Enchantment (novel)

Lore & Background

The protagonist and narrator is Ivan Smetski, a young Ukrainian-American linguist who specializes in Old Church Slavonic. In 1992, Ivan returns to his native town of Kyiv and re-discovers the body of a woman he had seen as a child, 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 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. Baba Yaga's magical powers, however, allow her to follow Ivan and Katerina to modern times. Back in Ukraine, Ivan discovers that his cousin is in reality Mikola Mozhaiski, a descendant of the god Mikola (St. Nicholas) with some powers. Returning to the United States, Ivan further discovers that his mother is a magic user, with the same powers as Katerina. After Katerina discovers Dimitri's plot through scrying, Ivan and Katerina return to Taina, deftly avoiding Baba Yaga who magically 'skyjacks' their intended Boeing 747 back to the 10th century. Returning to Taina, Ivan and Katerina confront Dimitri, the enslaved god, and Baba Yaga. Though the Castle of Taina is destroyed, the two emerge victorious and they live out their lives between the modern world and Taina.

Reader's Guide

Enchantment is notable for its integration of Slavic folklore, particularly the Ukrainian version of Sleeping Beauty, into a modern fantasy narrative. Orson Scott Card drew on extensive research into Slavic history, as he noted in a 1998 interview. The novel also reflects the influence of singer/songwriter Bruce Cockburn's album The Charity of Night, which Card credited in 2008. Card himself stated that he believed Enchantment might be his best novel. The work stands as a unique blend of time travel, magic, and folkloric elements, offering a distinct perspective within Card's body of work.

Did You Know?

• The novel is based on the Ukrainian version of Sleeping Beauty and other folk tales.
• The protagonist Ivan Smetski is a Ukrainian-American linguist specializing in Old Church Slavonic.

A Prolific Catalog Spanning Worlds

Orson Scott Card's bibliography stands as a testament to a writer of remarkable breadth. His fictional output encompasses an extraordinary number of distinct series, each representing a separate creative universe. The list includes Ender's Game, the Tales of Alvin Maker, the Homecoming Saga, Women of Genesis, the Pastwatch series, and the Mithermages series. Beyond these, Card developed additional fictional worlds through the Worthing, Empire, Pathfinder, Laddertop, Side Step, and Micropowers series. This vast array of serialized fiction is complemented by standalone novels, short story collections, anthologies he edited, and stage plays. The sheer volume and variety of these projects suggest a writer who continually sought new settings and narrative challenges rather than relying on the commercial momentum of any single property. His bibliography reads less like the catalog of one author and more like the entire output of a small publishing house, spanning science fiction, fantasy, and other genres over many decades of sustained creative work.

The Mayflower Trilogy: A Partnership Cut Short

One of the most poignant entries in Card's bibliography is the Mayflower trilogy, a collaborative project he undertook with Kathryn H. Kidd beginning in 1994. The work was conceived as a three-book series, yet only a single volume ever reached readers. The planned continuation was ultimately lost, a gap in the record made all the more significant by the passing of Kidd in 2015. The unfinished nature of this project stands in contrast to the numerous completed series that populate Card's catalog. Where other entries in his bibliography represent fully realized fictional worlds with multiple volumes, Mayflower remains a fragment—a beginning without its promised middle and end. The collaboration itself is noteworthy, as it represents one of the few instances in Card's extensive output where another writer's name appears alongside his as a co-creator of a major fictional project. The loss of the remaining two books means that an entire planned narrative arc, developed over the course of the mid-1990s, exists only in the memory of those who knew the project's scope.

The Pseudonym Strategy

Throughout his career, Orson Scott Card employed at least seven different pseudonyms, often for practical editorial reasons. When he submitted a piece under the name Gert Fram, he did so because three other works of his were already scheduled to appear in the same publication issue. Similarly, the name Brian Green was adopted for his short play "The Rag Mission," published in the July 1977 fine arts issue of Ensign magazine, again because three other pieces of his were in that same issue. The pen name Byron Walley served a different purpose, appearing in LDS publications such as the Friend and the New Era, as well as in the short story "Middle Woman" within Dragons of Darkness. For a 1976 article in Sunstone magazine surveying Mormon playwrights, Card used both Frederick Bliss and P.Q. Gump, explaining that the piece contained a brief self-reference to his own play "Stone Tables." Finally, the name Noam D. Pellume was used for the short story "Damn Fine Novel" in the October 1989 issue of The Green Pages.

Archival Preservation and Ongoing Legacy

The long-term preservation of Orson Scott Card's extensive body of work is ensured through multiple institutional and digital channels. His papers, designated MSS 1756, are held in the L. Tom Perry Special Collections at Brigham Young University, where they encompass his published works, personal writing notes, and correspondence. This archival collection provides researchers and fans direct access to the creative process behind decades of fiction. Beyond the physical archive, Card's bibliography is maintained on his official website, and his works are cataloged through major publishers including Macmillan and Marvel. A dedicated "Library of Orson Scott Card" further consolidates access to his output. His track record of science fiction award wins and nominations is also documented, underscoring the critical recognition his work has received. Additionally, his bibliography extends well beyond fiction to include non-fiction works, books on writing, magazine columns, and works adapted from other media, painting a picture of a writer whose influence reaches far into the broader literary and cultural landscape.