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A review by thepurplebookwyrm
Tigana: Anniversary Edition by Guy Gavriel Kay
emotional
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
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...). 🫠
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
Minor: Sexual content