Althought when I think of Card I automatically think of his scifi books, it’s definitely the fantasy stuff he’s written that I prefer. I’ve read this book previously, and loved it. But that was years ago, so I decided to revisit it for my third book of the Once Upon a Time Challenge.
For the first few years of his life, Ivan grew up in Russia, until his parents decide to move to America. Now, years later, Ivan is back in Russia, studying Russian folk tales. He never expected to actually live through them, but that’s what happens when his kiss awakens Katerina (Sleeping Beauty). He is forced into her world – centuries before his own time – and has to help the people there defeat Baba Yaga, the evil witch who put the spell on Katerina in the first place.
Of course, helping the people in Katerina’s village isn’t as easy as one would hope. Imagine planning on being a scholar for the rest of your life, and then being thrown into a group of people who lived centuries before you, work in the field all day, and where the only people who don’t do manual labour all day are men of the church. It’s a society so different than our own, and all these people consider Ivan to be a weakling, who by our standards today he is quite athletic. Needless to say, they have a lot of prejudices towards Ivan and don’t make his adjustment to this new time easy.
I really liked how the character development went in this book. Especially Katerina’s. She starts off coming across as a little snooty, and thinks Ivan’s completely stupid. Once they go back into his world, however, and she realizes exactly how different things are in the two times, she starts to get more compassionate.
One thing that always bothers me, though, is when people (or characters in this case) put themselves through so much pain because they don’t communicate with each other. (And that is one of the reasons I really dislike Shakespeare’s Othello.)
What I like most about this book is that it draws on more than just a fairy tale – while yes, it is the story of Sleeping Beauty, it also draws on Russian folk tales, so it differentiates itself from other retellings of Sleeping Beauty. (I think I’m almost at the point where I’m tired of the Sleeping Beauty fairy tale – it’s like almost everybody author tries their hand at it in some way.) I’ve never really read any Russian folk tales, so I’m wanting to look more into them at some point in time, though am not quite sure when that will happen – we’ll just add it to that never ending list of things I want to read about.
Chris April 23rd, 2007 at 8:21 pm
:D Orson Scott Card is my favorite author and this is one of my favorites of his. Great review! One of the things I love about Card are his characters and his ability to develop them. If you like this one, you might like Magic Street too if you haven’t read that one.
Court April 23rd, 2007 at 8:31 pm
Thanks for the rec, Chris. I haven’t read Magic Street, so I’ll definitely be adding that to my TBR list. :)
Nymeth April 23rd, 2007 at 9:28 pm
I’m currently reading this for the challenge. I’m 100 pages into it and I love it so far. And I actually read a collection of Russian folktales for the challenge as well, so this is a perfect follow-up. The collection was by Jeremiah Curtin and I very much recommend it.
Framed April 24th, 2007 at 12:24 am
I read this book a few months ago and loved it. Your review brought back some great memories. thanks.
Quixotic April 24th, 2007 at 4:39 am
I haven’t read much of his work at all – in fact I think I’ve only read Ender’s Game. I wasn’t overly fond of that one. Perhaps it is time to try some of his other work? This one certainly sounds interesting.
booklogged April 25th, 2007 at 1:38 am
Ohhhh, Enchantment is a favorite read of mine for all the reasons you mentioned. Your blog is beautiful. Love the 3 columns. I so need 3 columns! Looking forward to more visits to your bookshelf.
Marina April 25th, 2007 at 6:56 pm
I have this on my shelf, but hadn’t put it on my list for the Challenge. Your review has motivated me to get it back onto my “this year” list.
Oh, and ditto booklogged’s comment about your blog design/layout.
chittavrtti April 25th, 2007 at 11:48 pm
I too tend to think first of Ender when someone mentions OC but I agree that Enchantment is a good change of pace. McKillip uses baba yaga in a few of her works. I see you like Stephenie Meyer. Are you going to one of the Eclipse Proms?**CV
Court April 26th, 2007 at 7:35 pm
Thanks booklogged & Marina! :)
chittavrtti – I’m not going to any of the Eclipse Proms; I don’t know if there are any happening around me, and haven’t really looked into it too deeply.
Nymeth – I’ll definitely look into that book of Russian folk tales.
Quixotic – Yeah, I’d recommend this book if you wanted to try something of his that isn’t scifi. If you don’t mind works with a bit of a religious background, I enjoyed his women of Genesis books too.