Tigana

Tigana (1990) Guy Gavriel Kay

Why is it that every time I finish one of Guy Gavriel Kay’s books, I ask myself, “How could I have forgotten how good his books are?” Even reading this book for a second time, I was still surprised at how good it was.

This book was frustrating at first. There are several story lines that seem quite unrelated, and the prologue seems related to nothing whatsoever for the longest time. I had to keep going back to check names in the prologue and keep checking the maps to keep everything straight… but everything does come together, and it is worth every bit of confusion when it does.

Beware, though, that this is a massive book. 673 pages that took even me awhile to go through, but it is all one book. No sequels or prequels, just a brief prologue, the story, and then a brief epilogue (Although I have to admit that I almost prefer the book without the epilogue.)

I am curious as to the source of the casual brutality of the rulers in this book. I know that Guy Gavriel Kay does a great deal of research for his books, and it disturbs me to think that such horrors could have been common. One can only hope that the heroics described were just as common. Yet the violence and torture aren’t casual in his storytelling, and he does attempt to distance the characters from the acts, telling them as remembered horrors rather than something experienced by the characters. But it is still something difficult to read and to consider.

Luckily most of the book is not dedicated to the horrors perpetrated by the villans, but instead to the lives of those who live under their rule. It is also a story of power, and what those in power will do to retain their power, and what those without power will do to attain it.

In the autumn season of the wine, word went forth from amont the cypresses and olives and the laden vines of his country estate that Sandre Duke of Astibar, once ruler of that city and its province, had drawn the last bitter breath of his exile and age and died.

It’s hard to imagine how a country could be stripped of its name. Harder still to imagine the citizens of such a country, and how they would survive and manage such a loss. Yet Tigana is lost. It’s name stripped from all but the few survivors of the land. The very word a cypher to all but those born there. This book tells of the struggles and desires of the citizens of that once proud country, and how they strive for the redemption of their country and themselves.
Rating: 8/10

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