I know when writers use an ‘everyman’ as a device for readers to see a world through, those character are not supposed to be particularly exciting. One part of this was been made to see most of the story through the eyes of Devin D’Asoli.

My fundamental issue with this book was that I really didn’t enjoy reading it (quite fundamental I know). Infuriatingly, Kay undermined his owns interesting explorations of moral ambiguity by neatly reassuring us of the moral rightness of the heroes’ cause in the last few chapters. However, Kay had characters question whether Alessan’s victory would be a good thing or whether the peace and order that Brandin promises might have instead been preferable. For example, Prince Alessan and his troupe were ostensibly the heroes, fighting to restore their homeland. This resulted in me rarely knowing who to cheer for. The good guys did terrible things in pursuit of their goals, the bad guys were sympathetic and sometimes even admirable. Throughout the book, Kay played with the morality of his characters. This leads me on to the second thing I liked about Tigana. This tragic love story was so compelling that I found myself desperately wanting Devin and the heroes to lose in favour of Brandin. However, she fell deeply and tragically in love with the Sorcerer-King and eventually became the key to endearing him to his conquered subjects. The first is that the relationship that Kay created was beautiful Dianora was a mistress, whose original purpose for achieving that position was to restore the fallen Tigana by destroying (not just killing) King Brandin. The unusual love story between one of the Sorcerer-Kings (Brandin of Ygrath) and Dianora was my favourite element of the story – and was a lot more compelling than the main hero’s quest! This sub-plot was the golden thread that ran through the book.

Unfortunately, the insufferably dull central character and signs the book never saw a proper editor, spoiled my whole experience of reading it.

That is not to say that I did not get a lot out of it Kay explores the themes of memory, tragic love, belonging, power, and magic in subtle and masterly ways. My overall feeling was that I didn’t like this book. I read Tigana for a book club ( the Fantasy Book Club) and would not have normally chosen it for myself. To make this endeavour even harder, one of the sorcerers has made everyone not born there, forget that nation ever existed (ouch!). We see the story unfold through the eyes of Devin D’Asoli, a young singer who joins a quest to overthrow the sorcerers and restore the once glorious nation of Tigana. The plot of Tigana is played out on a peninsula, resembling renaissance Italy, which is dominated by two opposing Sorcerer-Tyrants of terrible power.

Tigana book review