Enchantment is an English language fantasy novel written by Orson Scott Card. First published in 1999, the novel is based on the Russian version of Sleeping Beauty and other folk tales. Various forms of magic, potions, and immortal deities also play an important role in the story. The protagonist and narrator is Ivan Smetski, a young Ukrainian-American linguist who specializes in Old Church Slavonic, a language from 10th-century Russia. In 1992, Ivan returns to his native town of Kiev to pursue additional graduate studies. While there he discovers the body of a woman, apparently sleeping in... the woods. He awakens her with a kiss, and she tells him, in Old Church Slavonic, that she is Katerina, a princess of the kingdom of Taina. Transported back to the 10th century, Ivan follows Katerina back to Taina where he finds the Christian kingdom terrorized by the traditional Russian arch-villainess Baba Yaga. Ivan and Katerina marry and escape back to the 20th century to avoid the machinations of Baba Yaga, who has enslaved a god and laid claim to Taina's throne, and the druzhinnik Dimitri who covets the throne.
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| Author: | Orson Scott Card |
| Genre: | Fantasy, Fiction, Science Fiction, Speculative fiction |
| Year published: | 1999 |
| Number of editions: | 6 |