I'm nearing completion in my quest to read everything Orson Scott Card ever wrote. Yes, that includes the incredibly long collection of short stories, which I read at some point in high school. It includes the complete Alvin Maker series, and also the Harmony/Earth-Here-I-Come! series or whatever it was called. Those really weren't very good, but Enchantment is quite a bit better than most of his non-Ender material.

It's a modern-day/historical novel retelling of the Sleeping Beauty fairy tale. Instead of a prince, there's a former track star and history professor wannabe who finds the sleeping princess, who's been there for eleven hundred years. See, the witch that cursed her was smart, and figured if she made it impossible for anyone to find the girl for hundreds of years then no one would be able to speak the language and therefore would be unable to break the curse by proposing marriage in any recognizable form. Little did she know that eventually a scholar of early Slavonic languages would show up!

Of course, he's then shot back into the past, and is ill suited to be a king, since they prize a very sword-based manliness back in those days, and he's a little skinny runner dude. Plus the evil witch is still out there trying to take over the kingdom, and his new wife doesn't understand why he sucks so much when she was supposed to be rescued by the man who would save her kingdom. Hijinks ensue.

I don't mean to sound dismissive, this book was quite enjoyable, actually. It reminded me a lot of a rather strange (strange compared to the straight fantasy that Brooks usually dealt in, such as the Shannara series) Terry Brooks book called Magic Kingdom for Sale - Sold!. I recommend that one too, if modern man trying to run magic kingdom stories float your boat.