Reviews

Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay

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hjswinford's review against another edition

4.0

There was a lot to this book. It was heavy and beautiful and timeless, but also emotionally taxing, strange, and dense. All in all, I was impressed by this novel. I liked many things about it, though there were plenty of things that felt unnecessary and odd. The worldbuilding was incredible and I loved how expansive and authentic the world felt as I read. I wanted to like Devin, but ultimately his role seemed to be most heavily defined as: main narrator, and offered little else to the actual events of the story. I thought Brandin, Dianora, and Alessan were all great characters. The ending threw me for a loop and I did NOT see it coming. It was a very satisfying end.

kendylldrilling's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

joshuaray's review against another edition

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5.0

An amazing book: it is both a quality fantasy book full of subterfuge, adventure, intrigue, and excitement as well as a deep meditation on the ideas of memory, moral ambiguity, divided loyalties, music, and magic.

Beautifully plotted and with plenty of surprises, Tigana is already a favorite of mine!

celiapowell's review against another edition

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3.0

I adored this book when I first read it, in my early twenties - I still enjoy it on re-reading, but am not sure whether that's on its own merits, or due to my past fondness. Past fondness is at least part of it, I think. Tigana is just so overly dramatic - everyone is so honourable and determined and tragic, so much tragedy. "Oh Tigana," vows one of our main characters, speaking of his lost homeland, "Let my memory of you be a blade in my soul." Later on, he tells a woman she is the harbour of his soul's journey. Tigana is full of these overblown sentiments, which part of me "awww"s at, and another part of me goes, "Oh, come on. Blade in your soul? Really?" This is probably exacerbated by listening to it as an audio book and having a narrator say these things passionately into your ear.

However, due to Kay's characters or nostalgia or whatever reason, I still enjoyed hearing this story again - maybe I do have an overly dramatic romantic side.

mobysbooks's review against another edition

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4.0

Tigana is the tale of a country that has been robbed of its identity and memory by the hands of a sorcerous tyrant. A group of rebels have sworn to restore it, to free their people of a spell wrought upon them.

This book is about the importance of memory. About its necessity to culture and identity, and about the danger of it becoming too intense. Tigana teaches us about the consequences of ignoring the lessons of history, and it inspires us to fight for what defines and unites us as a people.

I'm repeating myself when I say that Guy Gavriel Kay is one of the greatest fantasy authors when it comes to the art of writing. His prose is fantastic, the atmosphere he creates is dreamy, gallant, flowery. He is very good at creating colourful setpieces that bloom in your imagination, rooted in lovingly crafted world building inspired by historical key settings, in this case Renaissance Italy.

The characters are well written as always, they have meaningful backstories that tie into their development and their role in the plot. There are romantic aspects which are a joy to follow. I stand by my opinion that most fantasy authors (even the good ones) are bad at writing romance plots but Kay is one of the few who can make it work. He is fantastic at writing romance without his books feeling like romantasy at all.

I had a problem with the book's pacing. It is very slow at times and could have used more efficient editing in a lot of chapters. The ending is well done but it doesn't hit as hard as his other stories that I've read so far.

Guy Gavriel Kay has a certain formula for his books and I'll say that Tigana is not the ideal starting point to check his work out. A Song for Arbonne is similar to this in many aspects, and in my opinion it is the superior book. The Lions of Al-Rassan is still my favorite of his, much faster paced and an easy recommendation for all fantasy fans. Tigana is good, I enjoyed it but it's possible that you won't if you're not totally sold on his very specific style.