“None More Beautiful Than I” (German: “Nicht schöner als ich”) is a short story by Neal Shusterman. Although originally written in English, it was first published in German as part of the German-language edition of Gleanings on September 27, 2023. It was later published in English on November 18, 2025, in the short story collection MindWorks: An Uncanny Compendium of Short Fiction.
Plot[]
The story starts in the year 2095. Rasmus Vanderlip lives in Amsterdam with his grandmother, Elke Vanderlip. The mortal purges have arrived in Amsterdam. Rasmus receives mysterious train tickets on his phone. He and his grandmother decide to flee as she is mortal-born and could be targeted. At the station, they see four Purge Scythes who glean a man named Mr. Konik.
The train takes them to Rothenburg ob der Tauber, a town in Germany, where they are greeted by a woman who takes them to Scythe Mößbauer. Mößbauer is against the mortal purges and has helped many mortal-borns. Mößbauer tells Rasmus that since he isn't mortal-born, he doesn't have to go into hiding like Elke. He doesn't want to leave his grandmother, so he decides to go with her. They journey to Neuschwanstein Castle, Scythe Alighieri's residence, where he has been taking in refugees from the mortal purges.
In the castle, Alighieri has set up a sort of court where he is king, and the inhabitants are his servants who must do whatever he says or risk getting thrown out. Catrina is his right hand. Eventually, the inhabitants of the castle become tired of Alighieri's humiliations and plan a coup led by Catrina, who has now turned against Alighieri after he humiliated her. They successfully overthrow him but don't stick to their original plan of banishing Alighieri peacefully to one of the rooms of the castle and taking over. Instead, they beat up and humiliate him. They get so out of control that a few end up dead, and Catrina is accidentally gleaned after impaling herself on the sword Alighieri was holding.
Just then, Scythe Mößbauer and six other scythes burst through the doors and announce that the Grandslayers have officially condemned the mortal purges. It's over, and they are free to go. The Thunderhead sends ambudrones to collect the dead to be revived. Scythe Alighieri is banished from the region by the Bavarian Scythedom. The story ends with Rasmus giving Alighieri his hairbrush, the only object he was allowed to take from the palace, and Alighieri brushing the little hair he has left.
Characters[]
Appeared[]
- Rasmus Vanderlip
- Elke Vanderlip
- The Thunderhead
- Mr. Konik
- Scythe Mößbauer
- Scythe Alighieri
- Catrina
- Unnamed Female Chandler
- Scythe Draco
- Unnamed Bladeguards
- Unnamed Inhabitants of Neuschwanstein Castle
Mentioned[]
- The Grandslayers
- Anne Frank
Trivia[]
- According to Neal Shusterman, the story was unplanned and came from his interest in exploring early Scythedom history, including the “mortal purges” mentioned in the main series. He also wanted to tell stories about characters like Rasmus and Scythe Aligieri. Shusterman stated that this exploration eventually led to writing the prequel and that he is excited to share the story in the English collection MindWorks: An Uncanny Compendium of Short Fiction (November 18, 2025).[1]
- The title of the story refers to how Scythe Alighieri cannot tolerate anyone being more beautiful than him.
- In the German edition of Gleanings, it appears as story number 15.
References[]
- ↑ Shusterman, Neal. "New Scythe Story: A Sneak Peek Into MindWorks" Substack, August 28, 2025.