Monday, July 25, 2011

Enchantment, by Orson Scott Card

You've probably heard the story before. The beautiful princess, much beloved by her people, is cursed by the wicked witch. Good witches keep the evil spell from killing the princess but she falls into a deep sleep from which she can only be awakened by true love's kiss. When he comes valiantly in to rescue the princess they live happily ever after.

“Enchantment” by Orson Scott Card takes that familiar fairy tale and turns it on its head. The Russian versions of these same fairy tales do not end with happily ever after. They involve adultery, murder, hatred, chaos, and in some versions the princess also dies. Ivan Petrovich Smetski, called Vanya but whose real name is Itzak Shlomo, comments that only an idiot would want to live through a Russian fairy tale... Continued

A pity that it is he that will be doing just that. 5 of 5 stars for another marvelous novel by my favorite author.

No comments:

Post a Comment