- All that you hold most dear you will put by
- and leave behind you; and this is the arrow
the longbow of your exile first lets fly.- You will come to know how bitter as salt and stone
- is the bread of others, how hard the way that goes
up and down stairs that never are your own.Dante, Paradiso, quoted before the Prologue to Tigana
Tigana is probably the best fantasy novel I have ever read. Kay creates a richly detailed world, which gains plausibility because he bases its character on that of medieval Italy. (This is his usual technique, actually: he picks an interesting society out of history and imitates it.)
The Prologue opens in Tigana, a principality on the Peninsula of the Palm. The Palm is being invaded by armies from east and west, each led by a mighty sorceror, each racing to conquer. Tigana’s army has just defeated a division of western invaders, a division led by the son of Brandin, the western king. The grieving father is approaching with the rest of his army, coming to take his vengeance. In these few opening pages, we get a tiny glimpse of the beauty about to be destroyed.
The book itself then opens about twenty years later. We learn the dreadful vengeance Brandin exacted, and follow the progress of a small band of patriots who are working to restore Tigana. Their leader, however, knows that is not enough to defeat Brandin alone; they must simultaneously overthrow Alberico, the invader who has conquered the eastern Palm, or else he will move into the power vacuum and conquer the whole peninsula. We watch the leader enlist key friends from across the Palm, to manipulate the two sorcerors into attacking each other. We see a master at work, and occasionally we see what it costs him.
For, in the end, that is what Tigana is about: cost. It costs the Tiganese leader dearly to know that every day he delays, his people are suffering under Brandin; but he knows also that he cannot move too quickly, or he will lose it all. It costs all the patriots to continue their fight, when they know they could give up and fade into the background, becoming ordinary subjects of Brandin or Alberico. It costs Brandin to remain in the Palm, leaving his kingdom in the hands of his younger son; but he must, to maintain his vengeance, for the sake of the son he loved, and lost. The fight itself costs Alberico a great deal of his power, and almost his life, even before the final battle. And, when it’s all over, the victors know what their opponents paid to carry out this fight, and grieve for the people they have defeated, and add that grief to the cost paid by their hearts.
Against the background of all this pain, though, there are love, and growth, and moments of joy, so that we see the beauty that keeps the fighters devoted, and alive, and human.
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