Enchantment – Orson Scott Card

I spied this one on the avenue outside Kyiv’s University Metro. I might find fantasy writing seductive myself but it’s urban, as they say, and I steer a wide berth around most sorcery-and-princesses guff, which only makes me want to fall on my sword. On this occasion, the only book I had with me was The Kite Runner which I was getting sick of, so I cheerfully coughed up 50 hryvnia for Enchantment: and am I glad I did!
 
Appropriately enough, the main setting for the story turned out to be the ancient Carpathian forest of western Ukraine.
 
To have a princess who is so plain-spoken with her rescuer as to appear downright rude was a delightful surprise. The tension between these two, in a love story divided by centuries of difference, keeps the narrative going until… well, I won’t give it away.
 
The bad witch is very, VERY bad and the magic is consistent, except for a rather crucial moment when a message is delivered in a far-fetched twist that disappoints after all the hard work put in to maintain credibility. Not a big deal. As the plot develops, Card is generally a dab hand at anticipating objections and heading them off. Where a lesser writer might have you exclaiming “Yes, but…!”, Card will have a character bring up the selfsame objection in your mind and nip it in the bud. This happens all the time. And you never feel that you’re being steered towards the anticlimax of an obvious reveal.
 
Card is also highly talented in presenting the complexity of a person’s reasoning without it being a drag. It brings clarity to motivation and drives the story along so that you’re not left wondering.
 
I found loads to enjoy in his novel, loads to learn from.