What do you think?
Rate this book
Beauty
With the publication of The Gate to Women's Country, Sheri S. Tepper came to be recognized as a major science fiction writer. Now the author of Raising the Stones and Grass -- a New York Times Notable Book and Hugo Award finalist -- turns to Beauty, a fantasy with a story that is more, much more than fable.
Drawing on the wellspring of much-loved, well-remembered fairy tales, Tepper delivers a thought-provoking and finely crafted novel that thoroughly involves the reader in the life of one of the most captivating heroines in modern fantasy -- Beauty. On her sixteenth birthday Beauty is seemingly able to sidestep her aunt's curse. Instead she is transported to the future. Here begin her adventures as she travels magically back and forth in time to visit places both imaginary and real. Finally she comes to understand what has been her special gift to humanity all along.
For in Beauty, there is beauty. And in beauty, magic. Without our enchanted places, humanity is no more than an upstart ape. And this, we realize, is why Beauty must be saved, both in the fantastical world of Tepper's novel and in the actual world in which we live
Drawing on the wellspring of much-loved, well-remembered fairy tales, Tepper delivers a thought-provoking and finely crafted novel that thoroughly involves the reader in the life of one of the most captivating heroines in modern fantasy -- Beauty. On her sixteenth birthday Beauty is seemingly able to sidestep her aunt's curse. Instead she is transported to the future. Here begin her adventures as she travels magically back and forth in time to visit places both imaginary and real. Finally she comes to understand what has been her special gift to humanity all along.
For in Beauty, there is beauty. And in beauty, magic. Without our enchanted places, humanity is no more than an upstart ape. And this, we realize, is why Beauty must be saved, both in the fantastical world of Tepper's novel and in the actual world in which we live
463 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1991
93 people are currently reading
4126 people want to read
About the author
Sheri S. Tepper
74 books1,082 followersSheri Stewart Tepper was a prolific American author of science fiction, horror and mystery novels; she was particularly known as a feminist science fiction writer, often with an ecofeminist slant.
Born near Littleton, Colorado, for most of her career (1962-1986) she worked for Rocky Mountain Planned Parenthood, where she eventually became Executive Director. She has two children and is married to Gene Tepper. She operated a guest ranch in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
She wrote under several pseudonyms, including A.J. Orde, E.E. Horlak, and B.J. Oliphant. Her early work was published under the name Sheri S. Eberhart.
Born near Littleton, Colorado, for most of her career (1962-1986) she worked for Rocky Mountain Planned Parenthood, where she eventually became Executive Director. She has two children and is married to Gene Tepper. She operated a guest ranch in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
She wrote under several pseudonyms, including A.J. Orde, E.E. Horlak, and B.J. Oliphant. Her early work was published under the name Sheri S. Eberhart.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 437 reviews
September 22, 2009
About 100 pages into Beauty I wasn't sure whether I was really going to like the book, as it kept moving from subject to subject without staying long enough with each one to make it work. About 200 pages in, I was convinced the author had far too many ideas for her own good, and no idea of how to weave them together into a cohesive story. Despite my misgivings, though, I stuck with the book, and I'm glad I did, because the second half more than made up for the flaws of the first. I ended up enjoying the hell out of Beauty, so much so that I considered giving it five stars. Not bad for a book which initially struck me as trying too hard and failing.
So what is Beauty about? It's hard to summarise the story as it is so terribly convoluted, but in a nutshell, it's about a fourteenth-century princess (half human, half fairy) named Beauty who escapes a terrible, fairy-tale-like fate and magically ends up in the twenty-first century, which is a distinctly unpleasant place bereft of all beauty. From this dystopian future she makes her way back to a very recognisable twentieth century which clearly carries the germs of the wave of destruction which is about to follow, and from there the story weaves in and out of different ages and worlds (reality, Faerie, even Hell) where Beauty gets to deal with love, rape and rejection, among many other things. She also discovers that she carries something important within her, something essential to the survival of Things Which Matter. And so the reader is taken on a rollercoaster ride through time and space, which is further enlivened by the many well-known fairy-tale characters Beauty meets on her way. I don't want to give away too much here, but Beauty somehow ends up giving birth to Cinderella and also counts Sleeping Beauty and the Frog Prince among her descendants. These well-known characters are among the most inspired elements of the book, mainly because they are so different from the way they are portrayed elsewhere. Take Cinderella, for instance. In Tepper's vision, she is not the sweet and innocent girl of Perrault's tale, but rather an outrageous slut who must have her prince because she can't wait to shag his brains out. For her part, Sleeping Beauty, while insanely beautiful, is also insanely stupid, and as for the seven dwarfs who guard her while she is asleep, well, let's just say they are not as innocent as Disney made them out to be. I had a ball with Tepper's take on these classic characters, frequently laughing out loud at the way she perverted old tales and wove them into her own story. There is some very clever pastiche going on here, and to me, it just about made the book.
What lets Beauty down somewhat is the didacticism of its tone. Tepper is a fine writer, but she is not very subtle; she makes her points very heavy-handedly, sometimes cringe-inducingly so. In Beauty, she tackles the loss of nature, beauty and magic in an increasingly less romantic world. As a fellow romantic with a yearning for the sublime, I found myself in sympathy with Tepper's message, but I do wish she hadn't forced it down my throat the way she did. I also somewhat objected to the overt feminism of the book, which mainly manifested itself in some truly despicable male characters. Apart from the heavy-handed environmentalism and feminism, though, Beauty is a fine book with some good, honest writing and some truly inspired ideas, mostly in the second half. If you can get over the disjointedness of the first half and the author's tendency to introduce cool ideas without really working them out, you'll find an imaginative and frequently entertaining (albeit depressing) fantasy story with some familiar, refreshingly un-Disney-like characters. It's not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but it's better than most fantasy books out there, and I have no trouble recommending it to those who like their fairy tales dark and bleak.
So what is Beauty about? It's hard to summarise the story as it is so terribly convoluted, but in a nutshell, it's about a fourteenth-century princess (half human, half fairy) named Beauty who escapes a terrible, fairy-tale-like fate and magically ends up in the twenty-first century, which is a distinctly unpleasant place bereft of all beauty. From this dystopian future she makes her way back to a very recognisable twentieth century which clearly carries the germs of the wave of destruction which is about to follow, and from there the story weaves in and out of different ages and worlds (reality, Faerie, even Hell) where Beauty gets to deal with love, rape and rejection, among many other things. She also discovers that she carries something important within her, something essential to the survival of Things Which Matter. And so the reader is taken on a rollercoaster ride through time and space, which is further enlivened by the many well-known fairy-tale characters Beauty meets on her way. I don't want to give away too much here, but Beauty somehow ends up giving birth to Cinderella and also counts Sleeping Beauty and the Frog Prince among her descendants. These well-known characters are among the most inspired elements of the book, mainly because they are so different from the way they are portrayed elsewhere. Take Cinderella, for instance. In Tepper's vision, she is not the sweet and innocent girl of Perrault's tale, but rather an outrageous slut who must have her prince because she can't wait to shag his brains out. For her part, Sleeping Beauty, while insanely beautiful, is also insanely stupid, and as for the seven dwarfs who guard her while she is asleep, well, let's just say they are not as innocent as Disney made them out to be. I had a ball with Tepper's take on these classic characters, frequently laughing out loud at the way she perverted old tales and wove them into her own story. There is some very clever pastiche going on here, and to me, it just about made the book.
What lets Beauty down somewhat is the didacticism of its tone. Tepper is a fine writer, but she is not very subtle; she makes her points very heavy-handedly, sometimes cringe-inducingly so. In Beauty, she tackles the loss of nature, beauty and magic in an increasingly less romantic world. As a fellow romantic with a yearning for the sublime, I found myself in sympathy with Tepper's message, but I do wish she hadn't forced it down my throat the way she did. I also somewhat objected to the overt feminism of the book, which mainly manifested itself in some truly despicable male characters. Apart from the heavy-handed environmentalism and feminism, though, Beauty is a fine book with some good, honest writing and some truly inspired ideas, mostly in the second half. If you can get over the disjointedness of the first half and the author's tendency to introduce cool ideas without really working them out, you'll find an imaginative and frequently entertaining (albeit depressing) fantasy story with some familiar, refreshingly un-Disney-like characters. It's not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but it's better than most fantasy books out there, and I have no trouble recommending it to those who like their fairy tales dark and bleak.
August 26, 2021
What an interesting book! I honestly just thought this was a medieval fairy-tale-ish take on the original legend of Sleeping Beauty, handed to us with real history, interesting magic, and enough grim to satisfy both the Grim Bros and GRRM.
That's what I THOUGHT, anyway, as I was getting into the tale.
It's a bit deeper than that, however, and it subverts both this cross-genre by tackling MOST sub-genres, giving us a big taste of time-travel, Fae, big-time environmentalism, and even science fiction.
Sound complicated? It isn't, really. It's a tale of a Beauty that lives a full, interesting life of love, discovery, wanderlust, tragedy, opportunism, trickery, and survival. We could call this a feminist tale, and I'm sure quite a few would, but I see it as a very rounded one with tons of surprises. I mean, yes, it's a modern retelling of the classic, but it seems to incorporate a ton more myths than I ever would have guessed at first glance. And the scope and tack of the tragedies are very different than I might have guessed.
This is a very good thing. We, as readers, LIKE to be surprised. I think this one is a wonderful surprise.
That's what I THOUGHT, anyway, as I was getting into the tale.
It's a bit deeper than that, however, and it subverts both this cross-genre by tackling MOST sub-genres, giving us a big taste of time-travel, Fae, big-time environmentalism, and even science fiction.
Sound complicated? It isn't, really. It's a tale of a Beauty that lives a full, interesting life of love, discovery, wanderlust, tragedy, opportunism, trickery, and survival. We could call this a feminist tale, and I'm sure quite a few would, but I see it as a very rounded one with tons of surprises. I mean, yes, it's a modern retelling of the classic, but it seems to incorporate a ton more myths than I ever would have guessed at first glance. And the scope and tack of the tragedies are very different than I might have guessed.
This is a very good thing. We, as readers, LIKE to be surprised. I think this one is a wonderful surprise.
July 1, 2007
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 reread it I still shiver, still laugh, still cry. It is not for the squeamish...but then again, neither is what we're doing to the planet.
March 23, 2016
This is a deeply strange book, twisting fairytale tropes to tell a story of environmental collapse, destructive religion, sexual abuse, feminism, and gender politics, among many other things (including the loyalty of cats, who so rarely get their due in literature). I don't know how well it hangs together but I loved reading it.
May 11, 2011
Now is not a good time to write a review of this, because I am in a bad mood. I will do, nonetheless, it.
I did have to remove two stars from my 13-year old rating. I did not find this particularly beautiful, or as tragic as I remembered, or even particularly clever. Luckily, though it did not descend into the overwrought sentimentality I was dreading, except perhaps a little towards the end. Even then, though, I maintain that it retained something of grandeur.
Tepper is clearly a very good writer - she must be in order to make such a convoluted plot readable at all: I, unlike some other reviewers, do not think there was anything confusing about this book. I do wish, though, that she was a just slightly better writer. Reading this, I wished constantly for a bit of subtlety - naturally, I agree with her feminist and environmentalist agenda, but I wish she wouldn't harp on it so obviously. She might as well have said "It's hard to be a woman, and humanity sucks." Yep. I know, whatever, now let's go and read a good book. I thought she achieved an excellent level of subtlety in The Gate to Women's Country (though I did notice it a bit in Grass), so why not here? I wonder if it was deliberate, perhaps because she was writing in diary form. Unfortunately it just looks like she's not quite good enough to pull it off. So if it was deliberate, it was a super-bad move.
My heart is of stone, I have no scruples about destroying my childhood idols. I found Beauty a pallid character, Giles no better, and most of the others had no flesh to them. I think she could have done really interesting things with the time travel, and the idea of fate, which she seemed to just ignore.
No matter how full of faults Tepper seems to be, I can't get over how much more interesting her books are than all the so-called "classic sci-fi". Not that I've read a huge amount of it, but in my defence, that's largely because it's mostly rather boring. I'd prefer to read Tepper any day, who is at least interestingly flawed. I may have mentioned I'm in a bad mood.
____________________________________
I gave this five stars because I would have given it five stars last time I read it, I loved it that much. I'm not sure if I'd still feel the same now.
Nonetheless, I remember this as being the most successful attempt to merge science fiction and fantasy that I'd ever read. Time travel, apocalypse, dystopia, magic, oldschool fairy tales, true love, old people who search for each other for years and are still capable of loving each other, all held together with a sizeable dollop of Celtic faerie-land stuff. The sort of thing I like to call a darn good yarn.
It was stunningly beautiful and heart-rendingly tragic to the inexperience of my approx. fourteen-year-old self. Ergo, it was almost certainly overwrought and sentimental.
I did have to remove two stars from my 13-year old rating. I did not find this particularly beautiful, or as tragic as I remembered, or even particularly clever. Luckily, though it did not descend into the overwrought sentimentality I was dreading, except perhaps a little towards the end. Even then, though, I maintain that it retained something of grandeur.
Tepper is clearly a very good writer - she must be in order to make such a convoluted plot readable at all: I, unlike some other reviewers, do not think there was anything confusing about this book. I do wish, though, that she was a just slightly better writer. Reading this, I wished constantly for a bit of subtlety - naturally, I agree with her feminist and environmentalist agenda, but I wish she wouldn't harp on it so obviously. She might as well have said "It's hard to be a woman, and humanity sucks." Yep. I know, whatever, now let's go and read a good book. I thought she achieved an excellent level of subtlety in The Gate to Women's Country (though I did notice it a bit in Grass), so why not here? I wonder if it was deliberate, perhaps because she was writing in diary form. Unfortunately it just looks like she's not quite good enough to pull it off. So if it was deliberate, it was a super-bad move.
My heart is of stone, I have no scruples about destroying my childhood idols. I found Beauty a pallid character, Giles no better, and most of the others had no flesh to them. I think she could have done really interesting things with the time travel, and the idea of fate, which she seemed to just ignore.
No matter how full of faults Tepper seems to be, I can't get over how much more interesting her books are than all the so-called "classic sci-fi". Not that I've read a huge amount of it, but in my defence, that's largely because it's mostly rather boring. I'd prefer to read Tepper any day, who is at least interestingly flawed. I may have mentioned I'm in a bad mood.
____________________________________
I gave this five stars because I would have given it five stars last time I read it, I loved it that much. I'm not sure if I'd still feel the same now.
Nonetheless, I remember this as being the most successful attempt to merge science fiction and fantasy that I'd ever read. Time travel, apocalypse, dystopia, magic, oldschool fairy tales, true love, old people who search for each other for years and are still capable of loving each other, all held together with a sizeable dollop of Celtic faerie-land stuff. The sort of thing I like to call a darn good yarn.
It was stunningly beautiful and heart-rendingly tragic to the inexperience of my approx. fourteen-year-old self. Ergo, it was almost certainly overwrought and sentimental.
January 2, 2023
I think the most twisted variation on the Sleeping Beauty legend remains Sheri Tepper's "Beauty". That was a great book, BUT. Grim. "Down, down to Happyland...." Disposal chute, for unwanted infants. Ugh. Ol' Sheri didn't do subtle....
Critic Gary K. Wolfe said "Beauty remains one of the genre-hopping masterpieces of the last 20 years," and I guess I'd agree, but it's.... Well. Pretty gross at times. Still worth reading. Once, anyway. I think about rereading, now & then, and run through pretty much the same line of thought you just read.
Critic Gary K. Wolfe said "Beauty remains one of the genre-hopping masterpieces of the last 20 years," and I guess I'd agree, but it's.... Well. Pretty gross at times. Still worth reading. Once, anyway. I think about rereading, now & then, and run through pretty much the same line of thought you just read.
June 20, 2011
This book is a big hot mess! I kept reading because it was such a train wreck, a sick sense of fasciation held my interest. The plot is ridiculous: Tepper throws countless fairy tales, Bible stories, and unrelated fiction into a single storyline. But instead of cleverly weaving together disparate elements, it feels disjointed, haphazard, and nonsensical. Her writing frequently throws us such delicious awfulness as "his eyes glittered with hectic abandon." On top of that, here are my two major problems with the book:
1. Inconsistency. The misconception of poor fantasy writers is that "anything goes" if writing within the fantasy genre. Instead, the rules that govern a fantasy story must be even more solid and clear than regular fiction for us to believe it and buy into the world. In Beauty, the characters are inconsistent, acting one way for a single chapter and then randomly acting differently in the next. The laws of her world are also inconsistent - our main character can magically heal someone in hell, and clear her own aging eyesight at will, but she lets her true love die of TB and forgets to help her own leg pains we hear about constantly. Tepper's language is also inconsistent, ranging from obnoxiously trite, overly sentimental "fairy tale" writing to sections that are flat and crass. It's not "diverse" in an interesting or intentional way - it smacks of someone who doesn't know how to regulate their own writing, or who doesn't yet have a strong writing voice.
2. Nastiness. The basic premise of this book is that humanity is going to hell in a hand basket thanks to religion, environmental destruction, and media with dark themes. As a conservation biologist, I'm as concerned as anyone about our ecological future. But in this vision, yep, it's the authors, movie makers, comic book writers, etc. that bring about the end of humanity (and the entire world) by giving power to horror-pornography-violence. Yet this book features horrible people, brutal rapes, cruel jealous women and brutish unsympathetic men. So... congratulations, Sheri Tepper. You're actively contributing to your own vision of the end-times. You are part of the problem.
Why even two stars, you might ask? Because any book so bad it makes me laugh out loud deserves some appreciation! It's almost worth reading for the head-shakingly bad writing, weird plot twists, and precious descriptions of Fairy. If you're looking for ecofeminism, this *isn't* anywhere near it; try reading Susan Griffen's Woman and Nature instead. For impressive science fiction/fantasy that deals with gender issues, head straight to the source with James Tiptree (really Alice Sheldon) - try a collection of short stories like Her Smoke Rose Up Forever.
1. Inconsistency. The misconception of poor fantasy writers is that "anything goes" if writing within the fantasy genre. Instead, the rules that govern a fantasy story must be even more solid and clear than regular fiction for us to believe it and buy into the world. In Beauty, the characters are inconsistent, acting one way for a single chapter and then randomly acting differently in the next. The laws of her world are also inconsistent - our main character can magically heal someone in hell, and clear her own aging eyesight at will, but she lets her true love die of TB and forgets to help her own leg pains we hear about constantly. Tepper's language is also inconsistent, ranging from obnoxiously trite, overly sentimental "fairy tale" writing to sections that are flat and crass. It's not "diverse" in an interesting or intentional way - it smacks of someone who doesn't know how to regulate their own writing, or who doesn't yet have a strong writing voice.
2. Nastiness. The basic premise of this book is that humanity is going to hell in a hand basket thanks to religion, environmental destruction, and media with dark themes. As a conservation biologist, I'm as concerned as anyone about our ecological future. But in this vision, yep, it's the authors, movie makers, comic book writers, etc. that bring about the end of humanity (and the entire world) by giving power to horror-pornography-violence. Yet this book features horrible people, brutal rapes, cruel jealous women and brutish unsympathetic men. So... congratulations, Sheri Tepper. You're actively contributing to your own vision of the end-times. You are part of the problem.
Why even two stars, you might ask? Because any book so bad it makes me laugh out loud deserves some appreciation! It's almost worth reading for the head-shakingly bad writing, weird plot twists, and precious descriptions of Fairy. If you're looking for ecofeminism, this *isn't* anywhere near it; try reading Susan Griffen's Woman and Nature instead. For impressive science fiction/fantasy that deals with gender issues, head straight to the source with James Tiptree (really Alice Sheldon) - try a collection of short stories like Her Smoke Rose Up Forever.
December 18, 2014
A half-fairy girl goes on a long journey to discover the fate of magic in a changing world. Normally I approach Tepper like Atwood's genre writing: message-driven to the point of transparency, but sympathetic and consistently well-written. But Beauty is a mess of a book. It begins as a Sleeping Beauty retelling but crams in Cinderella, Snow White, Rapunzel, and the Frog Prince, growing increasingly predictable; it spans a lifetime and jumps between half a dozen settings, the worst of which is an ill-conceived environmental dystopia--yet the book says so little. It's a ham-fisted morality tale about the sins of environmental destruction and ... horror novels, I guess? because they best represent humanity's desensitization to violence and evil? It's sanctimonious, plodding, and runs a hundred pages too long. This is the first of Tepper's novels to disappoint me and I by no means recommend it.
December 8, 2025
https://kansasbooks.blogspot.com/2019...
“A cada paso, hemos sido frustrados por dios. No el Dios verdadero. Un dios falso creado por el hombre para contribuir a su destrucción de la Tierra. Es el dios-glotón que ve bien engullirlo todo en nombre de una humanidad completamente egoísta. Sus diez mandamientos son: yo primero (déjame vivir como quiera); los humanos primero (que todos los otros seres vivos mueran en mi beneficio); el esperma primero (nada de control de natalidad); los nacimientos primero (nada de abortos); los hombres primero (nada de derechos de la mujer); mi cultura/tribu/religión primero (separatismo/terrorismo); mi raza primero (nada de derechos humanos); mi política primero (puñeteros liberales/podridos reaccionarios); mi país primero (ondea la bandera, la bandera, la bandera); y, sobre todo, los beneficios primero.”
Sheri Tepper reconstruye y deconstruye los cuentos de hadas usando como punto de partida a Bella de La Bella Durmiente, y a partir de aqui, revisita Cenicienta, Blancanieves y toda una serie de cuentos que hasta ahora habian sido empobrecidos por toda la cultura Disney y la industria del cine, y les da un viso de realidad, nos hace ver que estas niñas o princesas eran humanas, que la belleza por si sola no era suficiente, sino que el cerebro lo es mucho más. Pero no es sólo fantasia, también es una novela que se mueve en viajes en el tiempo, mundos distópicos, presente y pasado comenzando en la Edad Media y llegando hasta avanzado el s. XXI. Y a través de su viaje, la que empieza llamándose Bella va tomando varias identidades dependiendo de los mundos que visita pasando de llamarse Bella, a Dorothy, Lady Catherine o Lavanda.
“Me ha hablado de la "presión social", lo que por lo visto quiere decir dejar que los demás te dirijan la vida.”
Es ante todo una novela sobre el recorrido de una mujer que quiere conocerse a si misma, que busca su identidad y para ello Sheri Tepper la sumerge en todo un mundo imaginario por una parte, y muy real y sórdido por otro. Sheri Tepper aborda muchos temas, y lo que aparentemente parece una novela de fantasia y/o ciencia ficción distópica, acaba convirtiéndose en una reflexión sobre el mundo en el que vivimos poniendo sobre el tapete el debate sobre su futura destrucción por el hombre (algo que ya sabemos o intuimos). La verdad es que me ha impresionado mucho esta escritora, toda esta mezcla tan poco habitual sobre géneros y temas que aborda es todo un soplo de aire fresco en unos géneros que normalmente son muy rigidos. Sus varias lecturas y el inmenso personaje femenino lo convierten para mi en una delicia, toda una joya.
“Le he pedido a Bill que me lo explicara y él me ha hablado del crecimiento demográfico y la Iglesia católica y la lluvia ácida y la destrucción de los bosques tropicales para conseguir más comida. Todo el mundo discute sobre el tema, me ha dicho. Los economistas y hombres de negocios dicen que nada va mal. Los ecologistas y expertos en población dicen que se acerca el final. Mientras discuten, las cosas seguirán con la misma tendencia hasta que lleguemos al punto sin retorno, que será en algún momento de los próximos cien años. A partir de entonces, no habrá más espacio al aire libre porque cada centímetro cuadrado de tierra será necesario para producir comida.”
“A cada paso, hemos sido frustrados por dios. No el Dios verdadero. Un dios falso creado por el hombre para contribuir a su destrucción de la Tierra. Es el dios-glotón que ve bien engullirlo todo en nombre de una humanidad completamente egoísta. Sus diez mandamientos son: yo primero (déjame vivir como quiera); los humanos primero (que todos los otros seres vivos mueran en mi beneficio); el esperma primero (nada de control de natalidad); los nacimientos primero (nada de abortos); los hombres primero (nada de derechos de la mujer); mi cultura/tribu/religión primero (separatismo/terrorismo); mi raza primero (nada de derechos humanos); mi política primero (puñeteros liberales/podridos reaccionarios); mi país primero (ondea la bandera, la bandera, la bandera); y, sobre todo, los beneficios primero.”
Sheri Tepper reconstruye y deconstruye los cuentos de hadas usando como punto de partida a Bella de La Bella Durmiente, y a partir de aqui, revisita Cenicienta, Blancanieves y toda una serie de cuentos que hasta ahora habian sido empobrecidos por toda la cultura Disney y la industria del cine, y les da un viso de realidad, nos hace ver que estas niñas o princesas eran humanas, que la belleza por si sola no era suficiente, sino que el cerebro lo es mucho más. Pero no es sólo fantasia, también es una novela que se mueve en viajes en el tiempo, mundos distópicos, presente y pasado comenzando en la Edad Media y llegando hasta avanzado el s. XXI. Y a través de su viaje, la que empieza llamándose Bella va tomando varias identidades dependiendo de los mundos que visita pasando de llamarse Bella, a Dorothy, Lady Catherine o Lavanda.
“Me ha hablado de la "presión social", lo que por lo visto quiere decir dejar que los demás te dirijan la vida.”
Es ante todo una novela sobre el recorrido de una mujer que quiere conocerse a si misma, que busca su identidad y para ello Sheri Tepper la sumerge en todo un mundo imaginario por una parte, y muy real y sórdido por otro. Sheri Tepper aborda muchos temas, y lo que aparentemente parece una novela de fantasia y/o ciencia ficción distópica, acaba convirtiéndose en una reflexión sobre el mundo en el que vivimos poniendo sobre el tapete el debate sobre su futura destrucción por el hombre (algo que ya sabemos o intuimos). La verdad es que me ha impresionado mucho esta escritora, toda esta mezcla tan poco habitual sobre géneros y temas que aborda es todo un soplo de aire fresco en unos géneros que normalmente son muy rigidos. Sus varias lecturas y el inmenso personaje femenino lo convierten para mi en una delicia, toda una joya.
“Le he pedido a Bill que me lo explicara y él me ha hablado del crecimiento demográfico y la Iglesia católica y la lluvia ácida y la destrucción de los bosques tropicales para conseguir más comida. Todo el mundo discute sobre el tema, me ha dicho. Los economistas y hombres de negocios dicen que nada va mal. Los ecologistas y expertos en población dicen que se acerca el final. Mientras discuten, las cosas seguirán con la misma tendencia hasta que lleguemos al punto sin retorno, que será en algún momento de los próximos cien años. A partir de entonces, no habrá más espacio al aire libre porque cada centímetro cuadrado de tierra será necesario para producir comida.”
February 22, 2013
Part speculative fiction, part philosophy, part patchwork cosmology, Beauty is - intense. It chronicles the life of someone who starts out as a mistrusted halfbreed in an age that values genealogy, and who progresses through multiple worlds, back and forth in time, being entirely too curious about what makes her situation unique. Tepper manages to write realistic Sidhe and believable Bogles, despite the unlikelihood of her audience having any basis for comparison.
The protagonist, named Beauty (except when circumstances recommend other names), is credible to the bone, from starry-eyed 15-year-old girl through exhausted old woman. She is neither painfully virtuous nor improbably wise, but neither is she venal or foolish. Her matter-of-fact approach to time travel and the loss of entire worlds is entirely human, but hints at strength and perspective that might be not so much the legacy of her Sidhe ancestry, but rather a rebellion against Sidhe insubstantiality.
Expect, perhaps not to weep, but to ache for the inevitable loss. Expect to recognize people you know. Expect to think, wonder, and have weird dreams, and to want to stay up drinking and talking with your best friend. And if you write or draw or sculpt, you might end up doing a bit of that too. This book is a door that only goes one way, but you won't regret entering.
The protagonist, named Beauty (except when circumstances recommend other names), is credible to the bone, from starry-eyed 15-year-old girl through exhausted old woman. She is neither painfully virtuous nor improbably wise, but neither is she venal or foolish. Her matter-of-fact approach to time travel and the loss of entire worlds is entirely human, but hints at strength and perspective that might be not so much the legacy of her Sidhe ancestry, but rather a rebellion against Sidhe insubstantiality.
Expect, perhaps not to weep, but to ache for the inevitable loss. Expect to recognize people you know. Expect to think, wonder, and have weird dreams, and to want to stay up drinking and talking with your best friend. And if you write or draw or sculpt, you might end up doing a bit of that too. This book is a door that only goes one way, but you won't regret entering.
January 17, 2023
Un giro a alguno de los cuentos más famosos . Un libro con una historia entretenida .Y que te hace pensar en el destino del mundo y en el significado de la belleza .
September 17, 2020
#27 of my #20for2020tbrchallenge, to read 20 TBR books this year
This is a feminist classic, and one of the first fairy tale retellings for adults; I've been interested in this book for years. Although it is nothing like I'd imagined from the blurb, it's a compelling albeit often frustrating read, and it's still very timely and thought-provoking.
As the Author's Note makes clear, this is meant to be an allegory about environment destruction, at the beauty dying in the world, and a plea for humankind to do better before it's too late.
Unfortunately, it's very much a product of it's time, the early 1990s. The emphasis on acid rain, saving the whales, zealous Pro-Lifers and the dangers of "horrorporn" might seem very strange to younger readers today. It is an unabashedly Feminist novel, and although I greatly respect that, it is also as subtle as a sledgehammer, and tends to be a bit too much at times.
The story itself is an incredibly bizarre journey, styled as a diary written by Beauty, daughter of the Duke of Westfaire, which is a perfect, medieval magical storybook kingdom.
Beauty is, as her name suggests, very beautiful. Her mother was a fairy, but kept her heritage a secret from her mortal husband until Beauty's fairy aunts showed up to grant her blessings at her Christening.
Along with the gifts she was given, she was also delivered a curse: a sleeping sickness to activate on her 16th birthday. Beauty's father cannot abide his wife's otherworldly heritage, so she departs for Faerie immediately after the christening, leaving Beauty motherless.
When Beauty discovers a note from her mother shortly before her 16th birthday, she manages to avoid the curse. As the kingdom slips into sleep and is grown over by briar roses, Beauty escapes.
Although Beauty only becomes aware of this much later, one of her faerie aunts - Carabosse, the fairy of clocks - is manipulating Beauty's life (with the help of her consort Israfel) and had given her another, secret gift at her christening that must be preserved at all costs.
Over time, Beauty learns to travel between realms and times, as Carabosse intended. However the journey that follows over the course of Beauty's long lifetime often sees her end up at the wrong time or place.
Beauty accidentally ends up in the 22nd century, beyond the future that Carabosse can foresee, when she stumbles into a film crew that has travelled back in time to film the "last magic" - the now sleeping Westfaire. When Beauty sees the horrors that await, she becomes determined to prevent that future from happening.
Long-lived due to her fairy blood, we travel with Beauty over several lives, the gradual loss of magic through the centuries, and ultimately reach her confrontation with mortality. Her aging is underscored, affectingly, by the many generations of her faithful cat Grumpkin.
And the fairy tale of Snow White takes a nasty turn, as the character is embodied by her granddaughter (and some perverted dwarves).
This is not an easy story. It turns very grim when the Dark Lord - a power hungry Fae - catches glimpses of Beauty throughout the years and seeks to possess her, sending predatory men after her. I don't usually issue these, but there is an important Trigger warning:
The Dark Lords' hell - rather cleverly full of manifestations made by horror writers, for the Fae and the Angels cannot create, only men can - is briefly glimpsed but incredibly grotesque and unforgettable.
Beauty does get a sort of Happily Ever After, but - fittingly - there is no grand fairy tale ending. The ending is as uneasy as the story itself, deliberately so I suspect. While Beauty isn't exactly a likeable character, being too passive and not very curious, I did respect her persistence and endurance. And she had a very human, cunning intelligence which the faeries could not understand.
Overall, this is a very unusual work, and it is thought provoking. It won't appeal to all audiences, but the central message is perhaps more important than ever right now. I'm glad I finally read it, although I doubt I'll ever read it again.
I will, however, look for more of Tepper's work!
This is a feminist classic, and one of the first fairy tale retellings for adults; I've been interested in this book for years. Although it is nothing like I'd imagined from the blurb, it's a compelling albeit often frustrating read, and it's still very timely and thought-provoking.
As the Author's Note makes clear, this is meant to be an allegory about environment destruction, at the beauty dying in the world, and a plea for humankind to do better before it's too late.
Unfortunately, it's very much a product of it's time, the early 1990s. The emphasis on acid rain, saving the whales, zealous Pro-Lifers and the dangers of "horrorporn" might seem very strange to younger readers today. It is an unabashedly Feminist novel, and although I greatly respect that, it is also as subtle as a sledgehammer, and tends to be a bit too much at times.
The story itself is an incredibly bizarre journey, styled as a diary written by Beauty, daughter of the Duke of Westfaire, which is a perfect, medieval magical storybook kingdom.
Beauty is, as her name suggests, very beautiful. Her mother was a fairy, but kept her heritage a secret from her mortal husband until Beauty's fairy aunts showed up to grant her blessings at her Christening.
Along with the gifts she was given, she was also delivered a curse: a sleeping sickness to activate on her 16th birthday. Beauty's father cannot abide his wife's otherworldly heritage, so she departs for Faerie immediately after the christening, leaving Beauty motherless.
When Beauty discovers a note from her mother shortly before her 16th birthday, she manages to avoid the curse. As the kingdom slips into sleep and is grown over by briar roses, Beauty escapes.
Although Beauty only becomes aware of this much later, one of her faerie aunts - Carabosse, the fairy of clocks - is manipulating Beauty's life (with the help of her consort Israfel) and had given her another, secret gift at her christening that must be preserved at all costs.
Over time, Beauty learns to travel between realms and times, as Carabosse intended. However the journey that follows over the course of Beauty's long lifetime often sees her end up at the wrong time or place.
Beauty accidentally ends up in the 22nd century, beyond the future that Carabosse can foresee, when she stumbles into a film crew that has travelled back in time to film the "last magic" - the now sleeping Westfaire. When Beauty sees the horrors that await, she becomes determined to prevent that future from happening.
Long-lived due to her fairy blood, we travel with Beauty over several lives, the gradual loss of magic through the centuries, and ultimately reach her confrontation with mortality. Her aging is underscored, affectingly, by the many generations of her faithful cat Grumpkin.
And the fairy tale of Snow White takes a nasty turn, as the character is embodied by her granddaughter (and some perverted dwarves).
This is not an easy story. It turns very grim when the Dark Lord - a power hungry Fae - catches glimpses of Beauty throughout the years and seeks to possess her, sending predatory men after her. I don't usually issue these, but there is an important Trigger warning:
The Dark Lords' hell - rather cleverly full of manifestations made by horror writers, for the Fae and the Angels cannot create, only men can - is briefly glimpsed but incredibly grotesque and unforgettable.
Beauty does get a sort of Happily Ever After, but - fittingly - there is no grand fairy tale ending. The ending is as uneasy as the story itself, deliberately so I suspect. While Beauty isn't exactly a likeable character, being too passive and not very curious, I did respect her persistence and endurance. And she had a very human, cunning intelligence which the faeries could not understand.
Overall, this is a very unusual work, and it is thought provoking. It won't appeal to all audiences, but the central message is perhaps more important than ever right now. I'm glad I finally read it, although I doubt I'll ever read it again.
I will, however, look for more of Tepper's work!
November 24, 2025
Sheri S. Tepper’s Beauty is a dazzling, genre-bending triumph that rightfully won the Locus Award in 1992. It stands as one of the most original fantasies ever written, reimagining the passive Sleeping Beauty as a time-traveling, resilient heroine. Instead of succumbing to the curse, Beauty is whisked away from the 14th century, traversing a dystopian 21st century and a faerie realm that is slowly fading away.
Tepper weaves a masterful tapestry of "adults Grimm," integrating Cinderella, the Frog Prince, and others into a cohesive, often heartbreaking narrative. While the novel is deeply feminist and environmentalist—mourning the loss of magic to the "Gobble-God" of modern consumption—these themes never overpower the story. Instead, they raise the stakes, making us cheer for Beauty as she matures from a sheltered princess into a woman fighting to save the soul of the world, and loathe her adversaries who represent apathy and greed.
It is a melancholic yet hopeful love letter to the fairy tale itself.
"It seems to me sometimes all beauty is dying. Which makes me hope that perhaps it isn't dead but only sleeping."
"We were given magic to use in creating wonder, and the gobble-god has sucked it dry... They cannot tolerate questions. They can believe any answer, no matter how false, so long as it is a certainty."
Tepper weaves a masterful tapestry of "adults Grimm," integrating Cinderella, the Frog Prince, and others into a cohesive, often heartbreaking narrative. While the novel is deeply feminist and environmentalist—mourning the loss of magic to the "Gobble-God" of modern consumption—these themes never overpower the story. Instead, they raise the stakes, making us cheer for Beauty as she matures from a sheltered princess into a woman fighting to save the soul of the world, and loathe her adversaries who represent apathy and greed.
It is a melancholic yet hopeful love letter to the fairy tale itself.
"It seems to me sometimes all beauty is dying. Which makes me hope that perhaps it isn't dead but only sleeping."
"We were given magic to use in creating wonder, and the gobble-god has sucked it dry... They cannot tolerate questions. They can believe any answer, no matter how false, so long as it is a certainty."
February 10, 2011
It took me a while to finish reading this book (In fact, when I was more than half way through, I almost quit, but Jackie encouraged me to finish the story.) There are several reasons for my reluctance to finish reading the book:
1. I wasn't able to fully grasp or keep track of the plot because the main character, "Beauty" keeps moving back and forth between different time dimensions and different worlds, meeting different characters. That was confusing to me. So there was a sense of vagueness as I read. (One of the GR reviewers* called the story "convoluted").
2. There were too many characters to keep track of. Perhaps they weren't fleshed out enough for me.
3. The story is unevenly paced. It would catch my interest and then lose it again.
4. The story seemed disjointed at times, perhaps because of all the time-shifts.
The things I liked about the book were:
1. The protagonist's love of the beauty of nature and her wish to preserve it.
2. The protagonist's dislike of horror and her raging against it.
3. The imaginative way the author inter-weaves characters from familiar fairy tales.
4. The ways the author points out how time has changed our culture over hundreds of years. For example, I was made to wonder about the years when there were no clocks. (I wish I could think of other examples from the book. They were like insights.)
5. The magic in the fantasy worlds which the author describes.
* Below is a link to a good GR review of this book:
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
Excerpt from Martine's review:
================================================
"It's hard to summarise the story as it is so terribly convoluted... ... If you can get over the disjointedness of the first half and the author's tendency to introduce cool ideas without really working them out, you'll find an imaginative and frequently entertaining (albeit depressing) fantasy story with some familiar, refreshingly un-Disney-like characters. ... It's not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but it's better than most fantasy books out there, and I have no trouble recommending it to those who like their fairy tales dark and bleak."
================================================
1. I wasn't able to fully grasp or keep track of the plot because the main character, "Beauty" keeps moving back and forth between different time dimensions and different worlds, meeting different characters. That was confusing to me. So there was a sense of vagueness as I read. (One of the GR reviewers* called the story "convoluted").
2. There were too many characters to keep track of. Perhaps they weren't fleshed out enough for me.
3. The story is unevenly paced. It would catch my interest and then lose it again.
4. The story seemed disjointed at times, perhaps because of all the time-shifts.
The things I liked about the book were:
1. The protagonist's love of the beauty of nature and her wish to preserve it.
2. The protagonist's dislike of horror and her raging against it.
3. The imaginative way the author inter-weaves characters from familiar fairy tales.
4. The ways the author points out how time has changed our culture over hundreds of years. For example, I was made to wonder about the years when there were no clocks. (I wish I could think of other examples from the book. They were like insights.)
5. The magic in the fantasy worlds which the author describes.
* Below is a link to a good GR review of this book:
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
Excerpt from Martine's review:
================================================
"It's hard to summarise the story as it is so terribly convoluted... ... If you can get over the disjointedness of the first half and the author's tendency to introduce cool ideas without really working them out, you'll find an imaginative and frequently entertaining (albeit depressing) fantasy story with some familiar, refreshingly un-Disney-like characters. ... It's not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but it's better than most fantasy books out there, and I have no trouble recommending it to those who like their fairy tales dark and bleak."
================================================
November 6, 2008
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.
February 27, 2018
Beauty is half-human and half-fairy with a mysterious object that burns in her chest - placed there by two fairies, Caraboose and Israfel. Her father neglects her (and her mother) going on excessive pilgrimages to find various holy relics. Beauty's mother abandons her as a young child and Beauty doesn't think much of it until she finds a letter written by her mother that asks her to come to the land of faeries. Her adventures begin as she seeks out her mother beginning in 14th century England before leapfrogging to the 21st century where magic has all but vanished and the Earth is destroyed. Beauty time travels back and forth trying to find the truth about what it means to be human and faery (the object in her chest is hope for humanity... I think). While I liked the fractured fairy tales, I didn't think the ideas on religion, feminism, ecological destruction, and the apocalypse were fleshed out enough to make sense in the end. At first, the story seemed like an allegory or metaphor for marginalized people, then I wondered if it symbolized fundamentalist views in religion. Tepper touches on everything and lands on nothing solidly.
The humor comes from poking fun at fairy tales in clever and grotesque ways. The Frog Prince turns into a prince when his grandma kisses him, not a princess. He helps Beauty weave a wisdom cap that she has to put on his head as a last ditch effort because he has the uncontrollable urge to kiss Sleeping Beauty which would mean him being cursed as well. When Cinderella's stepsister, Gloriana cuts off her foot to fit it in the glass slipper Tepper is referring to the original fairy tale but adding her own twist with Gloriana bleeding to death and Cinderella being the culprit in talking her into chopping off her foot. Cinderella in this fractured tale is meaner than her stepsisters. She also can't wait to hop into bed with the prince attempting to stay past midnight so her clothes will disappear when she's in the prince's arms and the spell is broken. Snow White is a cornflake and the seven dwarves are from Basque. There were many laugh out loud weird twists.
Illusions and symbols of the apocalypse, religion, and ecological destruction of Earth are abstract and interesting but don't come together in a way that makes sense. Beauty grows up in Westfaire, a place that represents either the loss of childhood innocence or the Garden of Eden or the rebirth of Earth after humans have destroyed the world. The church stole magic from faeries and the world ends because it grows darker and more evil by not believing in magic. Magic also represents the act of creating and humans have lost this ability in the future. The Dark Lord or devil is overcoming human ability to hope and create new things making Beauty's jump into the 21st century as a future filled with despair.
Beauty has to deal with abandonment and a mother that doesn't really care about her. Her mother is faery and immortal. Fairies view humans as animals for the most part. They made a covenant with the Holy One to protect humans and in exchange receive immortality. However, the King of Faery made a pact with the Dark Lord because he lusted after death and helped him build hell. This reminded me a bit of Dante's Inferno with the way fairies are similar to the indifferent people stuck in Limbo. They have a river Styx and character named, Charon, who is a ferryman in this hell. The hell is full of pornographers and TV producers which is too limited in scope. Tepper does create the land of Faery as one that is beautiful only for its illusions. As time passes, faery people use the magic of glamor to cover its ugliness and indifference to human qualities. This was presented quite well along with the character development of a strong female protagonist in Beauty. She could have easily been presented as a victim but she is a survivor who grows in wisdom as she ages. The story ends on a strong note returning to the plot of a fractured fairy tale. I just found the unfocused subplots distracting.
The humor comes from poking fun at fairy tales in clever and grotesque ways. The Frog Prince turns into a prince when his grandma kisses him, not a princess. He helps Beauty weave a wisdom cap that she has to put on his head as a last ditch effort because he has the uncontrollable urge to kiss Sleeping Beauty which would mean him being cursed as well. When Cinderella's stepsister, Gloriana cuts off her foot to fit it in the glass slipper Tepper is referring to the original fairy tale but adding her own twist with Gloriana bleeding to death and Cinderella being the culprit in talking her into chopping off her foot. Cinderella in this fractured tale is meaner than her stepsisters. She also can't wait to hop into bed with the prince attempting to stay past midnight so her clothes will disappear when she's in the prince's arms and the spell is broken. Snow White is a cornflake and the seven dwarves are from Basque. There were many laugh out loud weird twists.
Illusions and symbols of the apocalypse, religion, and ecological destruction of Earth are abstract and interesting but don't come together in a way that makes sense. Beauty grows up in Westfaire, a place that represents either the loss of childhood innocence or the Garden of Eden or the rebirth of Earth after humans have destroyed the world. The church stole magic from faeries and the world ends because it grows darker and more evil by not believing in magic. Magic also represents the act of creating and humans have lost this ability in the future. The Dark Lord or devil is overcoming human ability to hope and create new things making Beauty's jump into the 21st century as a future filled with despair.
Beauty has to deal with abandonment and a mother that doesn't really care about her. Her mother is faery and immortal. Fairies view humans as animals for the most part. They made a covenant with the Holy One to protect humans and in exchange receive immortality. However, the King of Faery made a pact with the Dark Lord because he lusted after death and helped him build hell. This reminded me a bit of Dante's Inferno with the way fairies are similar to the indifferent people stuck in Limbo. They have a river Styx and character named, Charon, who is a ferryman in this hell. The hell is full of pornographers and TV producers which is too limited in scope. Tepper does create the land of Faery as one that is beautiful only for its illusions. As time passes, faery people use the magic of glamor to cover its ugliness and indifference to human qualities. This was presented quite well along with the character development of a strong female protagonist in Beauty. She could have easily been presented as a victim but she is a survivor who grows in wisdom as she ages. The story ends on a strong note returning to the plot of a fractured fairy tale. I just found the unfocused subplots distracting.
June 22, 2020
Very Bleak. AND I’m here for it. Great interwoven fairytales and non-linear timeline. 10/10.
February 24, 2017
4.5 stars. It took me so many tries to start this book. I don't know why. I liked the premise from the very first page - a fairy tale set in the historical 14th century! - but after two false starts a few years ago, I set it aside.
This time, I jumped in with determination, and was stunned to find - mere pages after the part where I had given up twice before - the plot took a complete swan dive off the deep end and the book became something completely different than what I had expected it to be.
It is fairy tale, it is science fiction, it is cautionary tale, and it is beautiful. Tepper weaves together elements I would never, ever have expected to coexist, combining the historic settings of 14th and 15th century Europe with the traditional worlds of Fairy with an original philosophy on the creation and existence of other realities with an entirely doomful vision of the 22nd century fate of humanity. The story hops around between all these times, places, and realities, leaving our protagonist - Beauty of the Sleeping Beauty tale - stronger and more broken by turns. The conclusion of the tale was a perfect mixture of hope and bittersweet.
My two very small complaints are the treatment of the third thread (why did Beauty spend 390 of 412 pages never thinking to ask about it?) and the final revelation of what the burning inside her was. I mean... it was fine, but... why did Carabosse have to seem so surprised the Beauty hadn't figured it out? Nothing any of them ever said or did would have caused me to guess at its actual nature. (I expected it to ultimately be declared a burning little ball of hope. Which was dumber, but still...)
This has been my best fiction read for quite awhile.
This time, I jumped in with determination, and was stunned to find - mere pages after the part where I had given up twice before - the plot took a complete swan dive off the deep end and the book became something completely different than what I had expected it to be.
It is fairy tale, it is science fiction, it is cautionary tale, and it is beautiful. Tepper weaves together elements I would never, ever have expected to coexist, combining the historic settings of 14th and 15th century Europe with the traditional worlds of Fairy with an original philosophy on the creation and existence of other realities with an entirely doomful vision of the 22nd century fate of humanity. The story hops around between all these times, places, and realities, leaving our protagonist - Beauty of the Sleeping Beauty tale - stronger and more broken by turns. The conclusion of the tale was a perfect mixture of hope and bittersweet.
My two very small complaints are the treatment of the third thread (why did Beauty spend 390 of 412 pages never thinking to ask about it?) and the final revelation of what the burning inside her was. I mean... it was fine, but... why did Carabosse have to seem so surprised the Beauty hadn't figured it out? Nothing any of them ever said or did would have caused me to guess at its actual nature. (I expected it to ultimately be declared a burning little ball of hope. Which was dumber, but still...)
This has been my best fiction read for quite awhile.
November 2, 2013
I love fairy tales and especially those aimed at adults. Beauty definitely delivers this in spades. Not only does Beauty weave in elements of the classic Sleeping Beauty tale, it also touches on many others as well, Cinderella and Snow White to name two.
Beauty is a fantasy, fairy-tale, science fiction mix with an unmistakable message about the future consequence of society turning its collective back on magic. Toward the end of the book, Tepper's Beauty character ponders on how people have eschewed the simple magic and beauty of nature for the uglier, meaner, manufactured entertainments of the world.
I rounded up to four stars on this because Tepper's writing is beautiful and the plot is very intriguing, but if 1/2 stars had been available I'd have given it 3.5 instead. The plot was interesting, but bordered on too complicated for my liking. If this had been a trilogy of shorter books I might have had an easier time of it, but if I'm going to be completely honest, probably not. As much as I hate to admit it, my brain can only process so much information before it becomes exhausted and Tepper's jumping around through time and introduction of new characters eventually exhausted my limited reserves.
There were two parts in the book where Tepper remarked on Grumpkin's world view (Grumpkin being Beauty's cat) that made me grin:
"I have noticed that cats are little impressed by religion." and The end of the world does not impress cats."
Could it be any more obvious that Tepper is a seasoned cat owner? ;)
=============================
I registered this book at Bookcrossing.com!
http://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/1...
Beauty is a fantasy, fairy-tale, science fiction mix with an unmistakable message about the future consequence of society turning its collective back on magic. Toward the end of the book, Tepper's Beauty character ponders on how people have eschewed the simple magic and beauty of nature for the uglier, meaner, manufactured entertainments of the world.
I rounded up to four stars on this because Tepper's writing is beautiful and the plot is very intriguing, but if 1/2 stars had been available I'd have given it 3.5 instead. The plot was interesting, but bordered on too complicated for my liking. If this had been a trilogy of shorter books I might have had an easier time of it, but if I'm going to be completely honest, probably not. As much as I hate to admit it, my brain can only process so much information before it becomes exhausted and Tepper's jumping around through time and introduction of new characters eventually exhausted my limited reserves.
There were two parts in the book where Tepper remarked on Grumpkin's world view (Grumpkin being Beauty's cat) that made me grin:
"I have noticed that cats are little impressed by religion." and The end of the world does not impress cats."
Could it be any more obvious that Tepper is a seasoned cat owner? ;)
=============================
I registered this book at Bookcrossing.com!
http://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/1...
March 17, 2011
A classic work of fantasy well deserving of it's place in the Fantasy Masterworks series.
I have never read anything by this author before and was pleasantly suprised by her delightful prose and the vastness of her imagination. This is not conventional fantasy quest story but follows in the fantasy tradition of railing against modern times and the direction that mankind seems to be headed in.
Tepper obviously has very clear ideas about what she thinks is wrong with society and which beliefs system are responsible. This come across a bit too didactically in the text for my liking and I would have preferred a less heavy handed, more ambiguous approach. I didn't always agree with everything she said but I could understand the point she was trying to make and, for me, it didn't get in the way of the story. Although, I can see how it might for some.
More interesting for me was the the story of the Beauty's life and the events that shape her. She visits different time periods in our history (and future), many different places (both real and imaginary) and becomes embroiled in a variety of well known fairy tales.
I really enjoyed it and look forward to reading some more of her work shortly.
I have never read anything by this author before and was pleasantly suprised by her delightful prose and the vastness of her imagination. This is not conventional fantasy quest story but follows in the fantasy tradition of railing against modern times and the direction that mankind seems to be headed in.
Tepper obviously has very clear ideas about what she thinks is wrong with society and which beliefs system are responsible. This come across a bit too didactically in the text for my liking and I would have preferred a less heavy handed, more ambiguous approach. I didn't always agree with everything she said but I could understand the point she was trying to make and, for me, it didn't get in the way of the story. Although, I can see how it might for some.
More interesting for me was the the story of the Beauty's life and the events that shape her. She visits different time periods in our history (and future), many different places (both real and imaginary) and becomes embroiled in a variety of well known fairy tales.
I really enjoyed it and look forward to reading some more of her work shortly.
October 25, 2011
I started this book well over a week-and-a-half ago: I still haven't made any progress. (Note: I quit on page 140.)
The initial premise was quite nice. I liked Beauty's voice; while Tepper didn't seem to be doing a radical reinterpretation of the fairytale, it wasn't offensive either.
Then Beauty time-traveled. Tepper nearly lost me there, but completely alienated me with her preachy environmentalist and feminist themes. Yes, the present Western world is patriarchal and materialistic. But it is not as bad as Tepper describes.
Finally, the whole 'fairy godmother' thing never captured my interest. Oh no! A Dark Lord that's evil. I couldn't bring myself to care.
The initial premise was quite nice. I liked Beauty's voice; while Tepper didn't seem to be doing a radical reinterpretation of the fairytale, it wasn't offensive either.
Then Beauty time-traveled. Tepper nearly lost me there, but completely alienated me with her preachy environmentalist and feminist themes. Yes, the present Western world is patriarchal and materialistic. But it is not as bad as Tepper describes.
Finally, the whole 'fairy godmother' thing never captured my interest. Oh no! A Dark Lord that's evil. I couldn't bring myself to care.
November 18, 2013
Sheri S. Tepper really hates cement, women having sex outside of romantic relationships, horror writers, and the music the kids are listening to these days.
The plot meanders and the didacticism is utterly graceless. The Gate to Women's Country and Gibbon's Decline and Fall were formative books for me, but 15 years later Tepper's work doesn't hold up.
The plot meanders and the didacticism is utterly graceless. The Gate to Women's Country and Gibbon's Decline and Fall were formative books for me, but 15 years later Tepper's work doesn't hold up.
December 22, 2015
No esperaba mucho del libro, y terminó gustándome mucho. Que historia tan bien hilada, se aventó la historia de Bella, historias futuras con un porvenir muy malo para la humanidad, conservó cosas verdaderas del cuento original de la Bella Duermiente, metió historias fantásticas con Hadas, y todavía se las ingenió para incluir religiones y mitos pasados. Nunca se me hizo que perdiera el sentido la historia, aún con todos los viajes en el tiempo. Y el final me ha parecido totalmente adecuado. Me encantó. Ciertamente fue una historia muy diferente a lo que yo esperaba. Y además, no tiene una buena visión de la humanidad en el futuro, y temo decir que posiblemente no ande tan desatinada.
May 22, 2009
Wow, this one could have come straight from the fever-dreams of Andrea Dworkin. What starts out as an interesting variant of the Sleeping Beauty tale soon changes into a truly horrifying dystopian screed against humanity, particularly the male wing of same. I got about 220 pages in when I had to start skipping ahead to keep from running screaming into the night. This is so bleak and hopeless that I can't recommend it. There are some images I can't seem to get out of my head, and I'm heartily sorry.
June 5, 2024
Reviewing Beauty is as easy as explaining it. Which is to say: nigh impossible.
What starts as a retelling of Sleeping Beauty takes a hard slide into Orwellian nightmare fuel, before sliding again into a darkly feminist take on Cinderella, and again and again, until the reader is as lost as the titular heroine. Beauty’s quest to reclaim her sense of self and bring magic back into the world turns into a multi-generational saga whose broader details we may have heard a time or two before, but never like this.
I found myself thinking, of all things, John Boorman’s Excalibur. In trying to cram the entirety of the Arthurian legend into two-and-a-half hours, that film emerged as a singular work of artistry and near-incoherence, something you can’t look away from or fully comprehend. Beauty is a similarly beautiful mess. Tepper’s prose is often lyrical and occasionally poetic, even as it throws half a dozen fairytales into its protagonist’s legacy, crammed with a rabbit hole’s worth of fleeting characters and wondrous, dying lands. And I can’t not mention the (admittedly heavy-handed) moral that humanity is its own worst enemy, which only women can save itself from. For such unabashed ambition it must be commended, and for those who can tap into its singular logic, they will be richly rewarded.
A warped allegory of a mad fable of a fierce cautionary tale.
Content warnings: age-old sexism, rape, child murder, implied cannibalism, human sacrifice
What starts as a retelling of Sleeping Beauty takes a hard slide into Orwellian nightmare fuel, before sliding again into a darkly feminist take on Cinderella, and again and again, until the reader is as lost as the titular heroine. Beauty’s quest to reclaim her sense of self and bring magic back into the world turns into a multi-generational saga whose broader details we may have heard a time or two before, but never like this.
I found myself thinking, of all things, John Boorman’s Excalibur. In trying to cram the entirety of the Arthurian legend into two-and-a-half hours, that film emerged as a singular work of artistry and near-incoherence, something you can’t look away from or fully comprehend. Beauty is a similarly beautiful mess. Tepper’s prose is often lyrical and occasionally poetic, even as it throws half a dozen fairytales into its protagonist’s legacy, crammed with a rabbit hole’s worth of fleeting characters and wondrous, dying lands. And I can’t not mention the (admittedly heavy-handed) moral that humanity is its own worst enemy, which only women can save itself from. For such unabashed ambition it must be commended, and for those who can tap into its singular logic, they will be richly rewarded.
A warped allegory of a mad fable of a fierce cautionary tale.
Content warnings: age-old sexism, rape, child murder, implied cannibalism, human sacrifice
August 20, 2018
This is a preachy medieval fantasy science fiction story of the eco-apocalypse. With fairies.
The author seems to have a strange obsession with “horro-porn,” which seems to be absolutely pervasive in her version of contemporary society, though I’m hard pressed to imagine how someone like her main character Beauty could just stumble across vast quantities of such literature without explicitly seeking it out. But it (along with rapists and pro-lifers) is part of man’s inevitable downward spiral into destroying all life on earch, so it’s up to Beauty and her friends to preserve it—including humans, who will inevitably destroy it because that’s just what humans do.
The story is presented as Beauty’s journal, periodically updated throughout the story. This conceit doesn’t work. At some points, the journal is impossibly detailed, recounting whole stories and long lists of exotic names; at others, she can’t remember the name of someone she’d talked to, or whether she saw two or three people coming her way. It just doesn’t work as a journal, and yet the author never lets you forget that it’s supposed to be a journal.
The story uses time-travel to cleverly weave together several fairy tales, but the nature of the magical time-travel and the passage of time itself are rather unclear. On several occasions, Beauty returns to her own time only to find she’s arrived too late, months or years after she left—even though she can time-travel, and she never tries to go back farther. She does attempt to alter history on a grand scale, but without ever determining whether the past can be altered.
I am not good at wrapping up reviews, so here’s the entire story in a spoiler tag:
The author seems to have a strange obsession with “horro-porn,” which seems to be absolutely pervasive in her version of contemporary society, though I’m hard pressed to imagine how someone like her main character Beauty could just stumble across vast quantities of such literature without explicitly seeking it out. But it (along with rapists and pro-lifers) is part of man’s inevitable downward spiral into destroying all life on earch, so it’s up to Beauty and her friends to preserve it—including humans, who will inevitably destroy it because that’s just what humans do.
The story is presented as Beauty’s journal, periodically updated throughout the story. This conceit doesn’t work. At some points, the journal is impossibly detailed, recounting whole stories and long lists of exotic names; at others, she can’t remember the name of someone she’d talked to, or whether she saw two or three people coming her way. It just doesn’t work as a journal, and yet the author never lets you forget that it’s supposed to be a journal.
The story uses time-travel to cleverly weave together several fairy tales, but the nature of the magical time-travel and the passage of time itself are rather unclear. On several occasions, Beauty returns to her own time only to find she’s arrived too late, months or years after she left—even though she can time-travel, and she never tries to go back farther. She does attempt to alter history on a grand scale, but without ever determining whether the past can be altered.
I am not good at wrapping up reviews, so here’s the entire story in a spoiler tag:
October 4, 2008
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 philosophy on "ecofeminism" (Look it up, I didn't think it was a real word either.)
I am supportive of authors who try to break free and write something truly unique, but this book is nothing more than a political agenda disguised as a "twisted fairy tale". There is as much talk of rape, deforesting, killing whales, and letting retarded babies live due to being pro-life (Her words, not mine), as there is talk of the actual characters and story. The characters in her story feel more like her prisoners than her storytellers, as often the dialogue feels forced and at times contain words and language that break the immersion with the story.
This book for me was not a complete waste of time, as I did have plenty of things to rant about with my friends for the few days it took me to finish it, however I recommend that no one else pick this sorry excuse for a novel up.
I am supportive of authors who try to break free and write something truly unique, but this book is nothing more than a political agenda disguised as a "twisted fairy tale". There is as much talk of rape, deforesting, killing whales, and letting retarded babies live due to being pro-life (Her words, not mine), as there is talk of the actual characters and story. The characters in her story feel more like her prisoners than her storytellers, as often the dialogue feels forced and at times contain words and language that break the immersion with the story.
This book for me was not a complete waste of time, as I did have plenty of things to rant about with my friends for the few days it took me to finish it, however I recommend that no one else pick this sorry excuse for a novel up.
July 9, 2012
I hesitate between three or four stars on this one, because while I love the themes of this book, and cannot but approve of its quoting Swinburne, the reading experience is not as good as the premise would suggest. It's a fairytale - a collection of fairytales woven into a single tapestry - with more realism than might be thought, and with a clear, strong but still good moral message: take care of Beauty, in all of its (her) forms.
The book's strengths lie in the way it blends fairytale dynamics with more realistic concerns, such as childbirth, or aging, and the issues it raises, of worth and of horror and of nature and humanity's place in it. Its weaknesses lie in how it tries to encompass all the things - at times it's hard to see where it's all going, and I got a bit bored with its meandering pace and with the way Beauty spent her life and Tepper the book's pages. Though the ending in part makes up for it, this concesssion to realism and reality's less than linear path to, well, anything, grows tedious at length. It might have been a better book if it had constrained itself somewhat.
I would recommend it, but warn the reader not to expect breathless excitement or complete coherence: rather, to reflect on the book's message and to see if you, like Beauty, sometimes feel awe at the world's wonders burning in your chest.
The book's strengths lie in the way it blends fairytale dynamics with more realistic concerns, such as childbirth, or aging, and the issues it raises, of worth and of horror and of nature and humanity's place in it. Its weaknesses lie in how it tries to encompass all the things - at times it's hard to see where it's all going, and I got a bit bored with its meandering pace and with the way Beauty spent her life and Tepper the book's pages. Though the ending in part makes up for it, this concesssion to realism and reality's less than linear path to, well, anything, grows tedious at length. It might have been a better book if it had constrained itself somewhat.
I would recommend it, but warn the reader not to expect breathless excitement or complete coherence: rather, to reflect on the book's message and to see if you, like Beauty, sometimes feel awe at the world's wonders burning in your chest.
August 17, 2014
Well. That sucked.
And I was so inclined to like it, too.
And I was so inclined to like it, too.
July 24, 2019
I picked up this book based on 1. a recommendation for another book by Tepper, Grass, which is supposed to be a ground-breaking sci-fi work, but which I could not find at my library and 2. its description as a modern retelling of the Sleeping Beauty fairy tale. Sleeping Beauty was my favorite Disney movie as a kid, and I really enjoyed Robin McKinley's take on it in Spindle's End, so I thought I'd give it a shot.
Yawn. This book was boring, preachy, and rambling. Tepper meandered all over the place, and there seemed to be no consistent story arc, which is essential in a time-traveling novel (spoiler, sorry). The second a scene started to get interesting, we were off to another long-winded, passive description of something we weren't given enough context to give a crap about. Also, while I'm an environmentalist myself, the "Save the Earth" theme was laid on so thick that I was rolling my eyes (plus, the ableist shit about people not aborting "retarded" babies and then going to Hell because they worshiped the fetus more than God rubbed me the wrooooooong way). All in all, it felt like she picked a bunch of random fairy tales and bits of legend, seasoned it liberally with her personal biases and served us up a steaming heap of nonsense.
Yawn. This book was boring, preachy, and rambling. Tepper meandered all over the place, and there seemed to be no consistent story arc, which is essential in a time-traveling novel (spoiler, sorry). The second a scene started to get interesting, we were off to another long-winded, passive description of something we weren't given enough context to give a crap about. Also, while I'm an environmentalist myself, the "Save the Earth" theme was laid on so thick that I was rolling my eyes (plus, the ableist shit about people not aborting "retarded" babies and then going to Hell because they worshiped the fetus more than God rubbed me the wrooooooong way). All in all, it felt like she picked a bunch of random fairy tales and bits of legend, seasoned it liberally with her personal biases and served us up a steaming heap of nonsense.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 437 reviews