Tigana: Final thoughts and spoiler thread

[Traveller]

Okay, here is a thread for you Tigana finishers to fraternize in. :P

[Puddin Pointy-Toes]

I rather liked Tigana---quite a bit, in fact. It didn't have the scale of his later works, but I appreciated that, unlike later works and particularly Under Heaven, the story generally followed traditional Anglo narrative structure. There was no silly twist at the end: the ending is what you expect it to be, so it's pleasant and comforting, and the details hold interest.

The writing is overall nothing too fancy, but it's not without its flairs. There is one passage near the end of the book which made me smile:

It seemed that the Barbadians had gone wild.
Finding the poisoned Ygrathen knife on the floor by Anghiar’s body, hearing what the woman cried before she leaped, they had leaped themselves—to all the murderously obvious conclusions.

My only complaint of any weight would be that Alberico takes a back seat and is relegated to near-complete obscurity after our initial encounter with him. After such wonderful passages like:

Alberico’s bald skull gleamed in the firelight. He drew his hands from the pockets of his robe. ‘I would have wine,’ he demanded, gesturing with a meaty palm.

And this:

Alberico slapped him meatily across the face with an open hand.

Albertico becomes nothing more than a ditherer in the shadow of Brandin, and I found that unfortunate.

Still, that's a small gripe compared to the wonder which is the Ring Dive scene. The different perspectives during that scene each provide a colourful, engrossing view into the excitement of the day. It was interesting, also, to see the preconceptions of the characters colouring events. In particular Devin:

Even when she began to walk the silence held. Moving slowly, she passed among the throngs assembled in the square, seeming almost oblivious to them. Devin was too far away to see her face clearly yet, but he was suddenly conscious of a terrible beauty and grace. It is the ceremony, he told himself; it is only because of where she is. He saw Danoleon behind her, moving among the other escorts, towering above them.
And then, moved by some instinct, he turned from them to Brandin of Ygrath on the pier. The King was nearer to him and he had the right angle. He could see how the man watched the woman approach. His face was utterly expressionless. Icy cold.
He’s calculating the situation, Devin thought. The numbers, the chances. He’s using all of this—the woman, the ritual, everyone gathered here with so much passion in them—for a purely political end. He realized that he despised the man for that, over and above everything else: hated him for the blank, emotionless gaze with which he watched a woman approach to risk her life for him. By the Triad, he was supposed to be in love with her!

After the Ring Dive was over I felt rather sad that Stevan had died, that Brandin had felt compelled to be so completely unforgiving to Tigana. Without an outside force such as Brandin, someone immune to the traps of regional pride, the Palm could return to its old pattern very easily.

In any case, I feel enriched having read Tigana. I hope I'm not alone in this.