book data
491 ratings, 3.89 average rating, 44 reviews
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published
July 1st 1991
(first published 1992)
by Doubleday Books
binding
Paperback, 424 pages
literary awards
1992 Locus Awards Winner (Fantasy)
isbn
0385419406
(isbn13: 9780385419406)
description
With the critically acclaimed novels The Gate To Women's Country, Raising The Stones, and the Hugo-nominated Grass, Sheri Te...more
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 603)
I normally try not to review anything I hated, but I'm going to put this on here as a warning. Sure, I give it 1 star, it's certainly inventive and it was interesting to see how many fairy tales she could weave together. HOWEVER. This is one of the most DISTURBING books I have ever read. The ICK factor in this book is extremely high. Sheri Tepper is a hardcore feminist, and she does not paint men in a good light (which is putting it mildly, honestly, pretty much every man in the book is a p...more
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Read in January, 2004
recommends it for:
dark fantasy fans, environmentalists, feminists
When people force me to choose a single favorite book, I often name this one. It begins as a retelling of Sleeping Beauty. Then the time-travelers show up and things go crazy from there. The book has apocalypse, more fairy tales (cinderella, snow white, etc.), visits to Hell and Faerie, horror, and more. The familiar elements react to make a very original whole. The book wears its environmentalist and feminist hearts openly, but lack of subtlety doesn't mean lack of power. Every time I rer...more
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This was one of the strangest books I've ever read. It was like Tepper was trying to write a book about everything, while at the same time have it focus entirely on the one mortal character who only actually lives around twenty years. And so the title character, Beauty, is like a pinball in this great celestial machine, rocketing around from the fourteenth century to the twenty-second, from one realm to another, from reality to imagined reality and literally to hell and back. I finished this boo...more
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Read in January, 2005
I loved this book immensely. It weaves a tapestry of fairytales, linking Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella and Snow White in a timeless fantasy.
It transported me to the Realm of Fae and I was completely immersed in the novel. Sympathetic characters made it easy to love.
I sent this to my neice and wish I didn't because I'd love to read it again.
It transported me to the Realm of Fae and I was completely immersed in the novel. Sympathetic characters made it easy to love.
I sent this to my neice and wish I didn't because I'd love to read it again.
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2 comments
Read in August, 2008
recommended to Crsdefiance by:
Someone without taste.recommends it for: no one.
How anyone could give this book above one star is beyond me. The concept of the book is great, and the author really does have a gift, but not for writing. Throughout the course of this book, the author actually managed to make her book feel forced, which is not a desirable trait to say the least. The author fails to develop a single character from start to finish, and this includes the main character, who to be completely honest, serves no purpose other than to preach Sheri S. Tepper's philo...more
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Beauty is a novel about decay and death and horror and ugliness and the fantastic hope that beauty may one day return. Sherri S. Tepper won the Locus Award for best fantasy novel with this story in which the fairy tale princess of Sleeping Beauty magically travels in time from her real life origins to the present day and the distant future end of humankind fighting to save herself. In her travels she encounters many real live people who appear as characters in our world's fairy tales, finds an...more
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Read in October, 2007
Not so much a fantasy as a giant allegory in which Sleeping Beauty is also all Beauty in the world. We're the sleepers. It's rather depressing, fixating on a horrible future of drones and machines and death and pollution, the standard: the world's going to hell in a handbasket if we don't wake up and save the rainforest, whales, oceans, animals, air, environment, ozone, learn to recycle, reuse and honestly people wake up! It's all true. However I really hate to have the point beaten into me ever...more
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(just discussed in book club!) I really like this book and the subjects she tackles. I first read it at a time in my life when it was very influential on my religious/spiritual beliefs. Also, it was an affirmation of my choice of profession.
Not to mention that it begins/is often set in medieval era (though as we discussed, somewhat idealized), which is a big interest to me, and is partially fantasy, another big interest. I like the reworking of the fairy tales, too.
The end/last 1/5 or so was s...more
Not to mention that it begins/is often set in medieval era (though as we discussed, somewhat idealized), which is a big interest to me, and is partially fantasy, another big interest. I like the reworking of the fairy tales, too.
The end/last 1/5 or so was s...more
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Wait, I lied. I read this book by Tepper as well and I will actually give it three stars because while I have no idea what most of the silly thing was about, I do remember this world she created where the entire earth is one vast building and there is no more exposed land available. Then there's a ridiculous documentary where some guy is talking about the last radish on earth and at the end he takes a bite of it and spits it out. I thought that was hilarious. But yeah, the environmental message ...more
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Read in January, 2003
recommends it for:
people who like Fantasy and Sophie's World
I'll start by saying that I do not like Sophie's World, but this book has a similar feel and does something Sophie's just didn't. Beauty draws upon the lessons we have already learned though classic fairy tales (like Sophie's with philosophy) and than does more than Sophie's every did for me. It doesn't just apply the lesson, it makes us feel there is magic in that lesson and in that way we are drawn into the heroin's struggle.I won't argue the authors of these two books had any similar intentio...more
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Read in January, 2003
This is one of my favorite writers. I have read most of her books twice though some of the very early ones I cannot stand.
This book combines science fiction with fairy tale archetypes beautifully and always points to what is missing in our society and how precious the non material feminine side of our mind and consciousness is. The theme running through all of her books is a teaching on how out of balance we are and how we must stop destroying ourselves and the planet through rampant materi...more
This book combines science fiction with fairy tale archetypes beautifully and always points to what is missing in our society and how precious the non material feminine side of our mind and consciousness is. The theme running through all of her books is a teaching on how out of balance we are and how we must stop destroying ourselves and the planet through rampant materi...more
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Read in January, 1995
It's sleeping beauty, but a little... different.
All of Tepper's writing has a lesson to be learned, and what I find is in most of her books the meat of it is summed up in a few pages with the rest of the story being used to lay the groundwork for the lesson- always enjoyable reading to me.
If you like this kind of writing, it won't surprise you to find I rate almost all of her books as 5 stars. they're all just that good.
All of Tepper's writing has a lesson to be learned, and what I find is in most of her books the meat of it is summed up in a few pages with the rest of the story being used to lay the groundwork for the lesson- always enjoyable reading to me.
If you like this kind of writing, it won't surprise you to find I rate almost all of her books as 5 stars. they're all just that good.
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Read in April, 2005
Another Sleeping Beauty rewrite, though of course this one also gave me Snow White, Cinderella, The Frog Prince, and probably lots of others, I don't know if I missed some. Anyway it had a lot of interesting takes on fairies, time travel, the power of imagination, and the fate of humanity. It seemed too weirdly convoluted and convenient sometimes, but I enjoyed reading it.
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Read in March, 2008
recommended to elissa by:
Tamara B.
I love the idea, but the excution was somewhat uneven for me. There were parts that I couldn't put down, and parts that I stopped reading for days at a time. At one particularly dark & depressing part I took a break and read another couple of books before I went back to it. It had a great ending, though, so it was definitely worth getting through the rough parts.
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3 comments
Read in January, 2008
This is a very bizarre book - a retelling of the Sleeping Beauty story, but with time travel and a modern sensability. It isn't for everyone, but it was certainly original. It IS a dystopia, so if you tend to get bummed out by those, skip it. However, it does offer a lot of hope - and you will be convinced to avoid horror movies afterwards, trust me.
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recommends it for:
females
I've probably read this book a dozen times at least. Guys won't like it. It's fantasy rewritten at it's best. It's sort of the story of Sleeping Beauty, but there's so much more to it. It's hardly your Disney fairytale, or even your classic fairytale. It's an easy read, and it's entertaining and thought-provoking. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.
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Read in January, 2003
My cousin gave me this book at the entirely inappropriate age of 10. It was my first book that was over 300 pages long, 16 years later that somehow sticks out. I read it again recently and I loved it. It touches on humanity and our recklessness with our world through fantasy. It is part science fiction and part fantasy and weaves a wonderful tale.
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Read in January, 1993
An interesting book that ties together many of the best-loved fairy tales and puts a different perspective (as in nasty things happen in each fairy tale) on each of them, and the ending is rather depressing. Recommended more to those who are interested in reiterpreting fairy tales than to those who like happy endings.
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Read in October, 1998
This was one of those that I just couldn't put down. Beauty is a princess who gets kidnapped by time travellers. She wends her way through three or four faerie tales, as well as traveling to the 20th century, the 21st or 22nd century, and the realms of Faerie. It sounds kind of silly when I put it like that, but it works.
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Read in January, 1990
recommends it for:
anyone
It has been years since I have read this book, but it made such an impression. I have been meaning to reread this fantasy/science fiction/futuristic novel. My problem is I don't know anyone who is a female Science fiction/fantasy reader, and I look forward to discussing and reading reviews.
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