Enchantment,
by Orson Scott Card

This book was brought to my attention by a co-worker - the same co-worker, in fact, who lent me Artemis Fowl. She was very surprised that a lover of fantasy and science fiction had never read any of Orson Scott Card's stuff and sought to rectify the situation with Card's fantasy Enchantment, an Old Russian variant of the Sleeping Beauty tale. The concept: in the Carpathian forest, a young boy named (appropriately enough) Ivan stumbles upon a leaf-filled pit where an eerie malevolent presence deters him from reaching a pedestal upon which lies a beautiful sleeping girl. Years later, Ivan, now an upstate New York scholar of Slavic languages and folklore, returns to Russia to research ancient manuscripts - on the surface. Underneath, he is really much more interested in the adventure (or was it a dream?) of his boyhood that he had never really forgotten...

Ivan's quest to awaken the sleeping beauty of old unexpected leads him into the ninth century - not what he truly had in mind, since, as he says, "only a fool would want to live through the Russian version of any fairy tale." Seems the Russians had a little trouble with the whole "Happily ever after" concept.

Enchantment does two opposite things remarkably well - it tells a tale of magic in the fine, old dreamy style of old-fashioned fairy tales, yet somehow keeps a sharp modern edge. The traditional characters are wonderfully imperfect, and there's plenty of opportunity for comic relief when strangers from another century go time-hopping and must keep to the rules of fairy tale magic when trying to work out their problems.

Card handled eight viewpoints with ease, though of course the dominant ones were Ivan, Princess Katerina, and the witch, Baba Yaga. Though I am unfamiliar with Russian culture and folklore, I found the author's version of Baba Yaga an entirely believable (and often hilarious) believable villain, and I was delighted that her viewpoint was portrayed throughout the story.

When I read the back cover, I was immediately intrigued - and impressed. I had never heard of Card before, but without having read any of his stuff I already knew he'd been willing to take on a daunting task many writers would elect to stay well away from - take a traditional fairy tale, stay true to the basic story line, modernize it, and do it without being cheesy. Card not only did a sturdy job at this (true, he did come dangerously near cheese a number of times), but also managed to write a book which a) combines ancient Russian folklore b) religion c) contemporary issues. He also drew a parallel between the modern world and the things that could only have been conjured up using magic so many centuries ago (while keeping true to the traditional folklore).

January, 2002