Tigana
The
Fionavar TapestryThe Lions of Al-RassanTiganaThe
Fionavar TapestryThe Lions of Al-Rassan
For some unknown reason, when I first received
this book, I avoided reading it for nearly two months. I'm not sure why
- I was in more of a sci-fi mood, it was long, a lot of random reasons.
Now, however, having finally made myself read it, I feel like an idiot for
not having read it immediately.
I can honestly say that I feel that this book may be the best single work of high fantasy that I have ever read (Tolkien obviously notwithstanding).
I actually started this review about halfway through the book, and now that I have finished it, that sentiment is, if anything, even stronger. The book is absolutely brilliant. Starting with style: Kay's writing, while sometimes a bit convoluted, is very beautiful, adding to the Tolkien-esque feel of the book. I mean that in terms of it being beautiful prose, not to imply that Kay is stealing from Tolkien (any more than all modern fantasy does) - I would say just the opposite, in fact. The world and the storyline is very original, and some of the central themes are fantastic ideas that I've never really seen used before.
Perhaps the best thing about this book (other than the fact that it is a single-volume story - incredibly refreshing given the proliferation of 18,000 volume fantasy epics these days) is that many of the characters come in shades of grey, rather than the typical black and white bad guys vs. good guys of most fantasy. While there isn't really any doubt who the good guys and bad guys are, you come to empathize with the bad guys, and have some understanding of why they do what they do.
Additionally, this is one of the few fantasy books where I was generally
not sure what was going to happen. Kay does an excellent job of clouding
the possibilities in just enough doubt to keep it interesting.
Overall the characters are fantastic (the most dynamic I have ever seen
outside of Tolkien), the world is beautiful, the writing is excellent, the
book is complete unto itself - I can find almost nothing I don't like about
this book.
I would not hesitate to recommend this book as highly as any other I have
read.
I just want to add a couple small comments. First,
I think a major strike against this book, which made me reluctant to read
it, is the retarded picture on the front cover. I admit it - I'm a sucker
for packaging, and this picture (at least on the copy Bjorn owns) is horrible.
Second, most fantasy books, and most books in general, have a character
or characters who are introduced early on and are the center of the story.
The center of Tigana moves as the story moves (similar to the evolution
of Donaldson's Gap series), which
makes it all the more fascinating. Thirdly, I can't agree with Bjorn more
about the importance of the complexity and moral "grey-ing" of
the characters. Most fantasy novels embody evil and propose a simple solution
(truth, rejection of power, love), but Tigana is more complex and thought-provoking.
Kay has written another series, The Finovar
Tapestry, which is apparently one of the most highly acclaimed fantasy
series' of all time. Given how amazing this book is, I am greatly unsurprised,
and fully intend to march down to The Stars Our Destination and buy the
series this afternoon.
Well, Bjorn bought it and we read it. There were
two unfortunate plot premises. The first was that the series is based on
the "normal people in a fantasy world" convention, which I associate
with bad Choose Your Own Adventure books from 5th grade. The second only
appears in book 2, so I won't spoil it, but it's pretty bad. Given the crap
which the plot is founded on, I was astonished by how much I did like the
book. The writing was excellent, and some of the scenes were extremely powerful.
Unfortunately the plot kept the book from being great, and by midway through
the third book I was only really reading to finish the book, not because
I really enjoyed it. Even Kay's fearless approach to doing drastic things
like killing characters couldn't keep me interested. In sum, all I can say
about this series is they are, well, okay, and if Kay learned the skills
he needed to write Tigana writing these then they were worth it.
