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A review by theseventhl
Enchantment: A Classic Fantasy with a Modern Twist by Orson Scott Card
4.0
This review was originally posted here at Anime Radius.
With a title like Enchantment, various images may come to mind. Certainly magic will be part of it, things like books containing spells and people in long robes waving wands over beautifully sleeping women. Well, there’s a sleeping woman, and she is beautiful probably, but that is pretty much it. This is not your typical fantasy novel, but one entrenched in the tales of Russian mythology that incorporates magic and human drama with a splash of romance for flavor.
The story itself seems simple on the surface: unwitting man awakens princess from a thousand-year slumber, goes on righteous quest to save her kingdom. Except that the man is no knight in shining armor but a scholar who happens to be a fast runner and good with the discus. Add in all the political intrigue and drama that permeates the country of Taina, and the emotional drama of Ivan as he struggles to balance his new life with his life back home, with his family and fiancée, not to mention a slick time travel subplot, and suddenly this story isn’t so simple anymore. With all these threads running through the story, it takes a master writer like Card to keep them woven together and still makes sense. The fact that he is able to do so, immerse the reader in the history and mythology of old world Russia, and still present a riveting tale is a true testament to his skill.
In fact, the only thing about Enchantment that truly bothered me was the alarming amount of negative and condescending attitude towards females in the narrative, especially when it came from Ivan concerning either Katerina or Ruthie. He seems like a rather open-minded college educated young man until he meets Katerina, who disappoints his inner ideals of what a princess is: someone sweet and docile and nicer than anyone else. Katerina, in turn, is outspoken and stubborn and doesn’t take Ivan’s guff for one second. His thoughts about Katerina seem as if he is speaking down to her on a constant basis and that she isn’t smart enough to understand him. For example, when Katerina crosses into his world and is adapting to modern times, Ivan’s narrative is continually thinking of her as less than bright for her reactions to technology, despite the fact that Ivan was equally clueless in Taina. In fact, it seems like the only female character that didn’t have issues is Sophia; in the end, Ruthie turned into a shrew bent on revenge and Baba Yaga was a mad old woman who could only attract a mate through spells. I’m not saying that Card’s fiction has issues with female characters, but from what I’ve read so far, it’s not a cheery picture of his understanding of the mind and actions of a woman.
Having said all that, Baba Yaga is a gem of a character as the main villain, coupled together with the bear god who is sworn to her through secret magic. She is treacherous and clever and conniving and everything that makes a villain great. There’s also the fact that the scenes in which Baba Yaga casts her dark magic are wonderful to read, even when her actions are horrifying in scope (see what she does to a whole planet full of people as an example of her might).
The ending of Enchantment does a good job of wrapping up all the loose ends presented through the narrative, although some things seem to fall flat on conclusion. The best part of the end is what happens to Ivan and Katerina, and how this couple handles being two people torn between two different times, past and present. It certainly makes the reader wonders what will happen next to them – and that’s the best kind of ending you can have, something open with plenty of possibilities for the cast ahead.
With a title like Enchantment, various images may come to mind. Certainly magic will be part of it, things like books containing spells and people in long robes waving wands over beautifully sleeping women. Well, there’s a sleeping woman, and she is beautiful probably, but that is pretty much it. This is not your typical fantasy novel, but one entrenched in the tales of Russian mythology that incorporates magic and human drama with a splash of romance for flavor.
The story itself seems simple on the surface: unwitting man awakens princess from a thousand-year slumber, goes on righteous quest to save her kingdom. Except that the man is no knight in shining armor but a scholar who happens to be a fast runner and good with the discus. Add in all the political intrigue and drama that permeates the country of Taina, and the emotional drama of Ivan as he struggles to balance his new life with his life back home, with his family and fiancée, not to mention a slick time travel subplot, and suddenly this story isn’t so simple anymore. With all these threads running through the story, it takes a master writer like Card to keep them woven together and still makes sense. The fact that he is able to do so, immerse the reader in the history and mythology of old world Russia, and still present a riveting tale is a true testament to his skill.
In fact, the only thing about Enchantment that truly bothered me was the alarming amount of negative and condescending attitude towards females in the narrative, especially when it came from Ivan concerning either Katerina or Ruthie. He seems like a rather open-minded college educated young man until he meets Katerina, who disappoints his inner ideals of what a princess is: someone sweet and docile and nicer than anyone else. Katerina, in turn, is outspoken and stubborn and doesn’t take Ivan’s guff for one second. His thoughts about Katerina seem as if he is speaking down to her on a constant basis and that she isn’t smart enough to understand him. For example, when Katerina crosses into his world and is adapting to modern times, Ivan’s narrative is continually thinking of her as less than bright for her reactions to technology, despite the fact that Ivan was equally clueless in Taina. In fact, it seems like the only female character that didn’t have issues is Sophia; in the end, Ruthie turned into a shrew bent on revenge and Baba Yaga was a mad old woman who could only attract a mate through spells. I’m not saying that Card’s fiction has issues with female characters, but from what I’ve read so far, it’s not a cheery picture of his understanding of the mind and actions of a woman.
Having said all that, Baba Yaga is a gem of a character as the main villain, coupled together with the bear god who is sworn to her through secret magic. She is treacherous and clever and conniving and everything that makes a villain great. There’s also the fact that the scenes in which Baba Yaga casts her dark magic are wonderful to read, even when her actions are horrifying in scope (see what she does to a whole planet full of people as an example of her might).
The ending of Enchantment does a good job of wrapping up all the loose ends presented through the narrative, although some things seem to fall flat on conclusion. The best part of the end is what happens to Ivan and Katerina, and how this couple handles being two people torn between two different times, past and present. It certainly makes the reader wonders what will happen next to them – and that’s the best kind of ending you can have, something open with plenty of possibilities for the cast ahead.