Rating: 
Summary: Great read - I hope it becomes a series!
Review: No, I haven't any reason to think it will be a series, but I can hope, can't I?I ran across the book back in July and fell in with the cover painting. Then I saw that it was edited by Lee Martindale, someone I remembered encountering (and respecting) in the size acceptance newsgroups. At that point I probably would have bought it no matter what, but the theme of the anthology cinched it. I finished it within 48 hours of getting it, and it was wonderful. As usual with any anthology, I enjoyed some stories more than others. I think "Demon Bone" by Teresa Noelle Roberts had to be my favorite story. The poem "Fat Is Not A Fairy Tale" by Jane Yolen and Elizabeth Ann Scarborough's story "Worse Than The Curse" were awfully good, though :-) Paula L. Fleming's "Polyformus Perfectus" left me wishing it were the beginning of a novel rather than a short story. I've already recommended this book to quite a few people, but I have a feeling I'll be handing it out to more. I'll probably buy a hardback copy to keep and loan out the paperback, but I'll be buying some copies to give as gifts as well. And if I EVER find a print of the cover painting by Doug Beekman, it's going in a place of honor in my living room.
Rating: 
Summary: Professional Reviews and Quotes
Review: Stars: 5+ "I squealed and danced through my apartment when I opened the package and saw the title and cover of this book. I am a large lady and Such A Pretty Face was designed to make me glad of that fact. This is a group of stories by various authors in which the heroine, or hero, just happens to be a person of size. Ms. Martindale has done a superb job of meshing different textures and flavors thus making of them a literary stew of the richest sort. I don't believe that I found even one story less than enjoyable. I truly loved each one. My husband told me that it is books like this that make me feel as if I can go out and overcome any obstacle. Be a large size Xena maybe? First, there is the wonderful poem by Jane Yolen, 'Fat is Not A Fairy Tale'. Following it you find the delightful, 'Worse Than The Curse' by Elizabeth Ann Scarborough. Next, Martha A. Compton brings to the mix the ever so yummy, 'The Fat Cat's Tale'. If you feel a bit parched while reading, 'The Search For A Sipping House' offered by Joette M. Rozanski, quenches your thirst in the form of a fresh take, yes-fresh, on vampires. 'While Casting Against Type' by Jody Lynn Nye may have brought back my acting days, it did make me laugh...a big hearty belly laugh. Stories like these make one wonder and if you've ever wondered how you'd fare in the event of, say, Nuclear War then you may find 'Nuclear Winter' by Selina Rosen to be comforting. Much like warming yourself by the fire after you have finished a sumptuous supper. As for the act of wondering itself, 'The Djinn Game' by Patrice E. Sarath seems to have stuck in my head while gifting me with the occasional, seemingly inexplicable, chuckle. 'The Stoop Ladies' of Barbara Krasnoff might turn to watch if they hear me, offer me refreshment and whatever I may need. These are just a few. If I go on mentioning every tantalizing treat this review could end up the length of the book. A delicious treat fit for the fiction equivalent of Bon Appetit."-The Midwest Book Review, May 2000 "This is the first original anthology to be published by the fine new company Meisha Merlin, which so far has specialized in bringing some unusual SF/Fantasy/Horror/Mystery/Whatever back into print, as well as publishing some new novels that have slipped through the cracks, as it were. Examples include the work of Lee Killough, who published a number of fun novels in the 1970s and 1980s before hitting the midlist wall, and the Liaden novels of Sharon Lee and Steve Miller, a series which was cancelled by Del Rey after the first three were published in the late 1980s. Such a Pretty Face is a theme anthology, in that sense similar to so many that have been published in recent years. The theme, in this case, is fat acceptance. The stories all feature fat heroes or heroines (or both), and the expressed purpose of editor Lee Martindale is to show that 'heroes come in all sizes'. The stories included can be roughly sorted into two groups: those in which the protagonist's weight is a significant plot element, and those in which it's just another part of the protagonist's characterization. (Forgive a cynic for thinking that some of the writers of the latter set of stories, on seeing this market open, may have snuck in a reference to the otherwise undescribed character's heft.) Both types of stories make sense: if the first category seems more natural for an anthology of this theme, stories of the second type (where the lead character's size is just a detail) are almost more 'positive': they emphasize that big people (and old people, and small people ...) are just people, as likely to be the heroes of any walk of life as the 'beautiful people' who predominate on TV and movie screens. The stories are a mixed bag in other ways as well: though the bulk of the stories are Fantasy (as with most of editor Martindale's own fiction), there is a nice leavening of SF (along with a couple contemporary stories with only a slight hint of fantastical content). The quality is mixed as well: there are a number of fine and clever stories, and a number of routine pass the time exercises, though no downright 'why did she buy that!' stinkers."-Rich Horton, Tanget Online, June 2000
Rating:
Summary: Book Description
Review: Think all heroes have washboard abs? Think all heroines wear Size 3 Junior? Think again! Meet a pirate named "Valkyrie" and a cardsharp named "Fat Moriah". Meet a xenofitness instructor and an earth-mage who don't apologize for taking up space. Meet fat cats on a mission and a very different kind of vampire. Meet characters for whom "plus-size" is about body size and heart. Brought together in this first-of-its-kind collection are stories that raise the set point on adventure and redraw the picture of "the hero" along the way. Twenty-four original tales of science fiction and fantasy, including works by Elizabeth Ann Scarborough, Jane Yolen, Gene Wolfe, Jody Lynn Nye, Cynthia McQuillin, Laura J. Underwood, Sharon Lee and Steve Miller. Tales of power and abundance that prove that heroes and heroines come in all sizes.
Rating:
Summary: Fat is beautiful...and funny.
Review: This is an anthology about fat people published by Meisha Merlin Publishing. Such SF/F luminaries as Jody Lynn Nye, Gene Wolfe, Jane Yolen, Elizabeth Ann Scarborough, K.D. Wentworth, and a host of others present a look at another view of the hero. A princess is cursed, and starts a new fashion trend, a sizeable selkie is the love of a man's life, a forty-year-old fat bi . . . uh, woman rediscovers the joy of creation on a lonely dirt road, and a couple of truly fat cats are far more than they appear. These and more stories just as exciting grace the pages of this thoughtful, wildly funny, and excellent volume of stories.
Rating:
Summary: Fat is beautiful...and funny.
Review: This is an anthology about fat people published by Meisha Merlin Publishing. Such SF/F luminaries as Jody Lynn Nye, Gene Wolfe, Jane Yolen, Elizabeth Ann Scarborough, K.D. Wentworth, and a host of others present a look at another view of the hero. A princess is cursed, and starts a new fashion trend, a sizeable selkie is the love of a man's life, a forty-year-old fat bi . . . uh, woman rediscovers the joy of creation on a lonely dirt road, and a couple of truly fat cats are far more than they appear. These and more stories just as exciting grace the pages of this thoughtful, wildly funny, and excellent volume of stories.
| 
