Seraphina
06-07-2009, 10:46 AM
This is my favourite book in the world :)
Kay is not an author I'd ever heard of before, and Tigana was one of my 'intuition buys' (where a book I have no knowledge of just goes 'oo, buy me!' So far these buys have always lead to something awesome :) ). Whilst investigating him a bit, I discovered he was a prodigy of Tolkein, which got me rather excited. Then I discovered he worked with Christopher Tolkein on the Silmarilion. Very excited by that point.
Tigana, then. It's a fantasy novel, and has the usual sorcery, historically influenced setting (medieval Italy in this case), and a band of characters on a noble quest with the odds stacked against them. Where Tigana really stands out from standard fantasy fare is with the themes is tackles. Tigana tosses out the generic evil villain and noble hero, and instead takes a jaunt firmly into the grey area, investigating all the various moral shades of humanity (something being done with equal success now by Steven Erikson, I find). With the exception of one character (Alberico of Barbadior, not a very nice man and entirely motivated by greed, without any redeeming features), there are no two dimensional plot devices in this book. Infact, its main strength is without a doubt the characters. Both the 'good' and the 'bad' have their qualities and their flaws, many of them progress to become better, or worse, people, and most importantly of all, they are human. This is most triumphantly achieved in Dianora and Brandin.
The plot begins with two sorcerers, Brandin of Ygrath and Alberico of Barbadior, conquering half each of the Palm (the land it is set in). Alberico does it out of greed, Brandin does it to give his favourite younger son a kingdom to rule himself. Whilst conquering the province of Tigana, his son is killed by the Prince of Tigana. In vengeance, Brandin utterly smashes the province, then wipes its name from anyone not born in Tigana before he casts the spell, renaming it Lower Corte. The spell will last until he breaks it, or dies. The story thereafter follows various efforts, mainly from people from Tigana, to overthrow both tyrants and restore Tigana.
The story is told in seperate parts, half following a group working to restore Tigana, and half following Dianora's one woman efforts to do the same. Personally I favoured Dianora's parts. The group tale, told from Devin's point of view, whilst very enjoyable, doesn't quite strike the same chord. But maybe that's just me, Devin's tale is generally much more positive, whereas Dianora's is entirely tragic, and that plays to my personal preferences.
Dianora works to get herself selected for Brandin's saishan (basically a harem), and then works on getting close enough to assassinate him. However, the man she comes to know isn't a ruthless brutal tyrant. He's a passionate, gentle man, who commited a terrible act out of revenge for his beloved son. Whilst not pardonable, it is easy to sympathise with Brandin's motives. He feels no remorse over what he has done to Tigana, but he is tortured by the loss of his son. Dianora falls in love with Brandin, and he with her; what makes their story all the more tragic is Dianora's happiness is constantly tainted by the knowledge that she must either betray the man she loves or her homeland and her people. Whilst really caring about Tigana's crusaders being successful, you also find yourself really wanting Brandin to continue to rule as well.
The writing style is beautiful, and very easy to flow through, unlike some fantasy which I find can be so determined to sound high brow it comes across very clunky. The universe Kay creates is fascinating, along with the religious aspects and related myths. I'd recommend it to anyone who likes their literary diet to contain some depth, even if they're not really into fantasy.
Kay is not an author I'd ever heard of before, and Tigana was one of my 'intuition buys' (where a book I have no knowledge of just goes 'oo, buy me!' So far these buys have always lead to something awesome :) ). Whilst investigating him a bit, I discovered he was a prodigy of Tolkein, which got me rather excited. Then I discovered he worked with Christopher Tolkein on the Silmarilion. Very excited by that point.
Tigana, then. It's a fantasy novel, and has the usual sorcery, historically influenced setting (medieval Italy in this case), and a band of characters on a noble quest with the odds stacked against them. Where Tigana really stands out from standard fantasy fare is with the themes is tackles. Tigana tosses out the generic evil villain and noble hero, and instead takes a jaunt firmly into the grey area, investigating all the various moral shades of humanity (something being done with equal success now by Steven Erikson, I find). With the exception of one character (Alberico of Barbadior, not a very nice man and entirely motivated by greed, without any redeeming features), there are no two dimensional plot devices in this book. Infact, its main strength is without a doubt the characters. Both the 'good' and the 'bad' have their qualities and their flaws, many of them progress to become better, or worse, people, and most importantly of all, they are human. This is most triumphantly achieved in Dianora and Brandin.
The plot begins with two sorcerers, Brandin of Ygrath and Alberico of Barbadior, conquering half each of the Palm (the land it is set in). Alberico does it out of greed, Brandin does it to give his favourite younger son a kingdom to rule himself. Whilst conquering the province of Tigana, his son is killed by the Prince of Tigana. In vengeance, Brandin utterly smashes the province, then wipes its name from anyone not born in Tigana before he casts the spell, renaming it Lower Corte. The spell will last until he breaks it, or dies. The story thereafter follows various efforts, mainly from people from Tigana, to overthrow both tyrants and restore Tigana.
The story is told in seperate parts, half following a group working to restore Tigana, and half following Dianora's one woman efforts to do the same. Personally I favoured Dianora's parts. The group tale, told from Devin's point of view, whilst very enjoyable, doesn't quite strike the same chord. But maybe that's just me, Devin's tale is generally much more positive, whereas Dianora's is entirely tragic, and that plays to my personal preferences.
Dianora works to get herself selected for Brandin's saishan (basically a harem), and then works on getting close enough to assassinate him. However, the man she comes to know isn't a ruthless brutal tyrant. He's a passionate, gentle man, who commited a terrible act out of revenge for his beloved son. Whilst not pardonable, it is easy to sympathise with Brandin's motives. He feels no remorse over what he has done to Tigana, but he is tortured by the loss of his son. Dianora falls in love with Brandin, and he with her; what makes their story all the more tragic is Dianora's happiness is constantly tainted by the knowledge that she must either betray the man she loves or her homeland and her people. Whilst really caring about Tigana's crusaders being successful, you also find yourself really wanting Brandin to continue to rule as well.
The writing style is beautiful, and very easy to flow through, unlike some fantasy which I find can be so determined to sound high brow it comes across very clunky. The universe Kay creates is fascinating, along with the religious aspects and related myths. I'd recommend it to anyone who likes their literary diet to contain some depth, even if they're not really into fantasy.