Re: Tigana

Last year, when I read Ysabel, I remarked that Guy Gavriel Kay looked like the sort of writer I would like, and that largely turned out to be true. And now I’m noticing that I never got around to talking about his books that I do like. The first of his books to break away from Fionavar was Tigana.

Set in a world loosely based on the warring city states of Italy, Tigana stars a group of extraordinary characters who do extraordinary things. We first meet Devin, a talented young musician who falls into the company of Prince Alessan of Tigana, a land that was cursed to be forgotten, even its name. Before he can even reach the sorcerer who did this, he has to get past Alberico of Barbadior, a ruthless sorcerer ready to wipe out entire clans, because he wants the simple pleasures of life: wealth and power. He makes a great bete noir in the twists and turns of the first section, but he pays a terrible price for his victory (a really cool terrible price.) After that, he mostly does a lot of mental sputtering as events spin out of his control.

My favorite character is on the “wrong” side, the sorcerer who cursed Tigana, Brandin of Ygath. In person, Brandin is intelligent and perceptive. He’s just unable to get past his fixation on vengence. Even Dianora, who was born in Tigana and swore to kill Brandin, was charmed by him. Some of the best passages portray her conflicted feelings about falling in love with the man she wanted to kill.

By the last section, I was rooting for Brandin, even if he did believe that “Finvair” was the perfect world nearest to the place where the gods dwelled.  After all, he seemed far more capable than Alessan of uniting the rival states. I disliked the way Alessan was willing to kill and feel guilty about it and kill again. I really didn’t care that he had  an inherited magical power element.

But I do like the moral ambiguity that swells as the armies march toward each other. And the big battle at the end wraps up all the loose ends with a few more surprises.

After that, I was ready for another book like it.