Rating: 
Summary: release me from poor judgment
Review: read it because i bought the trilogy set. my bad x3. if you like anne rice don't read this junk, it'll tarnish your opinion of her writing ability. how could such a good story teller (vampires) miss all the fairytale and just write porn? stick to vampires anne...please.
Rating: 
Summary: Fascinating, but No Vampires
Review: Really, this book is quite a change from Anne Rice's usual vampire romps. I might as well confess my dirty little secret-- I really don't care for almost any of her vampire books. The main problem (as I see it-- and many don't agree!) is that any type of genuine character arc is nearly impossible. If one is writing the most overheated prose possible which represents the absolute height of fevered emotion and experience at every conceivable moment, and if the characters involved already HAVE every power, ability, and experience they possibly could possess, then there's nowhere to go! However, the Beauty series succeeded for precisely the opposite reason. They represent a series of stages in Beauty's immersion into an erotic world of dominance and submission. Of course, the fundamental character arc problem is still there, and it does begin to become obvious by the end of the third book. We never really are given to understand why Beauty permits herself to become immersed in this world, or of what her inner life consists. But there's a unique kind of "experience arc" that comes very close to making up for it.
Rating: 
Summary: Wimpy ending to a weak effort
Review: Rice tries to pull all the lose ends together in the third book of her Beauty Trilogy but she honestly seems out of steam and spankings. I would not recommend this book to anyone unless they have read the other two books in the trilogy. Beauty and Tristan are kidnapped by a Sultan and his court, but the sexual games remain much the same with spanking as the primary focus of obedience and submission. The sex scenes remain repetitive and thus border on boring. Even after three books, Beauty remains very one dimensional, almost mentally retarded. There really is no plot, only situations for sexual encounters. The ending, where Beauty and Tristan are finally joined as husband and wife, King and Queen, is extremely weak and contrived. This series is the weakest product produced by Anne Rice. She should have trusted her characters to have some internal growth and change, some intelligence.
Rating: 
Summary: my humble opinion (brooklyn buddhist bi bookworm)
Review: Take a glimpse into the sexual imagination of Anne Rice by picking up this series. But i must warn you that this is not for the sexually un-adventurous, nor those not inclined towards S&M. I have read most of Rice's books and this Sleeping Beauty series is my least favorite. Only beacuse in terms of quality erotic writing with "believable" characters, Rice has written much better books than this. But keep in mind that this is an adult fairy tale (get it? Sleeping Beauty), so there's no motivation for any of the characters to come across to the reader like a true human, but that's just my preference. this series is a great example of applying the rules and fantasies of Sexual Master/Slave relationships to the fairy tale world. have fun!
Rating:
Summary: Rice Destroyed the Fantasy
Review: The first book of the series had my interest. But by the end I was not only horrified but terrbibly bored. By this time Beauty and her buddies have been through this path: capture, castle, village, kidnap to the Arabian plalace. I was all excited about the wonders and mysteries and exotic forms of slavery and punishment, only to be very dissappointed in how little we learned about the palace in the first place. Rice made a major mistake by villinazing the Sultan of the palace. ... This really destroyed the idea that this is "fantasy", a world where no one really gets "hurt, injured or cut" as two characters stated in the previous books. The fact that Beauty might have truly been injured in this same way really scared me half to death because I wasn't expecting "real pain" or "real danger" to enter this story. The only thing that made this volume worth reading was the rebellion of one of the slaves, who surprised me and thrilled me to no end. And then it went back to being boring. Altough, men who liked to be dominated hardcore might not find it that way since a great portion of books 2 and 3 was written to cater to men's needs (oh Anne, why???)
Rating:
Summary: Resilience and slavery
Review: The first moment of their sultanic experience is to be degraded even more. Their being transformed into sexual toys is considered by their captors as destroying their intellect. They thus become mute animals that have no other level of existence than this very sexual drive and desire to satisfy all sexual and also cruel pulses in the sultan and his court. But this third volume shows the metaphoric or even allegorical dimension of the trilogy. Beyond the erotic speculation in the book, Anne Rice shows how degrading a human being leads to the « discovery » she says, the building of a new consciousness that will have a lasting existence. Human beings are emerging in their humanity or even humaneness through the difficulties and the challenges they encounter, and first of all the degrading and enslaving situations. The more overpowered one is, the greater his psychological strength. This is kind of optimistic because many human beings are destroyed through these experiences and experiments. But it is based on the concept of « resilience » in human beings : their capacity to resist degredation, not by rebelling, but by reinforcing their psyche. The world today shows many situations in which human beings are thus abased and tortured and downtrodden, and it also shows how many of them can emerge from these experiences with a reinforced psyche. Yet it is not that simple, and this resilience does not allow any human being to do such things to other human beings. Anne Rice is an optimist when she deals with humanity. But be sure that the erotic matter of this trilogy will become banal very fast. It will become a decor, a backdrop and nothing else. You will only see, after a while, the degredation and the psychological resilience of the characters. A last remark is to be made : slaves can be made to love slavery, and that is the worst part of it : a slave is not necessarily conscious that he can change the situation, and what's more he is not necessarily willing to do so because he comes to the point where his dependence is a necessity to survive, or at least he sees it like that. Dr Jacques COULARDEAU
Rating:
Summary: Erotic Themes by "Serious" Writers... Truth or Consequence?
Review: The risk a "serious" author takes when s/he writes erotic fiction is very real. Part of her audience may vilify her, she may risk loss of her publisher's good will, and the scorn of her colleagues. The consequences are potentially very severe. But some authors, like Miller or Joyce, have contended that if an author fails to explore erotic themes, s/he risks missing the whole truth about humanity. So Anne Rice appears to have ventured in search of the truths to be found in eroticism, and risks the consequences. God bless her. I found the idea that a major author like Anne Rice would write a graphic erotic novel trilogy irresistible, so I bought all three and read them stright through. I was pleasantly surprised, although less titillated than I thought I might be. Yes, there's plenty of hot sex, and plenty of kinky sex, and a plethora of male homosexual activity (I suspect Anne's making a point, there... that women get turned on by men having sex about as much as men get turned on by the lesbian stuff), so it's not a book likely to be found in Jerry Fallwell's library. I think. But I was far more intrigued by the way Rice approached her erotic theme, and the slow development of it, than in the erotica itself. This is a damn good series of books, erotic or not. The interesting thing about this series is that Anne has taken the job of writing erotic fiction with the same sort of zeal that she writes about vampires, or art, or music: that is, she's not even attempted to write something in the erotic mainstream, she's plunged in on the fringes of what's socially acceptable, sexually speaking, and in doing so has fashioned a work which transcends the merely pornographic. She has not shied away from graphic description of sexual acts, but she hasn't wallowed in them, either, for which I am grateful. She has used her descriptions of sexuality, and her characters' emotional responses to these acts, to say something about trust, love, and strength of character. There are few villains in this trilogy, but many heroes and heroines. I disagree with readers who feel the lack of character development in the Beauty books. No, Anne hasn't gone on for pages and pages describing her hero and heroine, as she has done in her vampire works, but that's not all bad. This is a different kind of writing, a different kind of book. She has sketched her characters, but sketched them truly and well. No, they aren't rich and full, as her vampires have been at times, but they are not flat and toneless, either. The reader is forced to look for them by the style of the book. Laurent fairly springs from the pages, if you look for the contextual clues to what makes him tick. (Guys, ask your girlfriend if you don't believe me on this one.) Male readers who find homosexuality threatening will perhaps not find him easily, because it's in the gay scenes that we see him revealed most clearly, right up until the end, when he is revealed most clearly. Beauty's character is perhaps easier to find, especially in Beauty's Release, but in any case all three books need to be taken together to get a real sense of who Anne intended her to be. These books are well worth reading, not just for the eroticism, but for the satisfaction of reading a good story, well told.
Rating:
Summary: Control and Compliance in a more Exotic Locale
Review: The third and concluding chapter in Anne Rice's erotic retelling of the sleeping beauty fairy tale, sees Beauty, Tristan, Laurent, and some secondary slaves from the village kidnapped and whisked away to more sensual adventures in an unnamed Arabian kingdome. Armed with first person dialogue and reflection through Laurent [the rebellious, willful fugitive slave from book 2], and a more exotic locale/plot, this chapter in the story was considerably more interesting than the second, which I gave 3 stars. Part of the allure of this version for me was a release from the utter crudity of the European castle and village. Beauty's escapades with the Sultan's harem and his main wife were presented with a lot more sublime sensuality than the whipping and paddling of the previous books. Laurent's transformation from slave to master mentality and his ability to exist moving seamlessly between the two are also compelling aspects. The slaves eventually relish their time with the Sultan above all else, having even their higher reason sublimated. They are told not to talk, nor to express anything other than the most rudimentary understanding as they are used as sex toys, or living sculptures to line the Sultan's gardens, bed, bath, etc. It is this complete abasement and personality disintegration that Tristan, the most philosophical of the group, touches on when asked why he loves it so. Religious and philosophical thoughts of the region combine to show them that they are simply cogs in a grander scheme, and they take pleasure and freedom in this anonymity. Further plot break-down would lead to spoilers, so suffice it to say there is eventually closure for each of the characters. Upon completing the series I feel better about it than after the second book, it helped to think of it anthropologically as if these strange undercurrents were the results of a completely different culture. In that respect it was quite interesting to observe the push for control, compliance, dominance, and love, and question whether that can be squared with ideas of entwined aggression and tenderness. Anne Rice provides the framework and fairy tale, but readers must ultimately decide that answer for themselves.
Rating:
Summary: Erotica Plus
Review: The third of the trilogy, these are really interchangeable novels with different settings. The story does have a lot of variations with reference to masters but how many times can poor Beauty and Laurent undergo these trials of the heart andn body? We are in mysterious Arabia, with jewels, exotic foods (ha ha), a retinue of slaves and rituals. Then on to the horse races with the human horses - almost a hilarious concept if you think about it. Rice does well, though, in exploring the depths of the soul and how it is consumed by the feverish, steamy situations and people they inevitably encounter.
Rating: 
Summary: Claiming of Sleeping Beauty, Beauty's Punishment, Release
Review: These books are expertly written and are a pleasure to read by myself and with my partner. It is gripping and keeps you wanting and begging for more. You will hardly be able to keep up with the images in this series.
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