Such a Pretty Face

Unique and Exciting

'Such A Pretty Face' puts more than just a new look at an old stereotype. Editor Lee Martindale has put together an amazing collection of size-positive short stories to celebrate a new era of heroes. With contributions from both well-established authors to new-comers in the genre, these stories are inspiring and entertaining, affirming the beauty and abilities of people of size. This collection is ground breaking and exciting and promises not to be one of a kind. It's time has been long in coming and has been well worth the wait...and weight.

Who Says One Size Fits All?

Fat is certainly not a 'four letter' word, and in this collection, readers are treated to a bounty of abundant men and women who prove that it doesn't matter what size you are so long as your heart and soul and in the right place. In this collection, you meet priestesses, warriors, vampires and just plain folk, and you get to follow them on adventures both serious and humorous. Lee Martindale is to be praised for her size-positive approach to a collection of fine short fiction.

Unique and excellent anthology

Ah, the hero. The stuff of legend. Everyone has their own mental picture their ideal hero. Is he or she tall, muscled, a lean, mean, fighting machine? Well, not always. Think Amazonian, think zaftig, think portly. People come in all shapes and sizes . . . why not heroes? Lee Martindale has brought together some of the best writers in SF/F for an anthology of fat people. This amazing and often hilarious volume is published by the man who just might be a genius when it comes to anthologies, Stephen Pagel of Meisha Merlin Publishing.

Join Jody Lynn Nye, Gene Wolfe, Jane Yolen, Elizabeth Ann Scarborough, K.D. Wentworth, and a host of others for a thoroughly enjoyable look at the other side of heroism. There's a princess who turns a curse into a blessing, a sizeable selkie, a forty year old fat bi . . . uh, woman who finds her muse on a lonely dirt road, and a couple of large felines who are more than they appear. This is just a sampling of the brilliant and varied stories in this thoughtful, telling, often hilarious volume of stories.

There is nothing to fault in any of these stories, and the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. K. D. Wentworth remarks that only one in forty-thousand can look like a fashion model. She adds that her story is for the other thirty-nine thousand nine-hundred ninety-nine. I would suggest that the entire anthology is for the other thirty-nine thousand nine-hundred ninety-nine.

What a great book. Anyone who has not yet discovered Meisha Merlin Publishing should read this book, then check out their web site. Meisha Merlin is synonymous with quality fiction.

Reviewed by Rickey R. Mallory