Beauty by Sheri S. Tepper

Title: Beauty

Author: Sheri S. Tepper

Publisher: Gollancz (Fantasy Masterworks)

Originally published in 1991

Pages: 476

Genres: Fantasy, Science Fiction

Format: Paperback

On her sixteenth birthday, the princess Beauty sidesteps the sleeping curse placed upon her by her wicked aunt, the fairy Carabosse - only to be kidnapped by visitors from another time and place, far from the picturesque castle in fourteenth century England. 

She is taken to the world of the future, a savage society where, even amongst the teeming billions, she is utterly alone. And as she travels magically to places both imaginary and real, Beauty eventually comes to understand her special place in humanity’s destiny. 

I love this book. It has mixed reviews elsewhere, but I think most of those come from people who found the time-travelling element confusing. The way I approach time travel in books is to accept that after every instance both myself and the character will take at least a couple of pages to find our feet in the narrative again. Personally, any book that takes one of the most helplessly inanimate heroines of our past, and gives her agency, purpose, and power, gets my immediate approval.  

In this book traditional fairytales are worked into a new tapestry that reaches far back to our past, and reveals a disturbing future. With a clear feminist and environmental agenda the book avoids the lure of the soap-box and instead drives its messages home through compelling narrative leading always towards a foreseen eventuality. However, although the eventuality of mankind is foreseen, Beauty’s journey is not as it zig-zags through time and ventures into faerie realms. 

Beauty herself remains believable as a starry-eyed fifteen year old right the way through to exhausted old age. She is not perfect, indeed she is delightfully cunning and manipulative, and at different points takes on many of the different roles assigned to women in fairytales. She is also the victim of violence and sometimes its instigator and enabler, this book is not gentle but stark, uncompromising, and often grotesque, all without lessening the wonder, magic, and inherent romance of the story. 

This is a book that you can gobble up in any place, at any time. Take it on holiday with you or on your work commute, the story will carry you through wherever you are. I will issue a healthy warning, the future that Tepper paints is grim and the images conjured in my mind while reading those passages have stayed with me. This is definitely an adult book, and I would strongly advise reading it first before handing it to any young person.