Enchantment

Rating:
Summary: They lived happily every after. NOT!
Review: If the "happily ever after" at the end of fairy tales never left you completely satisfied, then this is the book for you. In "Enchantment", Orson Scott Card takes you beyond the "happily ever after" of the traditional story of Sleeping Beauty. The first few chapters introduce Ivan, a brilliant Russian graduate student living in America, and preparing to write a dissertation about Russian fairy tales. Just when Card's realism had me convinced that this could be a true story, Ivan stumbles across the sleeping princess Katerina, and awakes her with his kiss. But don't think that Card is just borrowing a fairy tale, because the end of the traditional story of Sleeping Beauty is merely the beginning of Card's tale! Ivan quickly discovers that kissing a princess doesn't result in living happily ever after, as he travels back in time to Katerina's world, and becomes involved with her in an epic struggle to defend the kingdom of her father over against the wannabe ruler, the witch Baba Yaga. In the course of this struggle, Ivan and Katerina travel to worlds past and present. This leads to some delightfully cultural comedy, where ninth century Russians get to use gunpowder and molotov cocktails and also have the rare privilege of seeing a 747 jumbo jet enter their world well ahead of its time. Card's story-telling is superb, and his fantastic blend of reality and magic, past and present, is wonderfully entertaining. There is constant suspense, romance, adventure and humour.

But as usual, Card does much more than just tell a good story. His special attention to inner thoughts and struggles and the psychology of human relationships is masterful. In the course of telling his fairy tale, he shares numerous philosophical thoughts about literary theory, psychology, and religion. The clash between cultures achieves more than just comedy, but provides deep insights about the chasm between times, cultures, and religions (especially Judaism and Christianity - both of which are somewhat unfairly portrayed as mere outward rituals entered upon by circumcision or baptism). Card demonstrates that it is possible for two very different individuals from different times and cultures to make a new beginning together in a marriage, although this meeting of cultures cannot occur without both gaining and losing something at the same time.

Especially thought provoking is the fact that Card uses a fairy tale to show that reality is not like the high fantasy of fairy tales, because in the real world that there is no such thing as living happily ever. Is Card satirizing the impossibly high ideals of beauty and happiness that fairy tales normally offer? I quickly found myself laughing at Card's harsh fantasy world, because it was one I recognized: the real world, my world, which in reality is often cold and harsh. We quickly discover that kissing a beautiful princess in the real world is not all it is made out to be. So we can identify with Ivan the naked prince - his shock at the harsh reality of a fairy tale come true (p.90) is our shock at the harsh reality of life.

Perhaps to heighten the effect of a fairy tale that reflects reality rather than fantasy, Card frequently resorts to crude language, and sexually explicit details. Also the portrayal of the witch Baba Yaga and her sidekick Bear was at times unnecessarily morbid. It is undeniable that this contributes to the effect of bringing the fantasy to cold hard earth, but personally I found it unnecessary to go so far in order to create the effect he wanted, and from Card (a Mormon) rather surprising and unexpected. I find it a shame that by employing such language and giving attention to such crude details, Card has made this book suitable only for mature and discerning readers, and made it inappropriate even for older children.

Card also uses the culture contrast between modernity and myth, past and present to criticize contemporary culture. Are Card's comments about the lack of respect for authority and the change in roles between husbands and wives (p.206) an implicit criticism of Western society? And is Ivan a mouthpiece for Card when he makes the observation that contemporary culture focuses on having itself remembered, whereas past culture focuses more on surviving (p.139)? And is the disappointing and harsh fantasy world that first promised so much intended to be a mirror image of life in the USA, which Ivan's Russian immigrant family also found disappointing (p.144)?

These and more questions will amuse you for hours. "Enchantment" is certainly a wonderful marriage of fantasy and reality, past and present, magic and science, pleasure and philosophy. The crude details do leave a bit of a bad aftertaste, but like Ivan and Katerina's marriage, this marriage of modernity and myth in the end proves to be most successful and satisfying

Rating:
Summary: Strong Characters, Magical Story
Review: Another strong effort from Mr. Card, he takes a fairy tale that we all thought we knew and tells an orginal, gripping story.

Enchantment introduces the reader to Vanya at the age of 10. As the Story begins Vanya, Jewish name Itzak Shlomo, and his family are in the process of immigrating to America. Through the help of cousin Marek, they soon depart from the Carpathian mountains and make their way to America. But not before Vanya can wander into the forest near Mareks house. Vanya is about to be circumcized, as is practice for 10 year old Jews, and runs out into the woods. Upon wandering in these woods, Vanya finds a sleeping woman on a pedestal. Vanya is entranced and soon is driven out by his fear of a monster lurking under the leaves surrounding the pedestal, seemingly protecting the sleeping woman. Even as Vanya leaves the forest, he is beginning to tell himself that what he saw was not real.

Vanya and his family leave Russia and get to America, with the help of Cousin Marek. Vanya's father is a well educated linguist, well versed in Old Church Slavonic, and gets a job teaching at an American university. Fast forward about 10 or 15 years and we are given highlights of Vanya's, now IVAN, youth: great track athlete, and follows in dad's linguistic footsteps. Occasional thoughts of the sleeping woman come to Ivan's mind, but he does not think much about it. Ivan also meets Ruthie and falls in love with her, all but proposing to her. Ivan's mother likes Ruthie well enough, but somehow knows that she is not the right person for Ivan and that her son truly does not love Ruthie, despite his pleading. This is all about in the first 50 pages.

Ivan returns to Russia to get a more hands on feel for his linguistic studies and to complete his dissertation. Just before Ivan leaves to come back to America, he stops at Cousin Marek's house for a impulse visit. Ivan is drawn back into the woods and confronts the monster protecting the woman, outracing what turns out to be a Bear and striking him in the eye with a rock. Ivan leaps to the pedestal, and wakes the woman with a kiss. He cannot fully waken her until he agrees to marry her. Hey, anything to save a girl and himself from a hungry bear. Katerina is her name and she happens to speak Old Church Slavonic, a language Ivan happens to be studying. Ivan pieces together that she is sleeping beauty and has to help her save her kingdom from the curse of the evil witch Baba Yaga. Ivan must first face the difficulties of an extreme clash of cultures: Upon waking Katarena, Ivan was thrust into a world seperated from todays world by 1000 years. There are many barriers that Ivan must overcome and aspects of his character that clash with the world he is thrust into. Conflict is one of Card's best storytelling methods and the conflict here is no exception.

After a stay for a few months in Tania, Katarena and Ivan return to Ivan's time to get some help in their struggle against Baba Yaga. After emerging from the woods behind cousin Marek's house Ivan learns only a couple of days have passed in our world. Marek arranges passage again, for the newlyweds to America. When Ivan and Katarena arrive in the airport in America, Ruthie is there to greet them and Ivan mst immediately deal with his former fiancee and his new wife. After some time in our world, where Ivan's parents completely allow Katarena into the family Katarena and Ivan return to Tania for their final confrontation with Baba Yaga.

One of Card's strenghts is that he can really get you believe in his characters, you can be really annoyed by how stubborn they are. The argument dialogues are very engaging and I was able to really empathize with Ivan in his situation.

A strong addition to Card's already substantial and diverse library of titles.

Rating:
Summary: Well done novel, but old theme
Review: The thing about reading science fiction and fantasy is that you, as an author, can take the reader to a place never seen or dreamt of before. Unfortunately, Enchantment doesn't do that. It hashes over old storylines of sleeping beauty and Baba Yaga and simply puts them into a slightly new storyline. The reading was entertaining and kept me involved in the book till the end. I enjoy OSC work (his Ender's Game series is undeniably his best work), and this was good, but not great work. I want to read about things that I couldn't possibly have dreamt of; I want an author to take my mind on a trip that I never thought possible. That is what OSC has done in the past. But here, he takes us into old stories and throws a few twists at us. Sorry, three stars is all I can give it.

Try reading Lord Of the Rings series or the Dune series for truly engaging trips into lands not thought possible. And, of course, read the Ender's Game series and the Foundation series. These are where the strengths in literature lay.

Rating:
Summary: Mortal love against immortal evil.
Review: Young Ivan "Vanya" Smetski never felt quite at home anywhere. When he was 10 years old, his father "rediscovered" his Jewish blood in a gambit to escape the dying Soviet Union, and finally brought the family to the United States. But Ivan was bound to go even farther. When walking through a Ukrainian clearing, he finds a beautiful woman asleep on a pedestal, guarded by a huge bear. Kissing this sleeping beauty awake, he suddenly finds himself whisked off Ninth Century Russia to face the wrath of the princess' enemy, the dreaded Baba Yaga.

This is a truly wonderful book. I quickly found myself locked on the story, setting aside all other reading materials so I could devote all of my time to this book. The characters are interesting, and the storyline is gripping. The author does an excellent job of transporting the reader to another time and place. I recommend this book wholeheartedly.

Rating:
Summary: Partially enchanted with "Enchantment."
Review: Like with a partial derivative, I was partially enchanted with the book -- the cover, that is. Seriously? The story was a bit confusing but OSC allowed the good guys to win in the end ... whch is the only reason why I gave it three stars...

The story is not a well structured fantasy -- the center doesn't hold. Too many inconsistencies. Example: If Bear was stuck in the pit for eleven hundred years and under Baba Yaga's spell, how did he get out and manage to free himself from the witch's spell, AND to thwart Hitler and intervene in all those other evil events? And not only is Sam Kinison dead, dead, Dead! but Johnny Carson's show is also definitely not playing in the 1990's. Try Jay Leno next time you have old folks watching late night TV.

The most glaring error of all is this (unless Uncle OSC was trying for some quantum effect on a macroscopic scale): the main characters were bitching and fretting about when they were to cross over the bridge. You know, the bridge that crosses the twenty-seven or so foot long chasm between the edge of the donut shaped pit to the stone island that's in the MIDDLE of the CIRCULAR pit. I mean, get an IQ, dude! Haven't you ever heard of ignoring the bridge altogether and walking AROUND this circular pit? It's like trying to figure out how you are going to carry back to the car exactly ten gallons of gas using ungraduated containers, while totally ignoring the fact that there is a gas meter on the pumps that figures it all out for you! Stupid is as stupid does, OSC, you Gump!

Combine that turkey layout of the bridge across the donut shaped pit with Ivan's having an immortal god for a relative and maybe an immortal god for a mom, and we have a completely confusing tale that makes one wonder whether OSC wanted to be a Clive Barker here -- not that he is anyone great to follow either. The inclusion of supernatural relatives and such was completely unnecessary. I would also have liked to see a more rounded treatment of the roles and origins of these mythological gods if they were to be included, including how Bear can fight evil while all the while performing evil as well. But, alas and alack, too much time was wasted on Nerd Ivan, what with his pre-adolescent worryings and frettings about sex, as if he were some incredibly immature pimply adolescent. A really trite and dated handling of a key protagonist if there were ever other examples to compare by. Something better reserved for some B flick on a scifi channel, where the writing is usually handled by some brain dead flunky from one of those dilettante California schools for screenwriting and hair design.

Rating:
Summary: A rare chance to be both educated and entertained
Review: As readers of classic Card works such as "Ender's Game" know, Card is a master storyteller, able to create compelling characters, and taut plotlines making it impossible to put down his books. These characters are imbued with powers and abilities surpassing our own, yet their fears and insecurities ring true, emphasizing their essential humanity.

But this isn't just a great story. It's a fascinating portait of life in 10th century Ukraine and of the evolution of folk tales.

Following his own lead in such works as 'Alvin Maker' and 'The Redemption of Christopher Columbus', Card weaves together history and fantasy brilliantly. It might not help you pass a history test, but he makes life in the subject area come alive. Whether it's Medieval Ukraine or Colonial America, he illustrates how many of our everyday conveniences we take for granted.

A delicious read- and nutritious too.

Rating:
Summary: simply enchanting
Review: When I first bought this book i thought it was going to be boring, not for me i'm a teen i don't read fairy tales. Then I thought Card wrote it there must be something to it... I found out that card really is a story teller. Card has made more then a ancient tale with a modern twist but it also has something that can excite the reader and it makes u cheer with all your heart for the charachters hoping that this prayer would make the charachters win the battle. If you are the person that likes aliens and spaceships this probably isn't the book for you but it also has a great battle scene. Don't b caught up in the begining where there is a little too much description.

Rating:
Summary: Delightful. The perfect mix of fantasy and romance.
Review: I loved to watch the love evolve between Ivan and Katerina. I felt that throughout the book, Card knew exactly which parts I'd want to hear more of and less of - and he met my needs. I never got bored with this novel. It was my first Card novel and I will return to his writings again.

Rating:
Summary: A highly unusual and fascinating modern fantasy
Review: This modern retelling of "Sleeping Beauty" is, more importantly, about what happens after the prince kisses the princess and she wakes up. "Happily ever after" is considerably more complex than one might have thought.

Enchantment is a very fresh and unusual novel. It's a page-turning romantic adventure which covers an amazing assortment of new ground with its "magico-realism" depiction of contemporary Ukraine, retired folk deities, Jewish kitchen magic, 10th century Eastern Orthodoxy and the Russian witch Baba Yaga. Bright, fast-paced and very accessible, this may be one of Card's best novels. It should have wide appeal, even to people who don't normally read science fiction or fantasy.

Rating:
Summary: Not so happily ever after...
Review: The gallant prince defeats the monster, kisses the lady, and they live happily ever after, right? Wrong. That all happens in the first fifty pages. Card expands the classical in order to make us question the beatific ending of every good fairy tale. This time-hopping mix of Sleeping Beauty, Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, and countless other well-known stories makes for a delightful read. Card is a master storyteller, and Enchantment is just another masterpiece from a pedigree of genius.