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A review by fulltimefiction
Tigana: Anniversary Edition by Guy Gavriel Kay
3.0
The weird thing is that most of us who read the book in the club had similar thoughts and our average rating was around 3 stars so I was really surprised when I noticed that none of my friends on GR rated 4 stars, which is very rare. It’s a good thing I wasn’t reading it on my own or I would’ve thought it’s a “me not you” kind of book but it really is not here.
➼ Summary:
If you want to read Tigana, I highly recommend reading a bit about the world before you start because it can be very confusing at the start and this made it difficult for me to enjoy the book at first, the simplified version:
Basically, we have Peninsula of the Palm, a region is like Italy (Renaissance period), and just like the European country at the time, it was divided into multiple small “countries” (using the term very loosely here) who were always at war with each other.
Enter two tyrant sorcerers (very powerful):
- Alberico who conquered the east of the Palm, a very cold person
- Brandin, who came from a faraway place and conquered the rest of the Palm, a person driven by his emotion (basically the opposite character was of Alberico.) But something happened in Tigana (one of the countries in the Palm) and he was well, very pissed off he decided to wipe its name from the memory of every living person except those born on its soil. He also massacred many of its people.
The son of Prince Valentin, Alessan escaped and now 19 or so years later, after years of political plotting, is waiting for the right moment to make his move. The two tyrants need to be destroyed at once you see, or the other will simply conquer the rest of the Palm.
➼ The characters:
Alessan is not the main character though. Please, let me introduce you to one of the most useless (if not most useless) characters I have yet to come across: Devin. But before I get to that I need to explain something:
The book is told from soo many perspectives. Every one of the main cast gets at least a passage at a certain point, lots of minor characters also have passages but Devin was the main character in a way that we saw the story mostly from his perspective.
He was pretty much useless. He didn’t add anything to the story. Other than spotting or noticing something before the rest of the group a few times, he had zero value in the plot. I wish I was exaggerating but usually main characters do something or have more going on even in multiple PoVs? We were mostly seeing the story unfold from his eyes and I guess GGK wanted to add some “mystery and charismatic” vibes to some characters but if that’s his aim, it affected the story negatively more than helped it. He also dropped his career right away once he learned about Tigana, uhm, sorry what? Just take a moment to think about it?
We were also repeatedly told about his strong memory but it was never used in this story.. I understand it’s for “impact”. Devin forgot about Tigana (he was born there but after the war family left) but it’s more like he didn’t know, to begin with since he left when he was around 1 year old. So yeah, the repetition of this was useless.
The rest of the cast was very meh and boring. I really couldn’t care about the characters nor feel their sorrow. In every few chapters, we had someone weeping the loss of the NAME of Tigana instead of the people Brandin wiped out during the war. They cried for the destruction of their homeland more than its people… I found it hard to share their sadness and no matter how much I tried, I couldn’t connect with them.
Brandin was the most interesting and complex character and my opinion of him changed several times while reading the book.
Something I liked, however (and hated it at first) was Alessan’s characterization as the “good” guy doing “bad” stuff justifying them by his noble cause. The main characters at the time this book was written (1990) were mostly black and white so it was interesting to see that reality isn’t always so simple. I hated what Alessan did but actually after reading the acknowledgments and found out what was GGK true motive, I ended up appreciating it.
There are a few things I didn’t like about the female rep, for example, we had a woman always crying over nothing, and then two others just trying to kill/sacrifice themselves to be useful, and a fourth well, Alienor. I have no idea what she added to the plot other than that weird BDSM scene that was out of nowhere. Everyone was simply crushing over Devin and wanted to sleep/slept with him… sorry? Why?
I also liked Tomasso, I wish we saw more of him, however. I assumed he was a main character at first but oh well.. that’s why his part at first being so detailed wasn’t needed imo.
➼ The romance and romantic relationships:
I have so much to say about this. But I’ll try to be brief.
The sex scenes. The awful, random, useless sex scenes. We had several sex scenes and most of them if not annoyed me, added nothing to the story:
1- so a virgin decides to have sex for the first time in a closet to distract someone even though she doesn’t see him that way (we were given such vibes, but she doesn’t). The people they were eavesdropping on were just outside the closet. They were of course silent and the closet didn’t make any sound nor them. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?
2- Incest scene and it can’t be skipped because at the end of it there’s a shocking factor! We would’ve been shocked without it. Well, I wasn’t even shocked I predicted that twist.
3- the BDSM scene between a 19 yo guy and a woman in her 40s (at least) was very pointless and disturbing in a way.
Also some people have shelved this book as Children/Middle Grade/YA, it’s not. Lots of graphic sexual and violent scenes. Plus, everyone of the main characters is 18+
As for the romance, apparently, everyone needed a match! There was no chemistry whatsoever nor even hints or a slow burn then bam two characters confess their love for each other. Excuse me what?
But there was a relationship I liked and it was Brandin and Dianora’s. Okay look, I know it didn’t add much to the plot but it was so sad and I have a soft spot for tragic stories. Dianora was supposed to kill Brandin and avenge Tigana but instead, she falls in love with him. And yes, I know her actions are annoying especially since she could’ve killed him before the book even began after spending so much time with him but their relationship was the only thing that “moved” while me reading this book.
➼ The world-building:
This honestly felt more like a historical fiction set on a planet similar to Earth but with two moons. There was a lot of history of Peninsula of the Palm but considering my lack of interest in the story I found it difficult to focus on them. I wish however more was mentioned about the outside world. I also understand this is a standalone, one of the very few fantasy standalones that aren’t related whatsoever to their other books. There was a focus on Tigana and its culture and civilizations too naturally, I sadly couldn’t care since the whole “loss of Tigana” didn’t affect me.
There was magic in this world but it was so vague, I had no idea how it works nor there was any basis for it, I also didn’t understand why wizards were prosecuted in the Palm… I understand that magic before Brandon Sanderson the 2000s was mostly vague and without clear rules, in this book was too random and underexplained.
I also liked the Slavic mythology that was included: the lake witch: the riselka. It was a nice addition to the story and probably the only “fantasy” element other than magic. Not sure if the Night Walkers part is considered magic but what they did was too much “can be shaped however the author likes”
➼ The writing:
The writing was too descriptive sometimes and flowery. I understand why a fantasy standalone needs to be 800 pages but sadly, there was no need here. The cast was very big and like I said, most didn’t interest me so giving a small “past” about each + random flashbacks + moving from one character’s perspective to another (sometimes new one) without extra space between paragraphs (at least on my ebook) was tiring. I really struggled with Part 3 because of this. The book is told from the third perspective which works here. The book is 5 parts and each part (probably except the last) had the same cycle:
- no idea what’s happening
-things make sense – kinda
- interesting ending
Then the next part starts and I was completely lost again. There was a part I read multiple times (a new character’s perspective) but no matter how much I tried, I couldn’t register what I was reading, simply my mind refused to process the words. I skimmed through it and it was fine.
While there is no info dump in a way that we have all of the histories told at the same time, which I probably could’ve used in this book because I was often confused, especially at the start. The writing style while not difficult and had some nice prose, tired me. This is also because of the pace that I’ll discuss in the following section.
We also had a lot of repetition, especially in Dianora's chapters. And the sorrow everyone feels for Tigana (which I didn’t feel even). Another issue I had is that the chapters were way too long, 800 pages across 22 chapters doesn’t work for me. I was never a fan of long chapters and here I spent over an hour on some since I couldn’t focus all the time on what I’m reading.
➼ The plot:
The prologue was honestly interesting, yes I had no clue what was going on other than an upcoming battle, but there was a deep sense of doom. I also really liked the ending, not all of it but
Sadly, everything in between was mostly boring except for the occasional interesting chapter. The pace in this book was agonizingly slow and there were too many details about the characters that could’ve been introduced in another way. They would’ve probably had more impact because since we meet so many characters, I will not remember someone I read about in chapter 2 for example and if anything happened to them, I won’t understand that moment’s significance. But if I met them through the main character’s eyes, at least, I’d remember their impression (the MC) of them.
This book could’ve been a much more interesting story if we had fewer characters, fewer details and descriptions, and a faster pace because the latter was off for sure sometimes and the plot was stretched thin among so many characters. For example, a particular event was more to give Baerd, a somewhat main character, an "arc" rather than add value to the story. It would've made sense if this wasn't standalone but since it is, I didn't see the necessity of it.
Another thing that would’ve been better if maybe we had Alessan tell his story from the war till today. There was a lot of political planning and scheming with different regions in the peninsula so again given that we were only told about it later, I personally didn’t appreciate it much. But if we had a summary of Alessan’s tale across the years and this “quest” of avenging Tigana and killing the tyrants, it would’ve worked better perhaps. Because, after all, there is a reason why such stories are usually successful.
TLTR:
Sadly not much happens for such a big book and I wasn’t invested in the story nor the characters. The book started on a high note with a prologue of the last battle before Tigana was destroyed and ended on a high note too because finally stuff happened and I liked some elements of the ending. However, everything in between was dull in comparison. Except for the occasional gripping chapters, the pace was slow and I couldn’t care about most of the characters nor their cause. We also had multiple PoVs of people who didn’t add much to the story and lots of flashbacks.
However, the ending was slightly redeeming and made it rate it 3 stars instead of just 2. A particular relationship fascinated me for some reason. Dianora and Brandin love story was simply tragic and doomed from the start but also complex and multilayered.
I thought this was a standalone fantasy I’d be recommending in the future but sadly it is not.
I did like however that plot revolves around memory and the value of one’s identity with one’s country forgotten. It is an interesting theme to write about considering we have so many dead civilizations forgotten from living memory sometimes. However, maybe if the story was written in a different way it would’ve been better/more impactful.
I'm glad I finally read Tigana. At this point, I'm not sure why I'm keeping a 3 stars rating but also 2 feels too little for reasons I mentioned above. I won't be reading GGK's other books, however. I don't think his style is for me.