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Reread update: I reread this on audio, and was considering lowering it's score a touch, and then I read the last chapter and a half physically, and nope. Book absolutely rules, and I learned that if I continue to do audio rereads, I will never change a score based on an audio reread. Because I just enjoy good books more physically

Lower Corte by Guy Gavriel Kay is a book that needs to go straight to horny jail, but also straight to my favorite shelf on ŷ������, because damm it was fantastic.

“Tigana, let my memory of
you be like a blade in my
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Tigana is the story set in the palm peninsula, which is based on the period of the Italian renaissance. (Palm instead of boot, haha) This peninsula is dominated by 2 tyrants, Alberico of Barbadior, and Brandin of Ygrath. One of them in the midst of conquering half the land stripped a land of its memory and name using magic. Tigana is the story of the importance of memory, but also the cycle of performing actions for the sake of the dead.

The first thing to mention about this story is that the writing itself is gorgeous. As everyone else says Guy Gavriel Kay is truly among the best prose writers in the genre. The prose is so grandiose, and rich, that it really does add to the story. However this is not a story that needs to be carried by the prose, because it also has compelling characters, and incredibly rich world, interesting themes, and it is just well plotted.

Dianora especially is my favorite character in this book, her character arc, and just everything about her was so well done. It is not top heavy in terms of characters though, lots of the side characters almost feel like main characters just because of how they are fleshed out, and there is a case to be made that the main character is someone who doesn't even get Point of Views.

The other thing to note about the characters, is that they are all horny. All of them. In fact the author said this in the afterward.

"The novelist Milan Kundera fed my emerging theme of oppression and survival with his musings about the relationship between conquered peoples and an unstable sexuality: what I have called "the insurrections of night." The underlying ideas, for me had to do with how people rebel when they can't rebel, how we behave when the world has lost its bearings, and how shattered self-respect can ripple through to the most intimate levels of our lives."

I don't know how I feel about this, but you have being warned, so you can expect it.

“It's the simple truth that mortal men cannot understand why the gods shape events as they do. Why some men and women are cut off in fullest flower, while others live to dwindle into shadows of themselves. Why virtue must sometimes be trampled and evil flourish amidst the beauty of a country garden. Why chance, sheer random chance, plays such an overwhelming role in the life lines and fate lines of men.��

The next part of the novel I want to heap praise on is the handling of the theme of memory. At points through the novel I didn't really buy that the memory of a land was as important as people were saying, and I think by the end it was clear this was deliberate. Early in the novel I thought maybe the author went a bit to far in one direction with the theme he inserted in the text, but it ended up being an incredibly nuanced exploration.

Finally, the ending. I'm not going to say what emotions it got from me, because I think knowing the tone of the ending is a spoiler, and it bothers me when people say in a spoiler free review that an ending is tragic, or happy, or bittersweet. Let it just be said that this is one of the best endings to a novel I have read in a long time. I don't mean the best climax, I mean the best resolution and falling action. Strong emotions were felt, it made me think, and conflicting emotions were felt. You will have to read the novel to get an idea of what they are.

Overall this was maybe the best stand alone fantasy novel that I have ever read, and I give it a 9.3/10