Tigana

Author: Guy Gavriel Kay

Rating: 2-2.5/5

When a wizard curses the land of Tigana, no one (save for the natives) can remember its name. Years later, Alessan, son of Prince Valentin, seeks to change that.

Spoilers ahead.

Detailed Summary

The story takes place on the peninsula of Palm which has been taken over by two wizards: Brandin of Ygrath and Alberico of Barbadior. When Brandin’s son was killed in battle by Prince Valentin of Tigana, Brandin takes revenge by erasing Tigana’s name from everyone’s head so only Tigana natives would be able to say and hear it. Nineteen-year-old Devin is a singer for Menico’s travelling troupe. They get to perform at the funeral of Sandre, the Duke of Astibar. However, he follows one of his bandmates Catriana and, hiding in a closet where they have sex, overhears a secret meeting. Sandre’s son is preparing to overthrow Alberico. Devin goes to the secret tavern where the meeting is being held. Alessan, prince of Tigana, attends too with Baerd. Alberico finds them right after Alessan, Baerd and Devin escape and takes Sandre’s son as captive. They return to find Sandre has come back from the dead–he had faked his death. Sandre has magic but didn’t cut his two fingers off to become a full wizard. He kills his son so nothing is given away. Catriana, Baerd, Sandre, Alessan and Devin travel around, plotting to overthrow both Brandin and Alberico. Devin learns his parents were from Tigana after the song he’s hummed since childhood is revealed to be a patriotic song for Tigana. They make a few stops including Alienor’s castle where she sleeps with Devin, and Rovigo’s house where Devin takes a liking to Alais. Alessan enslaves a wizard named Erlein. Baerd has a thing with the Dreamwalkers and sleeps with one of them named Elena.

Dianora is a woman who was taken to Brandin’s harem. Her goal was to become his concubine and then kill him. She is from Tigana and her brother is Baerd–she slept with him when the two were teenagers and he was beaten up by guards. Dianora finds herself falling for Brandin and saves his life at a party when there’s an assassination attempt. Brandin tells her he loves her best and she agrees to retrieve his ring so they can be properly married(?). She means to drown herself but can’t do so because of her love for him.

In the end, Alessan’s troupe engineers a war between Alberico and Brandin. Catriana had snuck into a high noble’s house as a prostitute and killed him, then flung herself off the window. Sandre gives up two fingers to become a wizard so he can save her but Erlein saves her instead. Alessan releases his hold on the wizard and confesses his love to Catriana. There is a battle between Alberico and Brandin. The wizards that Alessan has on his team mount their own defence. Alberico is killed by Brandin. Brandin is killed by his Fool named Rhun who’s revealed to be Prince Valentin. Dianora drowns herself after Brandin dies. The book ends with the gang discussing how Alessan might unite the Palm under one nation. Devin cares for Alais, Baerd for Elena. Devin, Baerd and Sandre see a riselka.

Plot and Pacing

Tigana has been on my TBR list since the eighth grade (I can’t even begin to describe the immense satisfaction I felt ticking it off my list immediately after I finished it). To say I had grand expectations doesn’t even begin to cover my anticipation of reading this book. So, I had pretty much set myself up for disappointment.

Tigana’s plot hinges on memory and a generation’s collective loss of identity. The province of Tigana is completely lost to history save for the few natives who were there when Brandin erased the name. Alessan’s goal stems from the desire to reclaim this lost identity and many of his followers choose to, well, follow him because of the patriotic tugging in their hearts. I was intrigued by this idea. Being forgotten is one of the biggest fears that anyone can have. I mean, even entertaining the thought that at a certain time, there won’t be anyone on Earth who remembers me makes me want to stay curled up beneath my blanket all day. It’s such a devastating curse, uprooting everything you know to be right and replacing it with falsehoods that are accepted by the majority.

With that being said, reading Tigana felt like walking through the Dead Marshes and wishing to be mesmerised by the lights. It was a difficult slog, to say the least. I thought the pacing was wildly off with a LOT happening in the last two chapters and the first three parts mostly featuring different characters gallivanting around the peninsula and exchanging witty banter. The war between both wizards wasn’t particularly satisfying either. I felt Alessan won too easily and so much relied on coincidences. I will admit, I loved how Rhun was Prince Valentin, that was a brilliant connection. It annoyed me that Dianora’s eunuch slave didn’t reveal the full truth to Alessan. I guess that ties in with the whole memory theme that Kay was going for. Still, I really wanted Baerd to know how Dianora had carved her own path for revenge, ultimately falling for the enemy.

I have mixed opinions about the ending. On one hand, I do like that it’s open-ended with the three characters seeing a riselka (“Three men see a riselka, one is blessed, one forks, one shall die”). There’s definitely sequel potential and leaving it open-ended means that the characters do live on, that there’s still work to be done. However, I was also a tad annoyed because I wanted closure with this story and I didn’t get it.

Characters

There wasn’t a “main” character per se. There were so many different perspectives given in the book–more on that later. I wasn’t properly invested in the story until the chapter with Devin’s point of view. I could definitely relate to his “striving to stretch a little more height out of his frame” and appreciated how normal he was. I think the novel would have been much stronger if more of it had been from Devin’s POV rather than of minor characters who I didn’t care for. I did find some of his mannerisms annoying like how he constantly had sex on his mind and thought everyone was attracted to him and then was proved right when both Catriana and Alienor did, indeed, have sex with him (the latter was very disturbing). I didn’t mind the horny thoughts much because I’ve been told that teenage boys are just very horny in general but the rest was icky to read. I also was surprised at how quickly he threw away stability and his career to help Alessan’s cause. I would have done the same but only if I had stronger reassurance that Alessan was who he said he was.

Alessan didn’t inspire me. I winced when his mother cursed him as she died but I’ll admit I didn’t fully understand what his game plan was and that’s part of why I didn’t find him a convincing leader. I was also initially very interested in Baerd but his Dreamwalkers arc was unnecessary along with him having sex in the goddamn outdoors. Do people actually enjoy that? I don’t think about sex very often but I’d never want to do it in the great outdoors where ants and other critters are crawling. Can you imagine the infections you could potentially get from doing that?

The female characters were infuriating to read about. While the male characters were quite diverse in terms of size and sexuality, the same can’t be said about the female characters. They were all so similar! I liked that they all weren’t like Black Widow, super handy with weapons and stuff. But they seemed to be cut from the same cloth save for one tweak in personality. Every single one was super attractive with breasts the straight male characters wanted to touch. Catriana was the stereotypical, red-haired, fiery young woman who hates the protagonist (let’s just say that’s Devin in this case). Alais was shoved into the story at the last second (purely for pairing Devin with someone, in my opinion). Dionara was an interesting character at first with severe motivations. I loved how she was keen on getting revenge on Brandin by first getting close to him. I just wish she hadn’t started loving him instead. And done that ring dive. And then killed herself after he died. I wanted her to be an unconventional assassin though I guess not killing her target makes her unconventional. Also, I didn’t see the purpose of Dionara’s incest scene–she sleeps with Baerd, her brother. ABSOLUTELY NO POINT.

The romance was all over the place. I thought Catriana would be paired off with Devin which I wasn’t looking forward to. Instead, Alessan somehow enters the picture and confesses he had loved her all this time but only realised it when she flung herself out a goddamn window??? Like, WHAT??? Where did that even come from? And he was like twenty years older than her! Alais and Devin were also just smooshed together for a “happy” ending. Sure, there were hints that Devin thought of Alais during their time apart but they felt cheap and he was hung up on literally every woman who crossed his path. Baerd is also mentioned to be in love with Elena which was a very insta-love connection. So, yeah, I wasn’t a fan of the romance.

For some reason, I thought Alessan was gay. And that Baerd was his lover. This exchange between Alessan and Sandre’s son (who is gay) made me think that way:

Alessan smiled then, a full, open smile. He shook his head though. “I hope to have a chance to do so later,” he said. “I will drink to your father gladly, but I have a habit I don’t think even you can satisfy in the time we have.”

Tomasso’s mouth quirked wryly. “I’ve satisfied a number of habits in my day. Do tell me yours.”

How does that not scream sexual chemistry???

As for the villains, I thought they had some nuance especially with how Brandin’s feelings for Dianora changed so drastically. I just wasn’t very intrigued by either of them.

The one character I did like was Erlein the wizard. I found him annoying at first with all his horrendous flirting with Catriana. After he was bound by Alessan, Erlein immediately shows his true colours as someone spiteful but resilient. He’s keen on breaking away from the bind and, when he finds himself unable to do so, grudgingly does as Alessan commands. Erlein’s development into someone who truly cared for Alessan’s cause was interesting to see especially because it was so subtle–a throwaway comment here, a smile there. And then, of course, the way he saved Catriana towards the end. The scene where Alessan released his hold on Erlein was one of my favourites. Everything Erlein did after that was by choice.

Writing Style

There’s no denying that Kay is a very talented writer. I wasn’t surprised to see he had been involved in compiling and editing The Silmarillion. The world-building was pretty cool (though I can’t believe the whole two moons thing didn’t feature more in the religion). There was just SO MUCH PROSE. I don’t mind description though I much prefer dialogue. But Tigana had paragraph after paragraph about some minor province or character who I didn’t care about. I knew I wouldn’t be able to remember any of those tiny details and it really put me off from reading. All the characters also sounded the same. If there had been no dialogue tags, I doubt I would have been able to follow any of the conversations.

While I’m glad that I’ve FINALLY ticked this book off my TBR list (and added like ten more to it), I doubt I’ll be reading any more of Guy Gavriel Kay’s books.