Book Fifteen -- Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay

Tigana
by Guy Gavriel Kay
fantasy
673 pages

After reading Tigana, or any book by Kay, you aren't surprised to discover that he's an accomplished poet as well. In fact, when Christopher Tolkien took on the job of publishing The Silmarillion from his father's notes, Kay was one of the people who worked with him. Trust me, Kay's better when he's writing his own stories.

Fortunately for me, Tigana was the first book by Kay that I read. His earlier trilogy, The Fionavar Tapestry, suffers from such a bad case of "everything and the kitchen sink" fantasy that you end ip thinking that Kay never met a fantasy trope he didn't like. Thankfully, he got that out of his system and sat down to create Tigana.

Roughly half a generation before the events of the book, the lands of the Palm--a peninsula divided into nine tiny duchies and principalities with vaguely Italian names and language--was conquered by two different sorcerers. One, Alberico, is a pretty straightforward villain, but the other, Brandin is a much more complex character. Unfortunately for the Principlaity of Tigana, Brandin's beloved son died at the hand of Tigana's prince. In revenge, Brandin performed a mighty act of sorcery that prevents anyone not from Tigana from hearing or remembering the name of the principality. As a result, when the last person alive at the time Tigana was conquered dies, the name of the country will be lost forever.

And so the stage is set for a band of rebels, including Alessen, the youngest son of Tigana's last prince, to try to win back their freedom and the freedom of the rest of the Palm's provinces, because along the way, Alessan has realized that the only way the divided provinces can prevail is through unification.

All that sounds pretty normal; talk about your common fantasy tropes. But where Kay excels is in...well, honestly, pretty much everything. His heroes and heroines are flawed, complicated people and Brandin is an excellent example of how to do a villain right. In fact, while I do love the rebels, particularly Devin, a young singer who falls almost accidentally into the conspiracy, it is the story of Dianora, a native of Tigana who is taken captive and put into Brandin's harem only to struggle against her love for him versus her desire for revenge that makes me love this book.

Well, that and the sheer beauty of Kay's prose. He's a simply stunning writer who uses language and imagery perfectly, and who knows the power that words have. If you like truly sparse prose, then no, his books aren't for you. However, you never feel that he's throwing words at the page in order to bring up his page count; each word seems placed just so, much like the mosaics created by another one of his characters from another book. The result is a picture of love and loss and honor and responsibility that will stay with you for a long time.

If someone came up to me and said, "I don't normally read fantasy, but can you recommend a good starting place?" I'd hand them Tigana and tell them to sit down and savor it from cover to cover. While there is magic in the book, it never takes over the book the way it so often can in fantasy.