Tigana

Rating:
Summary: stunning
Review: Tigana is one of those rare books that I can always go back to. Guy Kay sets his readers out on this incredible journey with a band of rbels posing as musicians and merchants in the desperate attempt to free their home. The real beauty of this story lies in the characters. Kay has this incredible grasp of the depth found in people, and he gives that to his characters, making them seem like somebody you could meet. Nobody is purely good or completely evil and all of them have their own motivations for their actions - lust for power, a desire for freedom, revenge, pride - all things that the rest of us can understand. I recommend this novel to anyone who enjoys a moving and epic adventure with characters who will stay with you long after you read the last page.

Rating:
Summary: Not the Best
Review: A Book worthy of a read, but nowhere near George R.R. Martin's riveting A Song of Ice and Fire series. Do yourself a favor and make sure to pick up Martin's books after reading this, as all other fantasy will look poor after the enlightenment.

Rating:
Summary: Decent
Review: Tigana is a decent book. Some parts had me truly engaged in the story. Other parts, like the ending, left a poor taste in my mouth. After reading this book, I was left wishing for something more, which leads me to my next comment. Instead of this book, which is quite well-written and yet hollow, go buy George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series for some more fulfilling fantasy.

Rating:
Summary: Fantasy at its Best
Review: This is the first book of Kay's that I have read, and I'm astounded by the beauty of his writing. Authors that have a gift such as Kay's generally do not write fantasy novels. The only other fantasy author that writes in such a poetic prose (that I can think of) is Gene Wolfe. But where Wolfe has sacrificed plot and character development to attain this, Kay has told a heart-wrenching story with such emotion that I found myself weeping at times. I had never felt like this while reading any other fantasy novel.

I won't give anything away, but Kay has hit upon themes that are foreign to this genre. How would you feel if people failed to recall your history, the name of the place of your birth, your language? These things are your identity and are linked to your definition of yourself. Tigana (as Kay says) was an "attempt to use magic to explore those themes: erasing a people from the record of history by stripping them of their name". The story that follows is beautifully told.

I recommend this novel to anyone looking for a breath of fresh air in the fantasy genre, or anyone who wants to read a unique and romantic (in the true sense of the word) story. I felt so compelled to write my first review - on this book. Tigana should be the next fantasy novel you read.

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant
Review: The best fantasy novel I've ever read. Tigana is the story of a once-proud land whose name is now forgotten because of a spell of the powerful wizard-king Brandin. Brandin's son Stevan was killed in battle by the men of Tigana, and in revenge Brandin has caused the name of Tigana to be erased from all people's memories. This book is the story of a quest, led by the heir to the Tiganese throne, to defeat Brandin and restore the name and glory of Tigana. The war against Brandin must be fought on many fronts, and the battles of the individual fighters--among them a beautiful woman, a gifted musician, a wizard only beginning to discover the extent of his powers, and a solitary hunter with much pain in his past--make an unforgettable story.

Rating:
Summary: GGK does it again...
Review: This was the first GG Kay book I ever read, and even though it's not my favorite (I prefer _The Lions of Al-Rassan_ and _A Song for Arbonne_), it's a wonderful book. It's got sweeping epic scope, without ever losing track of the characters its following.

Rating:
Summary: Best of a Great Collection of Works
Review: Having read all of Kay's works, having read all of them many times because he is so slow to publish new ones, I must say that after all of these years Tigana remains my favorite of his works as well as among my favorite book. It transcends the ordinary boundaries of the fantasy genre in every sense. For those who enjoy literature and often scoff at the lack of quality writting in the fantasy field, may I say that here is an author, among a small club, that will definitely challenge that assertion. His plot is well drafted, escellently rendered, and logically derived from his strongly drawn characters. Indeed, his characters are excellently developed and engaging. At the end it was neither the brilliant character portrayels nor the ingenious plot, but the alchemy between the two that kept me glued to the pages of Tigana until dawn. Each successive reading has only increased my enjoyment of this book.

A few words of caution, however. Kay pulls no punches when it comes to his adherence to the logic of his characters in order to provide for uncomplicated or necessarily happy endings. Also, beware reading this book before the others of his works. It is, in my opinion, the best and so others, especially his early work, the Fionavar Tapestries, and his latest outing, the Sarantine Mosaic, do not stand up as well in comparison. However, I would still rate them as among the best of the genre.

Rating:
Summary: This Aurora Prize Winner is my favourite stand-alone novel.
Review: King Brandin of Ygrath and the ruthless warlord Alberico, bitter enemies, each seek to gain the upper hand in their war by taking over the Peninsula of the Palm, in the midst of this crisis and sought after because of its strategic location. After years of futile effort, Brandin has managed to captured four of the nine provinces, and Alberico has captured four as well, with both of them setting their sights on the last independent province.

The main plot, however, branches from this when, during the conquest of the southern province of Tigana, Brandin's son is killed in action. Brandin, being a great sorcerer, obliterates the killer and as a punishment to the soul of all the Tiganese, he 'erases' the word Tigana, so people cannot hear it, and they have no previous memory of the word.

Which leads me to the point: Why is a word so tragic to the Tiganese? Bereft of their pride, splendour, dignity, and are treated like dogs by the men of Ygrath(they are now taken over by Brandin), they are a husk of what they once were.

The main plot deals with a small group of Tiganese citizens who are trying to bring Tigana back. Among the group is Alessan, the son of the man that killed Brandin's son; Devin, who came from a farm in the north, his parents not telling the truth about his home, and is beginning to realize what he is and his importance in this task. This task IS important, for it is not Tigana who must be liberated, but all of the Peninsula, and the determined group are willing to fight a clever feud to unite the peninsula.

Difficulties in uniting the Palm arise. If they kill Brandin then Alberico will rule them, which is not a very good option. So, in this VERY unpredictable novel, members of this faction need to gain allies and try to figure out how to get rid of BOTH sorcerers at once.

A vital and very emotional subplot that ties in with the difficulties of dealing with Brandin is a women called Dianora. The women, plotting her own revenge by gaining a status as one of Brandin's 'women' and planning to kill him, finds that Brandin isn't such a malicious man after all. In fact, to her horror, she is falling in love. Her mixed love for Tigana, her family, and Brandin come into play as Dianora struggles with her emotions as she tries determine if she actually will kill the King of Ygrath. This is truly THE most tragic story I have read in literary fiction...

When it comes to writing, Toronto's Guy Gavriel Kay is probably one of the best technical writers. His prose can be dazzling and poetic, and his description is extremely effective and realistic. The sophisicated plot was flawless, and the characters are well developed, three dimensional, and believable.

Frankly, I cannot believe that so many people are negative about this novel. Some complaints are: lack of character and plot development, book was too long, too much description, etc. All people are entitled to their opinion and the complaints above are some of the elements that vary in reaction by the reader's tastes...Hopefully many people will enjoy this novel as much as I did, but EVERYONE can't give this 5 stars because everyone has varying tastes, so speak your mind.

Rating:
Summary: Still re-reading it after 10 years.
Review: Every now and then you find an author whose books simply resonate with you. Guy Gavriel Kay is one such author. Since I first picked up Tigana, I have not only re-read it numerous times, but replaced it due to the wear and tear.

While many fantasies are driven by plot, Kay weaves his
tale with a combination of interesting plot twists and strong character development. I laughed, cried, agonized and exulted with the characters. One of my favorite characters was Dianora, a young woman who falls in love with her professed enemy, King Brandin. His army destroyed her homeland but not before her countrymen killed his son. In retaliation, the sorceror king striped the nation of its entire identity, casting a spell that caused the name Tigana to only be heard by natives. He renamed the province and subjugated the people.

Tigana is a tale of those whose true patriotism led them to try to reclaim their country. It's not all about exploits, although the book has its share. Relationships are built between the characters that draw you in. Kay blurs the line between right and wrong, just as so often happens in the real world. Most of the characters have both really good attributes and really bad ones - so you love them, hate them, empathize with them, and never forget them.

From a techical standpoint, his prose is poetic and beautiful. I can remember entire passages verbatim.

From a reader's perspective, it was a joy - moving and evocative, one not to be missed by anyone who enjoys epic fantasy.

Rating:
Summary: Drivel, vacuity and other fun stuff
Review: Ugh, this book was an utter horror! It's funny, because the first 220 or so pages were reasonably entertaining and enlightening-- I began to learn about the society a bit, and to also determine the main characters, what Tigana was, and the plot to restore it. Promising, I guess, although the detail was very sketchy and the characters rather cookie cutter...

As I read further into the book, I was distressed to discover that characters such as Baerd and Prince Valentin weren't given a lot of space to develop, and their actions rang quite false. The only characters that seemed remotely believable and had a reasonable amount of depth were Dianora and Brandin, one of whom was the enemy who we were supposed to hate along with the supposed protagonists of the book. And oddly enough, these were the characters I was most fond of. One character, late in the book, a healer, was given pages upon pages of background description and yet he was only in a couple of scenes in the book, and was barely a supporting role in those few scenes. This amount of description was ridiculous, since the main characters didn't even receive that amount of depth.

Another thing that annoyed me to no end was the endless use of foreshadowing interspersed with a lot of "backstory." It was, in fact, with both of those devices used at length, very difficult to determine just what was going on in the present.. Additionally, Kay's use of description was often hard to follow, mostly because his prose was very unfocused. After reading 660 or so pages of this book in hardcover, and experiencing the relatively small amount of action and character development, I was at a loss to explain just what all the words were used to describe. I didn't ever find out what was so horrible about death wheels (execution device of choice), or mentally envision any of the terrain, or find out what was so splendid about old Tigana...

I read this book in its entirety, and was mildly interested in it throughout. However, once I was finished, I let out a huge sigh of relief, and it took me two days to digest and realize just how much I despised it. Dreadful! If you wish not to be demoralized, and not to be extremely peeved after finishing a book, I suggest you give this one a miss. It's truly a horrible experience, and it took me rereading Dune and reading the first of the books of Tad Williams' "Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn" to reaffirm my faith in the power of fiction.

Stay away!