From Publishers Weekly
The latest from the talented Tepper ( The Gate to Women's Country ) is many things: a fantasy of manners, a dystopian science fiction tale, a time-travel story and an eco-morality play. Still more impressive is the evolution of the narrator and title character, whom we follow for a century of life (ages 16 to 116) as she matures gradually and subtly from a pouty, slightly spoiled daughter of a duke to a wise old woman. Retelling various fairy tales, Tepper strips away each story's gloss. Sleeping Beauty's sleep continues endlessly, prince notwithstanding; Cinderella is as heartless and nasty to her ugly stepsisters as they are to her; and Snow White is a blond bimbo, while the dwarfs are a querulous collection of Basque brothers. Tepper manages to maintain interest, style and theme throughout these disparate elements, and she consistently sniffs out the ugly (e.g., the storybook land of Chinanga, which has all the facets of a fairyland but is an extremely boring place to live). Despite an often depressing worldview, this is a beautiful book from one of the genre's best writers. Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From School Library Journal
YA-- Many a reader has had the sometimes sobering, sometimes epiphanic experience of rereading a favorite from her youth only to discover that its remembered charms only scratched the surface of its treasures. Beauty is such a book. It takes the form of a diary, written by a 15-year-old girl of noble birth, begun in 1347 as the unsuspecting heroine is about to embark upon a harrowing journey through time and space. It is not long before readers recognize the writer as a familiar character, ``Sleeping Beauty.'' Tepper's triumph in this novel is in turning Beauty simultaneously into a distinctive human character and a glowing symbol of humanity's hope. Her victory over the fantastic circumstances of her life (and do not make the mistake of assuming that familiarity with the fairy tale is familiarity with the plot) will be shared by readers. Language, story, and setting combine to enliven the character and amplify the theme. The fairy-tale allusions might provide an excellent English-class exercise, while the ethical systems presented should make for lively debate. And when today's young readers return to Beauty at age 40, they won't be disappointed. --Cathy Chauvette, Fairfax County Pub . Lib . , VACopyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
Born in the 14th century to a woman of faerie blood, Beauty is raised by a negligent father and several doting aunts until her 16th birthday, when she narrowly escapes the curse set upon her at her christening. While her household falls into an enchanted sleep, she undertakes a journey across the leagues of time to the modern world and beyond, into an imaginary universe, in search of her destiny. Identifying the familiar fairy tales cleverly retold in this graceful novel only scratches the surface of the story behind the stories. Tepper ( Grass , LJ 9/15/89; The Gate to Women's Country , Doubleday, 1988) writes from the heart, using the stuff of childhood fables to tell a cautionary yet hopeful tale. Most libraries will want this.Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Kirkus Reviews
From the author of Raising the Stones (1990), etc., a Faery- inspired meditation on a dying Earth. Most of the inhabitants of Faery care nothing for the evil Dark Lord; only the good fairies Caraboose and Israfel make long- range plans to defeat him. As part of the plan, they conceal within the body of half-fairy, half-human Beauty a mysterious glowing object. Beginning in 14th-century England, Beauty's various adventures (including a trip to the 21st century, where magic has vanished altogether) give rise to several well-known fairy tales; but in her long efforts to evade the Dark Lord, Beauty loses her fairy-given immortality; her fairy mother cares nothing for her; and only in the far future, after life as we know it has been extinguished, will Mother Earth (the glowing object is an embodiment of all Earthly life) be reborn. Too fractured to succeed as metaphor; neither does it connect as allegory: Tepper can't decide whether to warn against a gathering spiritual darkness, lament the collapse of an aesthetic ideal, or thunder against global eco-disaster. In any event, nothing shapely or persuasive emerges from this mass of squirming, mismatched parts. -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.


Review
"Tepper is a  wise and compassionate narrator, and when it comes  to spinning a yarn that you don't ever want to  stop reading, there are few better spinners than  she."--The Magazine Of Fantasy & Science  Fiction

"Magnificent. . .This adult fairly tale  entertains and delivers a message in the best  tradition of the fantasy classics."--The  Denver Post.


From the Paperback edition.


Review
"Tepper is a  wise and compassionate narrator, and when it comes  to spinning a yarn that you don't ever want to  stop reading, there are few better spinners than  she."--The Magazine Of Fantasy & Science  Fiction

"Magnificent. . .This adult fairly tale  entertains and delivers a message in the best  tradition of the fantasy classics."--The  Denver Post.


From the Paperback edition.

ANNOTATION

One of the most popular and provocative new voices in speculative fiction has transformed the fairy tale of Sleeping Beauty into a wry look at the real world. Captured by time-travellers just as she is about to fall asleep, Beauty winds up a 90's co-ed and discovers that despite technological changes, beauty is destroyed everywhere.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

With the critically acclaimed novels The Gate To Women's Country, Raising The Stones, and the Hugo-nominated Grass, Sheri Tepper has established herself as one of the major science fiction writers of out Time. In Beauty, she broadens her territory even further, with a novel that evokes all the richness of fairy tale and fable. Drawing on the wellspring of tales such as "Sleeping Beauty," Beauty is a moving novel of love and loss, hope and despair, magic and nature. Set against a backdrop both enchanted and frightening, the story begins with a wicked aunt's curse that will afflict a young woman named Beauty on her sixteenth birthday. Though Beauty is able to sidestep tragedy, she soon finds herself embarked on an adventure of vast consequences. For it becomes clear that the enchanted places of this fantastic world—a place not unlike our own—are in danger and must be saved before it is too late.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

The latest from the talented Tepper ( The Gate to Women's Country ) is many things: a fantasy of manners, a dystopian science fiction tale, a time-travel story and an eco-morality play. Still more impressive is the evolution of the narrator and title character, whom we follow for a century of life (ages 16 to 116) as she matures gradually and subtly from a pouty, slightly spoiled daughter of a duke to a wise old woman. Retelling various fairy tales, Tepper strips away each story's gloss. Sleeping Beauty's sleep continues endlessly, prince notwithstanding; Cinderella is as heartless and nasty to her ugly stepsisters as they are to her; and Snow White is a blond bimbo, while the dwarfs are a querulous collection of Basque brothers. Tepper manages to maintain interest, style and theme throughout these disparate elements, and she consistently sniffs out the ugly (e.g., the storybook land of Chinanga, which has all the facets of a fairyland but is an extremely boring place to live). Despite an often depressing worldview, this is a beautiful book from one of the genre's best writers. (Aug.)

Library Journal

Born in the 14th century to a woman of faerie blood, Beauty is raised by a negligent father and several doting aunts until her 16th birthday, when she narrowly escapes the curse set upon her at her christening. While her household falls into an enchanted sleep, she undertakes a journey across the leagues of time to the modern world and beyond, into an imaginary universe, in search of her destiny. Identifying the familiar fairy tales cleverly retold in this graceful novel only scratches the surface of the story behind the stories. Tepper ( Grass , LJ 9/15/89; The Gate to Women's Country , Doubleday, 1988) writes from the heart, using the stuff of childhood fables to tell a cautionary yet hopeful tale. Most libraries will want this.

School Library Journal