Beauty
#5013.85 of 664 ranked universes · full ranking
Books 1 book Status Complete 1991 Reading commitment Low Sheri S. Tepper Last reviewed 2026-09-05
Overview
Beauty is a standalone novel following Beauty, a young woman descended from the Sleeping Beauty of legend and cursed at birth by a vengeful fairy. Fleeing her own foretold sixteenth-birthday curse, she is instead abducted into a bleak, overpopulated future where magic, myth, and the natural world have been all but erased, and must travel across time and multiple realms to preserve what beauty and wildness remain.
Fairy-tale retelling · For Adult
Core Canon: Reading Order (1 work) counts toward ranking
Beauty (1991) core · 3.85 (6,111 ratings); A Sleeping Beauty-descended protagonist cursed at birth is abducted into a dystopian future and travels through time and multiple realms to preserve magic, nature and beauty against ecological destruction. Won the 1992 Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel; was also a preliminary nominee for the 1992 Hugo Award for Best Novel and a Mythopoeic Award for Adult Literature nominee.
Quick answers
- How many books are in Beauty? Beauty's Core Canon is 1 book.
- Is Beauty finished? Complete (1991).
- How much reading does Beauty take? Low reading commitment (estimated from 1 Core Canon book · ~463 pages).
- How is Beauty ranked? #501 of 664 ranked universes on this site, based on 6,111 reader ratings across 1 Core Canon book. See the full ranking for how this is calculated.
Why is it ranked #501?
Ranked #501 of 664 ranked universes.
- Average reader rating of 3.85 across 1 core book.
- A smaller readership (6,111 ratings), so the score carries less weight of numbers.
- Less than 0.01 behind #500, Brown Girl in the Ring (a finer tie-break level decides the order).
- Below the top-10 average of 4.45.
- A single standalone novel: ranked on that one book alone.
Why explore this universe?
Rated · 1 book · Complete · 6k ratings · Ranks #501 overall
Good choice if you want a quick, low-commitment fairy-tale retelling fantasy universe that's already finished, so there's no wait for the next book.
Reading order
A single Core Canon work: no sequencing question to resolve.
Awards (verified)
- Locus Award (Best Fantasy Novel), 1992: won: Beauty
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Suggestions computed from what Beauty and each of these worlds have in common on record (subgenre, audience, shape, reading commitment and score), not a documented narrative connection.
- The Adventures of Mary Darling Fairy-tale retelling · Complete · Low commitment · 3.97
- Deerskin Fairy-tale retelling / Dark fantasy · Complete · Low commitment · 3.94
- The River Has Roots Fairy-tale retelling / Mythic fantasy · Complete · Low commitment · 3.94
- Thornhedge Fairy-tale retelling · Complete · Low commitment · 3.93
Official resources
Research details
Ranking metrics: weighted average 3.85 across 6,111 ratings on 1 Core Canon book. See Why is it ranked here? above for the full breakdown, or the full ranking.
How do we know this?
Admission: Beauty (Sheri S. Tepper) accepted 2026-09-05
Sources: (see source tier definitions)
Last reviewed: 2026-09-05
Rule: Registers as a single-work Core Canon universe; Tepper wrote no other novel set in this same continuity.