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Submitted by Rhea Phillips 
(Apr 05, 2004)

If found this book by accident, and it changed my life.

Tigana is one of the best, is the best, fantasy I believe I have ever read. Maybe something will top it, but it would take a lot. The story is magnificent, set in a world that faintly echoes of Renaissance Italy. Tigana reaches down and touches you, and changes the way you think forever.

The characters are unique and engaging, showing all aspects of the range of human characteristics. The women are not too submissive, nor are they feministic in their abilities. Some, (Catriana) are definitely strong women, able to take care of themselves, but not annoyingly so. The men are not stupidly masculine either, but have a range of emotions that are put forth with such eloquence that one is truly able to not only understand these feelings, but empathize with.

The setting is on a peninsula, The Palm, one country split into nine provinces and fought over by two invading warlords.

Then you have the actually story, which crowns the characters and setting. The story is of a land whose very name has been erased and a people willing to die for that name to once again grace the ears of those, who might never have cared. And that's just scratching it.

This is a fantasy that cannot even be remotely compared to any of Tolkien's work, for it is (I would not dare to say better, for that is dependent on the person) not even of the same genre of Fantasy. There is no quest, as it were, only a desperate act of hope, not against evil, but against oppression. The great battles fought here are not defined by Good and Evil (it echoes of our own world, where things are not so easily defined), but by revenge, honor, lust, power and love. Even in the oppressors, love.

The ending is the crowning masterpiece of the entire thing and it is (though it took me three times read to acknowledge this) the only ending that would ever leave the reader, and fate happy.

The writing is beautiful, not long descriptions that one skims, but subtle hints at he society that lets the reader acclimate themselves to the world instead of laying the facts bare as a history book. I highly suggest this book, and almost any of the others by GGK.

Transported to a world of revenge, and a desire for vengeance, Kay plays the anger of people against each other. Demonstrating that not all fantasy stories possess the good of white and the evil of black, Guy shows the reader how there are two sides of every story. And, for a change, neither of the two opposing forces can be considered holy in their desires or their methods in which they attempt to reach their goals.

This book has been receiving high reviews for it for a while and recommended by many. So I thought I'll buy it and read. The prologue was beautifully written, and I thought this was going to be one hell of a book. But then as the chapters started the story was quite slow, and Guy used too much description which made me lose concentration many times. If I buy a book I never put it down, and I'm glad I didn't. The last 150-200 pages really blew me away. You totally got a different feel for the bad guy, even sympathy. The ending was magically written, the words used real made you feel. The end was a sad ending as well as a happy ending. You felt a little confused at the end.

Tigana is a marvel. It is a book which manages to take our perceptions of good and evil and throw them away. In too many fantasy novels there is a black and a white, no shades of grey, yet in Tigana Kay has created a rather obscure distorted line between good and bad. We learn of the evil Brandin of Ygrath, yet after Part 1 we get to see him from the eyes of a woman who loves him, and we learn his motives and the reason he did what he did, and there is understanding and empathy with him. This is a book rich in passion and love yet there is also a deep bitterness that never quite emerges and the ending is supreme. This book is truly my favourite book ever.

A novel of haunting beauty.A sorcerer king conquers the land of Tigana in the insuring conflict his son dies in battle.The king puts a curse upon the land where no one can remember or utter it's name.Twenty years later, freedom fighters try to overthrow him and reclaim the name of their land.This novel presents a alternate version of Italy and filled with scenes of haunting beauty, intrigue, passion and danger.This is best fantasy novel ever written you will never forget it!