The book started off well enough. Until midway the plot is straightforward and deals with the tale of sleeping beauty from the Russian/Eastern European point of view. The “prince” is an American raised Jewish young man who returns to his birthplace in the Ukraine and has time travel adventures in the Eastern Carpathian Mountains involving princesses, ancient kingdoms and the evil Baba Yaga. This part is entertaining. Things change midway and there is more time travel and endless talking and arguing among very undecided characters. It became a real chore for me to finish the book.

An okay summer read. The setting and concept are intriguing, but the main protagonist, Ivan, is kind of flat. Katerina and Baba Yaga are far more interesting. While OSC did some research of Russian folk and fairy tales, I was wanting to see more of Ivan the intellectual using his knowledge to educate the reader through internal monologues or something. This book would make an excellent cheesy TV mini series. It has the goofy fun that would work well there.

I found this book to be strangely juvenile in a lot of ways. By no means is it a terrible book - it has a lot of interesting and humorous moments, it just hasn’t shown me anything new or especially personally appealing from Orson Scott Card.

7/10
Russian folklore, Sleeping Beauty, time travel—this book is a mishmash that somehow works as a pretty enchanting story. The main characters, Ivan and Katerina, are flawed humans, so they act in ways both petty and virtuous. The supporting cast (Esther, Ruthie, Uncle Marek, Sergei) is less well developed but interesting nonetheless.Baba Yaga is ina class of her own.
The author can be a bit preachy at times but it didn’t detract too much from the story’s flow.

Books like this are why I love fantasy. Card makes the wise choice of splitting the action equally between the past/fantasy world and the present/real world so that the book never loses momentum. The characters are fun and interesting and everything is constantly moving at lightning speed. I also enjoyed the audiobook and the fact that it was full cast which really added to the multiple perspectives presented including many female perspectives which is always refreshing to see particularly in older fantasy.

The only thing that brings this book down was the author's weird fixation on cross-dressing which I found anachronistic (I find it hard to believe that medieval peasants would be scandalised by a man wearing women's clothing. Surely they would just wear what is available) and distracting. I try to put aside the author's personal views from their work but knowing that Card has a history of homophobia put a nasty spin on this plot point and definitely soured what would have otherwise been a favourite read of the year. However, this is a small nigggle which is compensated by the rest of the story.