mostly because it feels like a horny indulgence on the part of the author rather than a scene in service of the story. Additionally, the choice to have the only character of color actually be a white person in disguise gave me pause. These sorts of problems did not really detract from my enjoyment of the story, but I could see why someone else might take issue with them.

The Run-Down:

You will probably like Tigana if:

· You like epic fantasy books

· You appreciate a well-told story with complex characters, strong worldbuilding, and a masterfully crafted plot

You might not like Tigana if:

· You don’t like reading books with multiple point-of-views

· You struggle to keep track of multiple characters and storylines

· You prefer morally “clean” protagonists

· You’re not in the mood for a dark story

A Similar Book:

A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin. Similarities between these books include:

· Fantasy setting

· Political scheming and intrigue

· Morally gray characters

· Multiple point-of-views

· Dark and twisted elements

Content Warnings

spitefulgod's review against another edition

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challenging emotional slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

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catsy2022's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

Rating: B-

No one mentioned the incest!

Tigana is a country left in ruins, conquered by a sorcerer after they kill his son, he strips its name and culture from history after dominating and shattering the nation. Almost 20 years later, the survivors of the massacre come together under the banner of Alessan di Tigana, the younger son of the late prince Valentin, to liberate Tigana from the sorcerer and bring its name back from oblivion.

What follows is an almost 700-page book detailing the machinations of the characters as they come together to take down both of the sorcerers. Unfortunately, I felt like there was an overwhelming lack of action in this book. There was a whole lot of dialogue, development and some decent world-building, but as soon as something wild is going to happen, it's quickly dispatched with largely offscreen. I really struggled to see the scope of this book as "epic" given that there were no major battles until the final part of the book.

The book is divided into sections with each section showing a new map as the characters get closer to their goals. The maps were pretty well-drawn and detailed. I liked seeing the world and how it changed, which conqueror conquered which part of the map. My favourite characters to follow were Alessan and Dianora. I liked Dianora the best, honestly, her story was so rich and engaging - and incredibly tragic given the circumstances of her life. I loved the ending of her story arc, it was especially tragic. Her interactions with Brandin made good reading, he was such a deep character, I may have liked the story if it was entirely from his perspective. He literally destroyed an entire country because they killed one of his children - and he still had other children left - he just loved his son much more than them!

Unfortunately, there was just a lot of walking, talking and sad reflecting on the destruction of their nation - over the death of thousands of people, the erasure of their culture was more tragic - and it had been decades since it happened! I was also a bit bothered by the amount of meaningless sex in the book. One female character has sex with a male character just to keep him quiet while they hide in a cupboard. I appreciated that the women did have agency and chose to have sex but it sometimes felt like it came out of nowhere, or that it was just a necessary thing to happen in the part of the story.

As for the final conclusion of the book, the big final battle was very underwhelming. I was let down by this. In the end the book was really just decent, not a favourite of mine.

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