Enchantment

Rating:
Summary: A well-rounded and self-contained story
Review: This book jumped into my hands, as all of Card's work does. And while I have to say that this was not my favorite of his works, I found Enchantment to be a very fulfilling read.

Once again, the author has done his homework. The description of the Smetski family's emigration was quite authentic, and therefore all the more enjoyable. And the story itself does draw from much in Russian folk tradition, although Card wisely refrains from trying to incorporate all Russian fairy tales into one story. I enjoyed the careful consideration of time travel issues, a theme more fully developed in Pastwatch, as well as the exploration of pre-Christian women's rights (as contrasted with Ruthie's 20th century women's lib). I would have liked to have seen greater character development, but with all of the characters in this story that would have been a Herculean task.

All in all, I heartily recommend this book, to Card fans or anyone interested in the genre.

Rating:
Summary: A RUSSIAN FAIRY TALE
Review: Orson Scott Card is right on target with this one. Ivan Smetski is out walking one day in the forest near his uncles' farm in the Ukraine. He comes across a glade and sees the most beautiful woman in the world laying on a pedastal in the middle of the glade. He walks toward the glade, feels a malevolent prescence and scrams. The next day Ivan and his family move to New York where Ivan grows into manhood. Ivan never forgets about this glade in the wood in the Ukraine and is inevitably drawn back to it while doing research on his dissertation on Russian fairy tales. The glade is still there, the girl is still there and so is the evil presence. Will Ivan finally work up the courage to rescue the girl of his dreams?

This is a wonderful story of love, sacrifice and trust.

Rating:
Summary: somwhat disappointing.
Review: This novel is hard to rate because some parts are so very good, and some other parts are so uninspired. This tale of sleeping buety in the Urkraine has its moments, but in the end I found it failed to really deliver. I felt that Card really wanted to tell a story with these characters, but just couldn't quite find one that fit right. These characters are too deep and to involved for any of them to really be in a fairy tale. Card tries to make the world realistic while still keeping a fairy tale plot where everything will be okay if you believe hard enough. All of the momentum that is developed in the beginning of the novel is lost tring to set up series of events that are either not believable or not true to the tone of the book. What results is the last three or four chapters felt like an uninspired fatasy book that knows its telling a story thats been told before, and told better.

This isn't to say the book doesn't have redeming qualities. The first half of the book is simply excellent, Card develops a character in Ivan that lives up to his talent as an author. The rest of the book has its flashes of being something greater, but keeps being draged down by a plot that just doesn't quite ring true.

Rating:
Summary: Enchanting read
Review: This is the first Orson Scott Card book I've ever picked up. I was intrigued with the idea of an updated SLEEPING BEAUTY and was not dissapointed. Mr. Card is a master storyteller. I fell in love with the characters without being drug through chapter after chapter of back history. He's quick to the point and keeps the action and conflict going. Enchantment is a modern day fairly tale that will bring out the child in you. If you can't find your inner child once in a while, then skip it and grab a rope.

Rating:
Summary: Local showers
Review: "Enchantment" is really rather less than enchanting - it is frustrating. It's a masterpiece with a flaw, like a beautiful boy with a goiter. The story itself is a masterpiece of about 100 pages, which is terminally flawed with another 300 pages of unbelievably bad filler. The whole sequence about the hero wearing woman's clothing is a dead duck of the purest water. Likewise the part where the male hero tries to live in the past. The very interesting bits, which make this novel worth its while, are where the female hero comes to present-day America; and where the reader suddenly realises that magic may still be at large in the present time. "Enchantment" shows all the signs of a story told in the wrong way. Card rushes into the main storyline in a few pages, and the ending likewise feels like a bad case of story diarrhoea. The middle bit is questionable in the extreme. This is probably a very good example of research taking over a story. It's certainly not a good example of storytelling.

Rating:
Summary: Superb Storytelling
Review: I thoroughly enjoyed Orson Scott Card's recreation of the fairy tale "Sleeping Beauty" in his book Enchantment. The main character, Ivan Semetski, discovers a beautiful young woman sleeping on a pedestal in the middle of a perfectly round chasm when he was 10 years old. After this experience, he can never forget that chasm, even after he moves away. He returns to the chasm as a college graduate and rescues Katerina. He then travels to her world in 890 C.E. and trains to become a knight so he can lead the people in war when he is king. During this time, Ivan learns about his fiance's culture and her contempt for him. Escaping an assassination attempt right after their marriage, Ivan and Katerina travel to his world in modern 20th century. Here, Katerina learns about people like Ivan and learns to love him. They then return to the Kingdom of Taina to try and defeat Katerina's country's worst enemy.

Card made this book a fun read through his use of words in describing different challenges to the protagonist, both moral and physical. His control of scenery and portrayal of characters is exceptional, although, like everyone, he has room to improve. His books make you want to try your hand at writing, to see if you, too, can produce such marvelous works.

Rating:
Summary: Sputtering cauldron of mediocrity
Review: OSC is just far more capable than this.

Oddly for me, this was a page-turner, but a wholly unsatisfying one. Like frantically trying to sink your teeth into cotton candy before it melts to syrup in your mouth. I felt there was too much reliance on the "Train of thought" narrative mechanism which has become OSC's mainstay. So much of the 415 pages of this novel are filled with torturous vagaries and switchbacks tracing the internal monologues of these characters. There is extreme implausibility ( suspension of disbelief is one thing, but characters must act reasonably..the whole Picnic thing is laughable. Simple guilt does not explain inviting a jilted lover to your home...especially when you KNOW BY is in town! ) There are many "modern" references...the Pointer Sisters, Bruce Cockburn, Sam Kinison. These "cultural artifacts" tacitly state that OSC considers this throwaway work, to be forgotten soon enough for the already dated references to be irrelevant. Furthermore, these darn things just make OSC seem dorky and sloppy. I, personally don't like any of the artists mentioned, and hearing "He's So Shy" as the backdrop on the night Ivan and Katerina come to know one another.

Most annoyingly, Ivan, a man with a God as a cousin and an adept witch as his mother, has no redeeming qualities other that a little athleticism and a lesson or two in first aid. He is a booding adolescent who kvetches, whines, and thinks himself more clever than he is. His character develops, but only as an adjunct to Katerina. I certainly unerstand and applaud the feminist argument, but then let Katerina have the promising parentage. Ivan is no mensch.

Please, if you have not already, read Ender's Game for a taste of what OSC can do when he's not thinking about his next royalty check.

Rating:
Summary: An interesting twist on a well-known fairy tale
Review: This was a very interesting variation of a fairy tale. It was so different that I wouldn't presume to compare it to sleeping beauty, but that is the story that it most resembles. Ivan, a young boy fleeing Communist Russia with his parents, discovers a clearing covered with leaves in the ancient Carpathian forests when he is staying with his cousin. He sees a bump in the middle. A breeze shifts the dense layer of leaves that covers it, and the beautiful face of a sleeping princess shows underneath the leaves. Ivan starts to step forward to look closer, but the leaves shift to show a sheer drop. Not only that, but an ominous rustling of the leaves shows something moving towards where Ivan is. He runs, and determines never to go back.

Years later, working on his degree, Ivan travels from America to where he lived in Russia. He researches for about a year, and decides to visit his cousin before he heads back to America. After a few days, he can no longer stand not knowing if he was delusional or not when he saw the clearing, so he visits it once more. Nothing has changed, and he decides that this time, the ominous rustling under the leaves is not going to scare him off. He runs around the clearing again and again, his hidden pursuer following him. Every time he goes around, more leaves drift off of the surface, until at last he can see his follower; an enormous bear, that is quite apparently intelligent.

After a rather amusing ordeal with the bear, Ivan jumps across the wide chasm separating him from the pillar where the princess lies. He kisses her, and when she wakes up, the bear is clawing up the pillar, trying to attack the pair. The princess asks him to marry her in a very ancient dialect, that Ivan, as a student of ancient dialects like his father, understands. With the bear towering over them, he has little choice, so he asks her to marry him. The bear disappears, and a bridge appears. Ivan begins to cross it, and the princess begins to cross one that he cannot see. She insists that he cross with her, so he does. When he gets to the other side, it is many years in the past, and he has to deal with a medieval witch of fairy tales; Baba Yaga.

Card had to do a lot of research and have a lot of knowledge about ancient Russia, different languages, and present-day Russia to write this book, for which I greatly respect him. However, this book has a cynical overtone which I dislike, and it champions superstition. Even though the story was excellent, this book left a bad taste in my mouth after I finished it.

Rating:
Summary: Card is a Genius
Review: When I read the back cover, I was immediately interested, but it wasn't until I read the actual book did I realize what an absolute genius Orson Scott Card is to have written a book combining ancient Russian folklore, religion, and modern times. Somehow he managed to find parallels between our world and the things that could only have been conjured up using magic so many centuries ago. Also I thought it was clever to twist in a fairy tale with a modern love story to make it appealing to many generations, old to young.

I had the fortune of having read some childrens' Russian fairy tales when I was younger and now I wish to go back and read them again. It might help to read a book of Russian fairy tales, before or after you read this, and it will amaze you further. Specifically, read Ivan and the Firebird, the Frog Princess, and Katerina Katerina.

Rating:
Summary: Completely Enchanting
Review: "Enchantment" gets my vote for book of the year. I read it last January and it still impresses me. Most of the time I can't sit still long enough to read a book for long stretches of time but this one had me hooked. At first it was a little slow starting out. I wasn't sure if it was going anywhere. Then when Katerina took Ivan into her world the magic began. From that point on nothing could keep me away from it. I love how the author wove ancient Russian folklore into a modern day context. The novel really paints Russia in a different light than the normal news stories you here about the oppresion of Russian people. It almost fooled me into wanting to visit there!