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A review by mobysbooks
Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay
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.
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.