Subject: Book Review - Tigana / A Song for Arbonne

From: [email-masked] (Danny)
Date: 28 Mar 1994 03:22:17 GMT

title: Tigana
        by: Guy Gavriel Kay
 publisher: Penguin 1990
  subjects: fantasy
     other: 688 pages
   summary: genuine tragedy is rare in fantasy

     title: A Song for Arbonne
        by: Guy Gavriel Kay
 publisher: HarperCollins 1992
  subjects: fantasy
     other: 608 pages
   summary: a pleasant Provencal song

Guy Gavriel Kay made an impressive debut with his first novel, the
_Fionvar Tapestry_ trilogy.  _Tigana_ and _A Song for Arbonne_, his
second and third novels, are worthy successors.  It is particularly good
to see that he took his time writing them; it is all too easy for
successful fantasy novelists to sell trash, and many of them fall victim
to the Vulg the Visigoth syndrome [Ursula LeGuin, _The Language of the
Night_].  An increasing use of historical rather than fantastic elements
is also notable, and here Kay has clearly done his research properly.
(Although so much modern fantasy depends on political, historical and
military plotting for interest, these are rarely treated with any
sophistication, and the results are sometimes nauseating to the
knowledgeable reader.) 

The world of _Tigana_ is very clearly based on renaissance Italy, both
in language and culture and in geopolitics - in this case a land of city
states dominated by two foreign sorcerers.  One strand of the story
follows a group of outcasts from the magically annihilated state of
Tigana, who move around fomenting unrest against the tyrants. This is
pretty straightforward fantasy material, but it is much better done than
usual and contains a number of original ideas.  The other strand centres
on one of the two sorcerers, King Brandin of Ygrath, and his concubine
Dianora.  This is both a love story and a tragedy, and was so compelling
that I was continually tempted to skip the other strand in order to
follow it.  There is hardly a trace of the contrived plotting and
characterisation that marred _The Fionvar Tapestry_, and the different
strands of the novel are cleverly woven together.  _Tigana_ is a very
impressive work, and it would probably make a list of my favourite ten
fantasy novels.

_A Song for Arbonne_, while enjoyable, was rather disappointing after
_Tigana_.  The events and plot are predictable, the characters are just
too nice and, in the end, nothing much really happens.  The gist of the
plot is that Arbonne (based on medieval Provence) is threatened by
invasion from Gorhaut (controlled by the bad guys) and the hero (an
exile from Gorhaut) joins the good guys and saves the day.  There is no
hint of tragedy and hardly any real conflict.  This is not grounds
for abandoning the author, however, and I look forward to Kay's next
novel.

--

%T 	Tigana
%A 	Guy Gavriel Kay
%I 	Penguin
%C 	London
%D 	1990
%O 	paperback
%G 	ISBN 0-14-013010-1
%P 	688pp
%K 	fantasy

%T 	A Song for Arbonne
%A 	Guy Gavriel Kay
%I 	HarperCollins
%C 	London
%D 	1992
%O 	paperback
%G 	ISBN 0-586-21677-4
%P 	608pp
%K 	fantasy

Danny Yee ([email-masked])
28 III 94

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