Tigana: Anniversary Edition

This is my tenth novel by Mr. Kay. I have enjoyed every one of them. If I could, I'd give all his books a 4.5 rating. My only critique, and this is constant for every book, is that the cast of characters are far too many.

I will forever remember Tigana as the book full of men crying. The continuous sadness in the book became tiresome and made the never-ending exposition narrative even longer. I think I know who George R.R Martin was reading before he wrote his Game of Thrones series. I am glad I finished Tigana, but I feel worn out and I can’t wait to read something quick, fluffy, and chock full of sunshine and rainbows.What I liked about the book:1) I liked the depth of Kay’s world building. His twists on our reality made it relatable but foreign and new. How a Ygrath “fool” was not just a fool. The riselka’s and religions referenced lore and dead religions similar to this world, but beautifully painted for the people of the Palm. The people of the Palm drink special wine from unique provinces but they are green or blue and smoke when poured.2) I liked how the author had a stretched out timeline, but we the reader really only saw a year. The events on this timeline were complex and interesting, some overlapping and all very interesting.3) My favorite plot points included: Beard fighting with the Walkers. The reconciliation and heart wrenching scene between Tomasso and his father Sandre in prison. Alessan releasing Erlein, and the ring dive of Dianora. I also liked the final battle and resolution.What I did not like about this book:1) It took me one hundred pages before I enjoyed these characters or got a firm handle on what the book was about. Kay takes almost to much liberty with the reader’s capacity to keep up with a vast cast of characters who we have little investment in. There were no baby steps, or small incremental dips into this new world. The reader is shoved into this place and forced to tread water and try to keep up with a plot Kay deliberately hides. I’m all for suspense and not seeing plot twists and turns, but it’s not suspenseful if we don’t see the relevance in what is happening. I wanted to start jotting down notes of who was who, and what was from here, and why such and such meant something. I’m a detail loving kind of person, but the endless narrative with vague or non-existent dialogue, was over the top, and in my opinion unnecessary. The Epilogue felt odd and disjointed when I read it, not because of the change to an omniscient point of view, but because the characters were actually talking to each other.2) The book felt like a run on narrative exposition, with a few stops to show actual action. The action, which is good when encountered, is interrupted time and time again with mental detours into each characters memory. The action of the book never seemed to unfold within a scene, instead it mostly took place off stage in a memory, or as a side thought of what took place. The scenes where there is action are well paced and exciting, but end to quickly and shove you back into another depressing character memory.There is very little talking amongst any of the characters to add balance to the looks, hand gestures, and arm squeezes being exchanged. I kind of wish I had an electronic copy of this book so I could do a word find to see how many “sardonic looks” were passed. There are more words dedicated to the description of a character looking at another character who is in turn looking at another character, and what is viewed on their faces, than words illustrating how the characters talk to one another.The author built up several romance sub plots, but I did not see the romance of Prince Alessan form at all. It took me completely by surprise. When did that actually take place? I saw no hints, body language, or flashbacks indicating his feelings for her. This romance felt flat, and the only proof of their attachment was a shared history and because the author said it was so. I thought Alessan was entirely ambivalent or at best like a brother, to the woman he eventually declares himself to.3) This is a sad book. Sadness is everywhere even when it does not really need to be there. The author makes you see sadness, hear sadness, or have a character remember sadness. I learned something new about myself while reading all of this sadness. I have a bias against men crying. What can I say, I like strong men, and apparently seeing men “weep” in certain situations in my mind paints them as weak. Get a grip gentlemen-there’s a war that needs to happen with not one but two wizards with armies. This is my issue, I’ll own that, but part of the reason this book wore me out was the number of sad and tragic situations or memories brought up which caused all these men to break down and weep.The number of times men are found weeping, wiping tears away, openly crying, etc just got old. Tigana even starts with a man crying in the prologue. Half way through the book I became conditioned. I fully expected to find a weeping man to appear at least every 40 pages or so, and Kay delivered. I am not exaggerating and if anything the pace of witnessing men cry picks up. I was so worn out by it I became amused by it. I was laughing out loud when not one but two chapters ended with men weeping. I don't think my laughter was the desired effect by Kay, but the "weeping" became ridiculous.I appreciated the ending, the serendipity of who Rhun was, and the awesome speech Sandre gives. However, all the things Kay does right in Tigana, are overshadowed by the flow of sadness he keeps pace with through the entire book.

I’ve read several books by this author. He writes beautifully, and the stories are always well constructed and the characters very memorable. This book was simply beautiful the way few books are. An absolute delight

This is an awfully well-known book by a well-established author, so I don't think we need to belabor this one too much.I will say I'm shocked I'm giving it a 4 star review. I definitely went into this read thinking it would be 5 stars. It's often regarded as Kay's best work and he's an author I already enjoy and admire. I have read quite a lot of Guy Gavriel Kay's work in the past and usually enjoy the books immensely. Kay is known for his lyrical writing, high quality and well-researched historical fiction (which I love), and characters that impact you. Usually Kay's books manage to bring me to tears at some point in the narrative, but this one really didn't. I didn't get that emotional hit - usually a bittersweet one in Kay's books that I was expecting.Tigana is certainly well-written and well-researched, but for me it fell down a little bit on the character side of things. The plot could also be a bit meandering in places and it's a lengthy book (somewhere north of 650 pages in the e-book version I read).There's a large-ish cast of "main" characters who are mostly traveling together or sometimes split in two groups and then one other POV character who is solo (Dionora) who I really enjoyed much more.Twisty politics in not-exactly Renaissance Italy with a dose of magic. The main plotline follows our various characters as they work to engineer a way to free their homeland from the rule of a conqueror without simply inviting in another conquering army instead.As with most of Kay's books, the magic is there but not a main focus. I'd actually say the magic got a little more page time than in most of the other Kay books I've read, but it still was rather undefined as to how it could be used and for what. Definitely a soft-magic system with few rules explained.

I have read a few of Guy Gavriel Kay's books and enjoyed them very much; they are in fact vastly superior to the usual wizard and sword epics. His writing style is smooth and elegant, the turns of his plot often surprising and the worlds he conjures up seem real and convincing - probably because he bases them on what we know of ancient societies. The author understands that magic on its own is boring; to be effective supernatural elements need to be just a small part of the interplay between character, plot and atmosphere.However, I found Tigana very disappointing.At first I was intrigued to see a gay character play a vital - and heroic role - but disappointingly this interesting character was killed off very quickly and we were left with the usual fantasy crew of lost princes, grumpy wizards, loyal friends and impossibly beautiful women. It seems that all male fantasy writers find it easier to imagine a man capable of slipping out of his body than a woman who looks well, just like a woman. And these heroic women - as well as stunning every man they meet - have sex and never worry about getting pregnant, never struggle with their periods and they are all so annoyingly knowing and arch. They are male fantasy figures, not real people and since the author is trying to bed his spells and sorcery in reality this matters.Also, it is all a bit too easy for our gallant band of lost princes and supermodels - I think the novel would have benefited from more struggle and hardship - and too many strands are left dangling and unexplored. The night walkers appeared out of nowhere and disappeared again, and why did one of the wizards do something for one character but not for another; that was an interesting theme that was just abandoned.There was one satisfying twist at the ending, but overall the last few chapters were rushed and unconvincing.I hope one day that this talented author writes a book peopled by reluctant heroes, gay characters and women who can't bring a market place to a halt just by buying a pair of gloves.

The other two are by Anne McCaffrey, so I don't make that statement lightly! Tolkein? C.S. Lewis? Pfft. Must Try Harder.I have owned this book at least three times. I got my first, hardback copy from one of those book clubs that sends you random stuff, and I was utterly transfixed by it. Then my house was flooded, and my treasured copy was destroyed, which coincided with the start of a rather unpleasant period of my life.Years later my wife bought me an exact replacement, and order was restored.However, it's a big book, and somewhat unwieldy in hardback, so when Kindle arrived, I bought it again.Re-reading it revealed that I had forgotten most of the story, but not why I loved it so much. It's well-written, the characters are strong and believable, and it's somehow not like other Fantasy books, yet is.Actually, that's the thing about this book. I don't know why I like it - I just do! I first read it at a time of my life when a lot of things were not going according to plan, and I found inspiration from it. Oddly, Even though my world is a very much more positive place some twenty-five years later, I still found it uplifting when I re-read it recently.It's probably not Guy Gavriel Kaye's strongest work - the Fionavar Tapestry trilogy is arguably even better. I don't read as much as I used to, and perhaps I shall rectify that by reading some of the author's newer books.

I’ve been meaning to read Guy Gavriel Kay for the best part of twenty-five years and finally got around to reading the one people tell me is one of his finest. This is the story of how a courageous bunch of people plan to overthrow two sorcerer-conquerors and let the land regain its real name, Tigana, which has been wiped out of the minds of almost everyone on the Palm - by magic. The tyrants must die, and there ensues some nifty political skullduggery. Alessan, prince of Tigana, escaped death in battle because he was too young, but it’s now twenty years later and he has a plan, carried out with the aid of Baerd, Devin, and a supposedly dead duke. The prose is gorgeous, but the pace is measured – at times downright slow. This is a long book. There are also some questionable ethics. Is it okay to do bad things if your intentions are good? It’s largely a tale of memory and identity. I have to admit I didn’t enjoy it as much as I expected to, even though I appreciated the skill that went into creating it.

Do you like character development? Do you love well written action scenes, or intrigue or romantic sub-plots? Please look elsewhere, as you will not find them in this book. Like a nice looking piece of fruit, Tigana's premise was appetizing with a land magically removed from memory. The idea of how a group of survivors and refugees would go about reclaiming their lost homeland seemed so good.Then I bit in and it was rotten to the core. Spoilers below:::::::Over halfway through the book, nothing has happened except the world's stupidest sex scene (a lass hiding and trying to stay silent with our protagonist in a secret cubby space has quiet sex with him to stop him from overhearing the clandestine meeting happening right next to them); a 100 pages of unneeded flashback of bad guy's concubine with random incest thrown in at the end, lots of chatting with no progress of characters shown only told and our main protagonist wondering why a wizard who has had his free-will stolen and been bound into mind r*pe/magical slavery by the main characters was trying so hard to escape and make his group feel bad about it.I have read various stories where the protagonists are morally grey or even evil (Dawkdawn, First Law, Game of Thrones etc) but both the characters and the author don't try to act as if they are the "good guys" and the stories never frame them as such. This group of characters are boring/flat and just have the main protagonist thinking about how impressive the other characters are. (The lass is so beautiful, the Prince is so caring and decent (mere pages after he mind r*pes the wizard).Okay so maybe we have a tragedy on our hands and we will see our protagonists receive their come-uppance at the end?? Nope. It ends with the our main characters getting ready to go to a wedding, , the prince going to become voted in as king by the greatful people. Disgusting. It doesn't explore these dark themes, it just throws them in a bland procession of nothing much happening. If this review can help one person avoid this garbage, fab.

Overarching story was engaging and elaborate, with plenty of interesting twists, but the contrived romances scattered throughout were frustratingly poorly written. Every character neatly falls in love with the first person who catches their eye and it is always reciprocated. It was enough to make me roll my eyes every time two characters of opposite genders noticed each other. Sadly, loose ends left unresolved at the end also felt a bit hollow. The final chapters build this growing sense of despair and conflicted emotions and motivations. The author, instead of committing to that, ends the story by pairing on off every character and making everything appear sunshine and roses.