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While there was much to appreciate about Tigana, there was one key aspect of the story that I couldn’t get past and roughly speaking it ruined the book for me. It’s hard to describe this matter without revealing some plot spoilers so much of this review will be hidden with a spoiler tag. I think my issue doesn’t necessarily ruin the story, but for those who already like Kay and want to read this, it would probably be better to skip what is hidden below.

The story of Tigana is essentially about the overthrow of two tyrants by a few scrappy political revolutionaries whose former country had been utterly conquered by one of the two tyrants. Tigana is set on another planet with two moons, but all the characters are indistinguishable from humans and the planet is much like Earth. The two tyrants happen to be the most powerful magicians in this region, and they both vie for control of a small continent or large island. Tigana was the name of one of the countries on this continent, which had been wiped out by one of the two wizards in a previous war. The rebel forces are lead by a surviving prince of Tigana who uses methodical strategy to build up a confrontation between the two opposing wizards in the hopes of defeating both of them.

In many ways, it was a story of honor and commitment to a cause. The most interesting parts were essentially about the personal sacrifices required to resist authoritarian rule

I had one primary issue with the story and that relates to one of the lead characters, Dianora, who survived the conquering of Tigana. (view spoiler)[ Dianora is the sister of Baerd, another lead character and the right-hand man of the Prince of Tigana, Alessan. Dianora’s father was killed by the forces of Brandin, one of the two magicians, the one who conquered her country and then cast a spell which erased the name of the country from the memories of everyone in the world except those who had lived there. Her mother was driven into deep grief and near madness. Her brother ran away to seek the prince and eventually help lead the rebellion. Dianora comes up with a plan to assassinate Brandin by cleverly arranging to have herself selected to be one of his concubines. Brandin is an intelligent, charismatic Rasputin type character who also has been thoroughly ruthless towards his enemies and never hesitated to arrange for brutal torture of any who opposed him. His army was also what one might expect them to be, vile thugs who abused their power over the populace whenever they had the opportunity. (His opposing wizard was even more cruel and power hungry than he was.)

Dianora nearly succeeded at her plan except for one thing. She fell in love with this torturer and tyrant. It would seem she fell in love with his charisma, intelligence and power. At times she hates herself for it, but she can’t stop herself even though she was his slave. I found this presentation of her actions deeply offensive and despite Kay’s obvious efforts to paint “grey areas� of morality for all the characters involved, unconvincing. This could have been a story of Stockholm Syndrome. She was a prisoner and a sex slave, and her father was killed because of this king, and her country laid waste, yet oh my she just couldn’t resist his charms. Bullshit. This could have been a story of Stockholm Syndrome, but it really wasn’t. Instead it was an attempt to convince us that Brandin wasn’t so bad and Dianora deserved sympathy for her internal struggles between her love for Brandin and her feeling of duty and responsibility toward Tigana. Again, I say bullshit. Brandin may have turned around a little bit at the end of the story, but he had no problem torturing his enemies. He deserved zero sympathy let alone her love. I felt like Kay’s approach here was a huge failure and in this age of #MeToo it fails the test of how to write a meaningful story about the relationship between a victim and a powerful male figure. I found the melodrama of it disgusting. (hide spoiler)]

Tigana is a fantasy novel written with literary flare and clever plotting. Unfortunately, the taint of thoughtless patriarchy ruined it for me.