“Tigana” by Guy Gavriel Kay

This is one of my favorite fantasy books that I’ve read in a while. The plot is really nicely wrapped up, the conflict is complicated, there are multiple viewpoints and elements of action, and it is really thought provoking. In the 10^th anniversary afterword by the author, he mentions how this is primarily a book about memory. How if you destroy the memory of someone or someplace you eliminate it on a deep level. And that’s so interesting to think about in a fantasy setting.

The book opens with Devin, a singer in a troupe, being hired to sing at the Duke’s funeral. During the proceedings he follows one of his fellow musicians up to a mysterious room where she shoves him behind a panel and they overhear about a meeting taking place in the woods. Devin goes to listen and hears about a plot to overthrow the two wizard tyrants in the region. The meeting is interrupted by one of the other musicians in his troupe, Alessan, and he is revealed to be a prince of Tigana. Tigana is a land that used to exist, after Brandin (one of the tyrant wizards) loses his son in a battle in Tigana he overthrows the region and uses magic to make it impossible for anyone not born there to learn, remember, or hear the name. Alessan takes Devin away when the meeting is found and explains that to him. Devin realizes that he is from Tigana and joins the cause. They return to the meeting place and everyone there was slaughtered by Alberico, the other wizard tyrant. Also the Duke is revealed to not be dead, merely faking to get this plot started. He also joins them as he is secretly a minor wizard.

We swap to narration from Dianora, a concubine to Brandin. It is revealed that she is from Tigana and came there originally to kill Brandin, before falling in love with him. She is also a sister of Baerd, one of the men with Alessan. Back to Devin and co., they are traveling around stoking unrest until they run into a troubadour wizard Erlein. Alessan as a prince binds Erlein’s power to his cause. Erlein protests as he now can only do magic that Alessan orders, and he tries to run away. But he is eventually resigned. They continue until Alessan gets word that his mother is dying. They head back to Tigana to see her where she rebukes him for not taking on Brandin himself. She then dies. By now though some geopolitical shenanigans are in action, Brandin is trying to establish himself as King of the land. To legitimize this, Dianora does a Ring Dive, a ritual where she grabs a ring he throws from the sea. Brandin and Alberico are now at each other’s throats, but there is a kind of stalemate where they aren’t at war yet. To kick things into motion, Catriana (a member of the original musical troupe) kills the relative of Alberico’s near them and attempts to sacrifice herself. Erlein saves her of his own accord and Alessan frees him. They go to battle soon after, and it is revealed that the plan is for their motley crew of wizards and magic users to shield Alberico until the last second when Brandin sends every ounce of magic at him. Brandin kills Alberico but leaves himself powerless. This removes the enchantment from his Fool, now revealed to be the Prince of Tigana that killed his son and was thought dead. The Fool kills Brandin before dying. Dianora drowns herself and her servant greets Alessan and co. In the end, Baerd never learns what became of his sister and the servant hides the identity of the Fool.

Now first of all, the writing style of this book is amazing. It is easy to understand and super clear, which is important with all of the geopolitical maneuverings taking place. There are multiple times where the reader is dropped into a situation with no context, and then has to put together pieces to figure out what exactly is going on. But Kay makes it very simple for the reader by not using a fantastic style of writing and instead just being accessible to a wide audience. I can’t stand when fantasy authors think that if they write in an archaic manner that it’ll elevate their story or something and Kay does not fall into this trap.

So much of the book has to do with the importance of memory and stories. Obviously there’s Tigana being wiped from the face of the earth with its memory destroyed. Many of the characters are living through the pain of being able to remember that land, but not being able to say it to others. Now part of what felt fake about this is that Devin does not remember Tigana at all, but being born there he feels a duty to join their cause. It just doesn’t feel like he has a stake in this, but to be fair that is partially addressed in the text as Devin acknowledges that he just feels that it’s the right thing to do to sign up. There is also memory with regards to different characters. At the very end, the identity of Brandin’s killer remains hidden. I thought that might have been unfair, but there is a sense that it would be too much for Alessan to know that he brother was alive and enchanted this whole time. His brother got his revenge in the end, and that fulfilled him, and once he is dead it sure doesn’t matter to him how he gets remembered. Alessan as well seems to have a sense of his legacy and import and thinks about that carefully, he is frequently emphasized to be a good and fair leader.

It is interesting to me that the book has a sort of “chosen one” plot with Alessan, and yet the main protagonist is Devin who is an ordinary guy. We get to learn about Tigana and this plot through his eyes, which makes a lot of sense narratively. But it feels ahead of its time that the narration is just a smidge off center. Alessan is clearly who everyone and everything revolves around, and we don’t get behind his eyes at any point in the book. I quite like this choice, I think it makes sense to tell the story this way and also it lets Devin comment on the proceedings around him as an outsider to a lot of the plotting.

The book is delightfully not black and white, or good versus evil. Which is so nice as a lot of fantasy tends to fall into that trope. Alberico is the closest to a true bad guy, he slaughters everyone at the beginning and is known for wanton killing. Brandin gets more complicated as we see him through Dianora’s eyes, but it still doesn’t change the fact that he destroyed Tigana and there is very little mourning for him. Alessan is the closest we have to a true good, but he binds Erlein. They argue over this constantly, and the author mentions in the afterword that this is supposed to make the reader think about what lengths someone should go to for their cause. It is softened quite a bit by who Alessan is, and with Erlein coming over to his cause, but the conflict is there nevertheless.

Interestingly, there is some queer representation. It is not much, but it is mentioned that the two female dancers in the musical troupe hook up, and that women or men can be attracted to each other. The presence of this feels kinda cool to me given that this book came out in the late 80s. But none of the main characters are queer, none of the sex that is had (nothing graphic, but it is there) is queer and that just feels like a missed opportunity. If there’s a whole scene of Devin having sex with some queen whose castle they stop in, you can have some queer characters exist more prominently.

Finally I do have some complaints. Most have been mentioned already, Devin’s motivations for joining Alessan feel forced. Catriana as well, its stated that she joined because her father never fought for Tigana and fled before it began. Which feels ridiculous to me, her father is not her. But there is a whole theme with her and Alessan of disappointment between parents and children that this does add to. I just feel that having multiple tyrants is more motivating than your dad choosing life. On a similar vein, it is not totally clear what the aftermath of all this is. Alessan is ruling Tigana, sure, its alluded to that he becomes King of the whole area in the epilogue. But this is where things fall apart, sure Alessan is a good man but is he a good leader? How does he rebuild after all of this conflict? None of that is made clear, and in that way the book is very similar to typical “chosen one” fantasy stories. Which is disappointing after such a great discussion of conflict and memory and choices.

Anyways, despite all of that I loved this book. It was gripping in its intensity and made you root for all of the characters. There is a softness at the heart of it that also just felt warm and made you want to disappear into this world. Unfortunately there isn’t a sequel, which I expected, the story is self-contained, but Kay has plenty of other novels I may check out.