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hudsonpeeps's review against another edition
4.0
I really liked this book. I thought it was different and engaging. And it had a talking bear and a witch - so I'm in. I also loved how Sleeping Beauty wasn't a helpless princess.
books4biana's review against another edition
4.0
I was challenged to read a book with magic. Now, that's not hard....it's a very popular genre these days and I probably own about 10 magically books on my own personal book shelf. But I wanted it to be different. Not the traditional, expected answers. I haven't read Tolkien and this would be a great time to do so, but it didn't feel right. So I sought out new and non traditional answers. Enter Orson Scott Card.
Last year I read Ender's Game. I wanted to see the movie and knew that it would be woefully incomplete. But I wanted to see the movie. So I prepared by reading the book. (It went wonderfully, thanks for asking) Since then, I had not ventured back to any of his books. This was unlike Ender's Game so now i'm curious about more of this stuff!
One of my favorite genres, I guess you would say, is the twisted fairy tales. I like stories that i've known inside and out for decades to be revisited and represented. I think that this story started there, a simple Sleeping Beauty with a beast guarding her sleeping form. But it turned into Russian folklore, which I'm NOT familiar with. WONDERFUL.
I will admit that the ending was pretty predictable. But I didn't even mind.
Last year I read Ender's Game. I wanted to see the movie and knew that it would be woefully incomplete. But I wanted to see the movie. So I prepared by reading the book. (It went wonderfully, thanks for asking) Since then, I had not ventured back to any of his books. This was unlike Ender's Game so now i'm curious about more of this stuff!
One of my favorite genres, I guess you would say, is the twisted fairy tales. I like stories that i've known inside and out for decades to be revisited and represented. I think that this story started there, a simple Sleeping Beauty with a beast guarding her sleeping form. But it turned into Russian folklore, which I'm NOT familiar with. WONDERFUL.
I will admit that the ending was pretty predictable. But I didn't even mind.
melissasbookshelf's review against another edition
4.0
I enjoyed this book. I give it 3 1/2 stars (rounded it up to 4). If you like Russian fairytales, this is the book for you. My husband speaks Russian and is always having me read different Russian books by Gogol, Puskin, Bulgakov, etc. I have grown to love the satire and symbolism of Russian authors. I think Orson Scott Card did a great job of bringing the old Russian fairytales and lore to life in this mixture of modern day with the past. Baba Yaga was hilarious! There is a little bit of language and adult situations/humor, but on the whole it was an enjoyable read.
I listened to this book on my MP3 player and LOVED it! The actors who read the story were fabulous and really made the story and characters come to life. Loved their accents and phrasing. They reminded me of Topol and Norma Crane who played in the movie version of Fiddler on the Roof.
I listened to this book on my MP3 player and LOVED it! The actors who read the story were fabulous and really made the story and characters come to life. Loved their accents and phrasing. They reminded me of Topol and Norma Crane who played in the movie version of Fiddler on the Roof.
brandypainter's review against another edition
5.0
In Enchantment Orson Scott Card weaves together Russian folklore, mythology, history and language in a beautiful retelling of "The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood". The prose is lyrical but has a tongue in cheek humor at the same time. I LOVED this book. The copy I read was from the library but I will be purchasing my own copy because I just can't let it go. If you like good storytelling of any kind this is a brilliant book.
The hardcover version of this book is 387 pages long. Encompassed in those pages is a complex story invoking ancient myth and lore about characters who are so alive they almost come off the page. I could not write all that I loved about this book without this becoming almost as long as the book itself. You should really just go and read it for yourself.
The hardcover version of this book is 387 pages long. Encompassed in those pages is a complex story invoking ancient myth and lore about characters who are so alive they almost come off the page. I could not write all that I loved about this book without this becoming almost as long as the book itself. You should really just go and read it for yourself.
kendralu's review against another edition
4.0
This was my first foray into the world of Orson Scott Card. Wait a minute...not true. I read Saints somewhere around 1994, and I absolutely hated it. Now that it has been fifteen years or so, I gave Mr Card another go round and was extremely pleased with the result. I found this Sleeping Beauty adaptation interesting and entertaining. In short, this was a great bathtub read.
abeckstrom's review against another edition
4.0
Very enjoyable book. Appropriate for anyone who likes happily ever after. Nice blend of Russian Fairy Tales and modern Fantasy.
meeghanreads's review against another edition
5.0
Before I get into my review of this story, I just need to say that this book is the epitome of comfort to me. My copy, which I bought when I was 17, is now 17 years old - and it smells like those beautiful old books you pick up. Musky and of slightly aged paper. This story is more than a book to me, it's a friend.
Enchantment tells the story of a young Ukrainian boy (Ivan), who one day while visiting his uncle's farm wanders into a strange clearing in the woods and finds an unexpected sight. In front of him is a young woman who appears to be sleeping, but she is surrounded by a moat of leaves. He calls out to her and awakens a monster who seems to chase him from this moat. Understandable, he runs away and doesn't speak of this event.
Not long afterwards, Ivan's family moves from Kiev to the United States, and Ivan grows up, and never thinks of the strange statue-like woman again. That is until he returns to the Ukraine and his uncle's farm as a PhD student, and once again accidentally finds the clearing in the woods.
The events that transpire following this are a modern take on the sleeping beauty fairy tale, mixed in with traditional Slavic folklore. The story itself is beautifully woven together to create a rich tapestry of fable and modern day reality, and builds this conceptual idea that maybe fairy tales can come true.
The genre is part love story, part drama, some science fiction, generous legendary myth, but primarily epic fantasy adventure. In fact, the way that Card has written this explains some of what was considered strange about the folklore to begin with - like Baba Yaga's moving house on chicken legs. The complete package to this, including the final chapter, which is more of an epilogue, brings all of it together seamlessly into a wonderful story.
The characters of the story, primarily Ivan and Katerina, are fulsome and rich. But it is the supporting characters, such as Bear, Sergei, Dimitri, Ruth and the villainous Baba Yaga herself, that really show the depth of Card's story-telling ability.
The scenery in the books and the level of detail that Card provides creates visions in your imagination that has made me want to travel to eastern Europe for as long as I can remember. Or, more importantly, visit Tania.
All in all, this is one of my favourite fantasy novels, and I would recommend it to anyone.
♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ - 10/10 hearts
Enchantment tells the story of a young Ukrainian boy (Ivan), who one day while visiting his uncle's farm wanders into a strange clearing in the woods and finds an unexpected sight. In front of him is a young woman who appears to be sleeping, but she is surrounded by a moat of leaves. He calls out to her and awakens a monster who seems to chase him from this moat. Understandable, he runs away and doesn't speak of this event.
Not long afterwards, Ivan's family moves from Kiev to the United States, and Ivan grows up, and never thinks of the strange statue-like woman again. That is until he returns to the Ukraine and his uncle's farm as a PhD student, and once again accidentally finds the clearing in the woods.
The events that transpire following this are a modern take on the sleeping beauty fairy tale, mixed in with traditional Slavic folklore. The story itself is beautifully woven together to create a rich tapestry of fable and modern day reality, and builds this conceptual idea that maybe fairy tales can come true.
The genre is part love story, part drama, some science fiction, generous legendary myth, but primarily epic fantasy adventure. In fact, the way that Card has written this explains some of what was considered strange about the folklore to begin with - like Baba Yaga's moving house on chicken legs. The complete package to this, including the final chapter, which is more of an epilogue, brings all of it together seamlessly into a wonderful story.
The characters of the story, primarily Ivan and Katerina, are fulsome and rich. But it is the supporting characters, such as Bear, Sergei, Dimitri, Ruth and the villainous Baba Yaga herself, that really show the depth of Card's story-telling ability.
The scenery in the books and the level of detail that Card provides creates visions in your imagination that has made me want to travel to eastern Europe for as long as I can remember. Or, more importantly, visit Tania.
All in all, this is one of my favourite fantasy novels, and I would recommend it to anyone.
♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ - 10/10 hearts
lmclaren113's review against another edition
4.0
This modern fairy tale is Sleeping Beauty mixed with Back to the Future. But in Russia. Ivan and Katerina go back and forth between ancient Russia and present-day New York trying to save themselves and Katerina's people from the terror of Baba Yaga. The plot sounds rather cliche when put that way, but the details make this a great read if you don't mind sticking it out for 400+ pages.
ratgirlreads's review against another edition
3.0
Orson Scott Card’s novel Enchantment is a fascinating ancient fairy tale, told with all the minute detail and character development of a modern novel, enmeshed into the setting of first Soviet Russia and then America of the early 1990s. As with much of his writing, it is the moral dilemmas and introspection of the characters that set Card’s books apart from much of the other speculative fiction published today.
Some aspects of the morality ascribed to the characters, and particularly the main character Ivan, are difficult to explain upon close examination. Ivan spends his childhood in the Soviet Union, raised by parents who do not seem to miss the option to have a religious affiliation. When they decide to draw on his mother’s Jewish heritage to believably convert to Judaism, it is clearly not because of any religious beliefs, but because it is a practical means to get visas to leave the USSR. Although they seem to maintain connections to the Jewish community once they are safely in the US, no mention of actual religious practice is made. And yet, Ivan firmly holds Judeo-Christian beliefs about marriage, which he unwaveringly applies both in his refusal to sleep with his fiancée Ruth (which surprises even his parents, suggesting that they had inculcated no such beliefs in him) and in his politically convenient marriage to Katerina, even though the nature of that marriage does not dovetail with the kind of marriage Ivan expected to make. His belief causes him much agonizing over how to act rightly, especially with Katerina, as their relationship develops, which enriches the story while giving the reader a high opinion of the moral rectitude of the main character. This closer examination, however, suggests that Card is trying to portray Ivan’s beliefs, coming from no clear cultural source, as natural to all humans.
Another belief seems even less explicable—upon arriving in Taina, a society in which literacy is rare and not highly valued, and in which men are judged solely by their strength and skill with axe and sword, Ivan, a Ph.D student and decathlete, almost immediately begins to judge himself by Taina’s standards. This may simply be an indication that Ivan struggles with low self-esteem—Katerina, to whom he feels drawn, is dismissive of him for failing to meet Taina’s standards, and he is constantly surrounded by people whose lives are unquestioningly based on them. However, before coming to Taina, he did not seem particularly lacking in self-esteem—he was his father’s “most apt pupil” and had published papers in respected journals. He was a talented, college-level athlete, and he seems proud of all these accomplishments. Once in Taina, however, he seems to rate his exceptional skill with languages and his long-distance running as nothing as soon as he sees men in armor waving swords also rating it as nothing. With all his understanding of the differences 1,100 makes in a culture, he still criticizes his past life as cowardly, asking his father upon his return journey to his own time why he was never trained to use a sword growing up in the 1970s, even though it was the very skills he was trained in that enabled him to rescue and communicate with Katerina. When Ivan gives himself up to training as a swordsman, even knowing that the time required to develop the skill is so great as to bar him from usefulness for many years, it contributes to a tone suggestive that war is somehow an essential part of human culture in which all men must participate to be worthwhile.
Ivan seems to take a more confident, practical, and less dim view of things when making the choice between nudity and protection from the elements. However, it is impossible not to call to mind Card’s well-known views on homosexuality, highlighted by the response to his Superman stories, when reading of the universal repulsion and religious taboo the people of Taina feel about him wrapping himself up in a garment sewn to be worn differently by a woman, for the purpose of avoiding skin lacerations walking through the forest. Though Ivan champions a more practical view of the event, he utterly fails to persuade anyone else that blood loss is not preferable to wearing clothing intended for the other sex. He even acknowledges that the practice would be “strange” in other circumstances, even in his own culture. While any reader must wholeheartedly sympathize with the shivering Ivan as he struggles to follow Katerina in the nude, the very extremity of the situation seems intended to highlight the unnaturalness of wearing clothing culturally proscribed for the opposite gender Card could be supposed to feel.
Nevertheless, the complexity of the story and the inclusion of extant gods aside from the Christian one suggest that the book is more than just a showcase of the Mormon Card’s own beliefs. The story is rich and compelling, and entirely satisfying with or without an examination of the morality behind the characters’ development. The book is certainly a worthwhile read a worthy addition to the fairy tale genre.
garnetofeden's review against another edition
3.0
Due to heinous actions on the part of the author, I am unable to recommend their work. Original review below.
I first read this book several years ago and liked it, but when I reread it recently I discovered it had more layers and depth to it than I ever got the first time. What initially attracted me was that it involves a retelling of Sleeping Beauty. However, Orson Scott Card goes far beyond a simple retelling by throwing in elements of fantasy (magic) and science fiction (time travel). It is an anthropological and religious commentary on ethnocentrism and culture shock.
Last finished 1/15/2011. Rating reviewed 7/6/2023.
I first read this book several years ago and liked it, but when I reread it recently I discovered it had more layers and depth to it than I ever got the first time. What initially attracted me was that it involves a retelling of Sleeping Beauty. However, Orson Scott Card goes far beyond a simple retelling by throwing in elements of fantasy (magic) and science fiction (time travel). It is an anthropological and religious commentary on ethnocentrism and culture shock.
Last finished 1/15/2011. Rating reviewed 7/6/2023.