Indeed, the novel does double duty as a survival manual, packed full of good advice-for instance, try not to get wounded, for “injury turns you from a giver to a taker. Brooks places the epicenter of the Bigfoot war in a high-tech hideaway populated by the kind of people you might find in a Jurassic Park franchise: the schmo who doesn’t know how to do much of anything but tries anyway, the well-intentioned bleeding heart, the know-it-all intellectual who turns out to know the wrong things, the immigrant with a tough backstory and an instinct for survival. A volcanic eruption is quite another, for, as the journalist who does a framing voice-over narration for Brooks’ latest puts it, when Mount Rainier popped its cork, “it was the psychological aspect, the hyperbole-fueled hysteria that had ended up killing the most people.” Maybe, but the sasquatches whom the volcano displaced contributed to the statistics, too, if only out of self-defense. A bravura performance, nearly impossible to put down unfinished anywhere in the last 300 pages odds are we'll see it on more than one award ballot next year.Īre we not men? We are-well, ask Bigfoot, as Brooks does in this delightful yarn, following on his bestseller World War Z (2006).Ī zombie apocalypse is one thing. Knowledgeable readers will spot parallels with classical Greece and medieval Italy, but (unlike 'Fionavar') there is very little that's derivative here. Kay has spun a richly sensuous fantasy world, full of evocative history, religions, folklore, local customs, and magical rites. These plot threads build to a convincing climax, but the novel's colorful setting nearly steals the show. Meanwhile, unknown to anyone, Brandin's favorite concubine is a daughter of Tigana's, also sworn to kill him, but unable to act against him. Posing as traveling musicians, then as merchants, the small group of conspirators lays its plans and gathers its strength until the time is right. Fifteen years later, a few who escaped the subsequent bloodbath are sworn to kill Brandin, restoring the province to its rightful name and the exiled heir Alessan to its throne.

Enraged, Brandin sends a greater force to crush Tigana, then casts a spell to obliterate the province from human memory only those born there before its fall can ever hear its name spoken. Resisting an invasion, the province of Tigana defeats the armies of the sorcerer-king Brandin, killing his son. The setting is The Palm, a peninsula broken into small rival states each with its own Duke. Kay is probably best known for his neo-Arthurian trilogy, 'The Fionavar Tapestry,' which drew mixed notices this big new novel should establish him as an important independent voice.

Tigana by guy gavriel kay