Sigh... Loved it. One of my favorites.

Vanya/Ivan is a son of two worlds. Born and raised Russian, his family converts and as Jews they give everything up and travel to the United States. Growing up American, Ivan is determined to follow in his father's footsteps and become a professor of languages. Before this can be done Ivan knows he must return to his native land to gather the information for his Master's Thesis. While at the home of his Uncle Ivan finds himself drawn to a clearing in the woods he had run from as a child. A clearing that contains a beautiful, sleeping princess and the horrible monster that guards her. Suddenly Ivan finds himself becoming part of the fairy tales he had once studied and that the first kiss to wake a maiden doesn't necessarily instantly ensure a happily ever after. Instead, it is the beginning of a life altering journey to the past and a destiny he had never prepared for.

This is a story that, on many levels, incorporates themes I am unfamiliar with, such as religion and politics from a point of view other than an American one. Despite my unfamiliarity and usual predisposition to avoiding these issues, here I found them fascinating. Probably because they were simply there as part of the story. The author uses these differences and character opinions to drive the story, not preach to the reader. In addition, the character interactions, the resolutions and the epiphanies that weave throughout the story I found to be all quite satisfying. This is probably one of the best fairy tale adaptations I've ever read. There are things which seemed intriguingly familiar, like the comparison of Baba Yaga's home to Howl's Moving Castle and ideas that touched me in a very personal way (noted in my comments). This is one of the few times where my enjoyment of the story outweighed my investment in the characters themselves. Not that they weren't likeable, but it was the overall story that mainly enticed me.

This is certainly a diverse and intelligent fantasy that I enjoyed on many levels and I would highly recommend it. ( )

A fun travel through time and a great love story. ( )

I have not read any other works by Orson Scott Card except an anthology that he put together called "Future on Ice". However, this book has created a thirst in me to read some of his other books.

"Enchantment" is somewhat difficult to describe without giving the entire plot. The book retells the story of Sleeping Beauty but with a twist, as a young Russian Jewish boy finds her. He is frightened by the monster that is protecting her and runs away. Once Ivan is grown up he returns from America to his homeland to work on his dissertation. Curious, he returns to his cousin's farm and finds the sleeping damsel once again except this time he fights the monster (a bit humorous). Of course, Ivan has no idea what he is getting himself into.

This book deals with cultural identity as well as the good versus evil. What I enjoyed the most were the instances of blunt humor. I recommend this book to anyone who wants a good laugh or loves fairytale stories. ( )

I liked this book a lot. Orson Scott Card is simply brilliant at portraying cultural conflict. He shows you how two people or groups can come to the table with different assumptions, how different people can have utterly dissimilar worldviews. This seems like it should be easy to do, but it's not, because no one does it as well as Orson Scott Card.

That said, this book isn't actually the best sample of that in his work, but it was still what caught me most about it. This is the story of if fairy tales were true. Kind of. I've tried summarizing the plot to several people and it invariably sounds kind of stupid out of context, so I won't try here. Essentially, a Ukrainian Jewish folklore scholar gets immersed in his folklore, and it's not as "happily ever after" as one would be lead to believe. It's a great exploration of cultural identity, and great fun if you're familiar with Russian folklore (or folklore in general, but the Russian/ Ukrainian specifics are what gives it life). I was very nearly a folklore grad student, so I really loved it.

A few caveats. This wasn't Card's best work. Fun, but the plot had inherent weaknesses. The action at the end was a bit weak. Also, if you're not familiar with Russian folklore (Baba Yaga, etc.) some things just wouldn't make sense. It's pretty key to already know that Baba Yaga is supposed to have a house that walks on chicken legs, for example, which is not something you'd know just from Disney fairy tale knowledge. Still, if you're even a little familiar, it's great. The strength is in Card's ability to portray the cultural oddity of even one's own cultural identity. Very good, even if it can be a bit silly. ( )