Tuesday 5 January 2010

Book Review: Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay


[Buy this book from Amazon
in the UK / in the US]

"Set in a beleaguered land caught in a web of tyranny, Tigana is the deeply moving story of a people struggling to be free. A people so cursed by the dark sorceries of the tyrant King Brandin that even the very name of their once beautiful land cannot be spoken or remembered.

"But not everyone has forgotten. A handful of men and women, driven by love, hope and pride set in motion the dangerous quest for freedom and bring back to the world the lost brightness of an obliterated name."

***

It is not deceptive to say that Tigana begins with a lie. But then, many of the best tales do. There is plenty to be said for straight-forward narrative progression, of course; stories told from beginning to middle to end with nary a word wasted on anything so distracting as a character arc. The best such novels can achieve a breathless pace that carries the reader from beat to headlong beat unmindful of such oversight. If that appeals, Richard Morgan will be waiting to take your names after class. Thoughtful, tragic Tigana, however, strikes an ideal balance between that frenetic sense of momentum and the distinctly slower motion of more considered fantasy sequences.

From the first, Guy Gavriel Kay is a masterful pacemaker. We are plunged into a world most assuredly in motion with tell of the death of the Duke of Astibar. In one of that province's public houses, a painter and a poet debate the chances that their former lord will be a given a proper burial by the brutal Barbadian oppressor who has ruled over their people since the bloody invasion he staged decades ago. Initially, it seems an overwhelming task to grasp the broad spectrum of political, religious and moral machinations already underway at the outset of Tigana, but Sandre's passing tenders to the reader a timely insight into the nine divided states that make up the peninsula of the Palm, a nation after renaissance-era Italy's own oft-divided hear; it sets the scene for a chain of events that will transform the provinces forever after.

The disgraced Duke's death also serves to introduce the reader - surely already entranced - to the motley fellowship of nobles and nobodies whose inexorable forward motion effects this shift. Chief amongst them, in prominence and in power, is Alessan, the single surviving Prince of Tigana, the only province of the Palm to hold at bay the invading Ygrathan armies more than momentarily. Tigana's brief resistance managed to claim the only son of Brendin, King of that powerful force, but in his heartbreak, in his anger, the arrogant overlord dwarfed the small victory won by Alessan's people with a tragedy so crushing that the young Prince has grown up in a world in which his nation's very name has been removed from the memories of all those who knew it.

Alessan remembers, however, and in tribute to his most treasured memory he has sworn to rid the forcibly forgotten province of Tigana and indeed the entire Palm of spiteful Brandin of Ygrath, as well as the mercenary Barbadian aggressor who rules in the East - the blunt edge of the sword in every sense. Only by uniting the divided people of the peninsula can Alessan hope to overcome the deck that has been stacked against him, and with a fierce rallying cry, he gathers to arms an assortment of unique individuals, each with their own stake in the intertwined fates of Tigana and the greater Palm.

In Devin d'Asoli, a naive young singer with the voice of an age, the reader is given an appropriate surrogate; in Baerd, brother to Alessan - if not in blood - Kay shows us firsthand the torturous horrors of the blight Brandin and Alberico have wrought upon the Palm. Erlein, a troubadour bound unwillingly to Alessan's cause, is an exploration of choice and obligation; and the women of Tigana, too - Catriana, Dianora, Alais and others - are as strong as any of the men that might be said to drive the narrative, as pivotal, and as more than the lustful objects of affection so many fantasies are content to suggest. With few exceptions, each of Kay's expansive cast are drawn and developed with a flair rarely matched elsewhere in the genre. Suffice it to say that the Palm would not be such an extraordinary peninsula were it not for the flawed characters that bring its struggles to bear.

Only Alberico is given short shrift in the narrative. Certainly he is left wanting some more comprehensive character arc when set against Brandin, a sly, sensuous King who tempers his arrogance with charm. We come to know him through Baerd's long-lost sister, Dianora, whose perspective as the preeminent prostitute in Brandin's so-called ‘saishan’ offers the reader brief glimpses of a character who stands in stark relief against the terrible force Alessan tends to remember.

Dianora's occasional chapters give depth and texture to the inescapable sense of tragedy that pervades Tigana, complicating, deviating and alleviating. They beg the question. Is the inevitable cost of Alessan's epic endeavor - the price in blood - truly a just toll to pay? When the game changes, when assumptions are not merely unmet but utterly undermined, must not the rules of play alter with it? In the end, can the reality of Tigana possibly match the recollection of it?

Tigana is a tale of identity above all else, of the fallibility of memory, and from the telling truthfulness of its very first words, Kay explores these powerful themes with a characteristically subtle touch. His prose is poetic, protracted and powerful; his touch and tone deft without dumbfounding or ever dulling the impact of the text. He weaves the complex fabric of his heartfelt tale with enough attention to detail that the reader must maintain such an exquisite awareness of the world of Tigana that its narrative punches that much deeper. Kay is a lyrical author indeed, even musical: so powerful is the ebb and flow of the song he sings, from brutality to beauty in the blink of an eye. His mastery of the language is perhaps unparalleled in the entirety of speculative fiction.

When Kay calls into question subjects such as politics, religion and morality - as he is wont to do - his only answer is a resounding rebuff. Tigana is a novel to make of what you will. Bring nothing to the table and nothing is precisely what you will receive. Come with some sense of self, on the other hand, some notion of the importance of the past to the present, and a tale unlike any other will unfold before you.

Although it begins as an historical adventure of apparently humble proportions, Tigana ultimately reveals itself as a touching romantic tragedy that belies the relative brevity of the experience. What Kay accomplishes in this slim single volume is staggering. They call him the heir to Tolkein's tradition, and though he is an equally methodical author, Kay’s incredible way with words often quite eclipses the rather pedestrian lord of the Lord of the Rings with whom he is so often compared. Tigana is an endlessly exciting and always emotional epic for the ages.

***

Tigana
by Guy Gavriel Kay
1999, ROC: New York

[Buy this book from Amazon
in the UK / in the US]

Recommended and Related Reading

14 comments:

  1. I love Kay, and this makes me want to re-read Tigana, for the tenth or eleventh time. Have you read The Name Of the Wind, by Patrick Rothfuss? He's one of the only new writers I've read whose epic fantasy reminds me of GG Kay.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I think you forgot to mention that Tigana is simply the single best fantasy novel ever written.

    ReplyDelete
  3. @sonomalass: Any old reason to dive back into Tigana and you're off, I see. Well, I've rarely been a happier excuse. To be entertainment for a person, or a source of information - it's great, truly, but to be an inspiration, even to an age-old favourite, well. Thanks so much for reading.

    I have indeed devoured The Name of the Wind, and very much enjoyed it, too. I don't know that Rothfuss has quite the mastery over the language as Kay seems to, if Tigana's any indication - not yet at any rate - but he's spinning an incredible tale nonetheless with The Kingkiller Chronicles. I can only hope The Wise Man's Fear, when it gets here, is worth the wait. Here's to a 2010 full of such excellent fantasy fare!

    ReplyDelete
  4. @Ricky Carvel: I may have at that, mate. I very well may have. So there's no better Guy Gavriel Kay, then? My heart sinks a little if that's the case; after Tigana, I've harbouring some very high hopes for Ysabel in particular, and Under Heaven, too.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I have been a fan of GGK ever since I discovered the Fionavar Tapestry in high school (20+ years ago now). Since then I have read every book he has ever published and constantly yearn for more. As you point out, that while his novels follow the "fantasy epic" of Tolkien tradition, I am eternally grateful to GGK that his prose is nowhere near as drawn out, tedious or just plain boring as Tolkien's LoTR trilogy was. There are no patches of "dead water" in his work (not counting his contribution to The Silmarillion mind you). All of my original GGK novels have been replaced multiple times, due to the frequency I read them, with the exception of Ysabel, whose dog ears still fail to retract from her appeal.

    ReplyDelete
  6. While I love Tigana, and it'll always have a special place being the first GGK novel I've read, I can't help but envy you greatly for the other novels you have yet to read.
    Lions of Al-Rassan (perhaps still my favorite), Sarantine Mosaic volumes, Last Light of the Sun, The Fionavar Tapestry and Ysabel. Not to mention the coming Under Heaven.
    Trust me, you have A LOT to look forward to :)

    ReplyDelete
  7. Anonymous: Truly, I can hardly wait. If I weren't so busy trying to pull together enough content to make The Speculative Scotsman a going concern in such a busy segment of the blogosphere, I'd be diving into the two other Guy Gavriel Kay books Tigana inspired me to buy (A Song For Arbonne and Ysabel). But soon, and expect reviews for each when I'm able. Thanks for reading, Anon.

    ReplyDelete
  8. @sonomalass Rothfuss's The Name of the Wind is certainly powerful, but it didn't wring me out emotionally in the same way that Guy Gavriel Kay's writing does. There were several times that I had to walk away from Tigana; Kay has an uncanny ability to communicate the anguish and torment of someone's inner conflict.

    @N. R. Alexander I've only read Tigana so far, but it inspired me to pick up additional work from GGK. I hope to finish The Lions of Al-Rassan this month, and I'll definitely get a review of it up.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I had to read the end several times before I could admit to myself that it was in fact over. I highly recommend Sailing to Sarantium and The Last Light of the Sun. Although if you have not yet read the Fionavar Tapestry you should know that Ysabel is kind of sort of a sequel to the trilogy.

    ReplyDelete
  10. GG Kay has been a favorite of mine for many years. I think The Lions of Al-Rassan is my personal fav, but Tigana and A Song for Arbonne are also right up there. I love how he holds you in a state of bittersweet emotion, between joy and sorrow, with such mastery. I will have to look for The Name of the Wind, I haven't read that author yet.

    ReplyDelete
  11. I think Song for Arbonne is actually a somewhat weaker than Kay's other work (I think it's his first book after the Fionavar Tapestry and it shows). For my money, the Sarantine Mosaic is his best so far -- I've reread it two or three times now I always cry at the end.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Another vote for Tigana as the best fantasy book ever. I've read it maybe a dozen times, and it always brings out something new with everything new I bring to it in the intervening time. Last time, last summer, was to write detailed re-read notes; I'm going to have to do that with more books, given what that kind of close reading does to my head.

    ReplyDelete
  13. I first discovered Kay in high school with The Fionavar Tapestry, and he's been one of my favorite (and most highly recommended) authors ever since. I absolutely love Tigana, but the ones that top my list are The Lions of Al'Rassan and The Sarantine Mosaic. I'll be very interested to see what you think when you find the time to read them.

    And I can't wait for Under Heaven (or The Wise Man's Fear, for that matter!). Excellent blog - really enjoying it. Cheers!

    ReplyDelete
  14. It's good; I'm reading it now.

    ReplyDelete