THE SCIENCE FICTION WEIGHT-LOSS BOOK

At first glance this might appear an implausible anthology idea—but the upshot is a deliciously varied and diverting set of 15 yarns, from H. G. Wells to the present, examining obesity in all its ghastly guises. The famous entries: Wells' "The Truth About Pyecraft"; "The Man Who Ate the World," one of Frederik Pohl's celebrated stories about a chronically over-productive world in which poverty means endless, grinding consumption; "Abercrombie Station," Jack Vance's space station where the grossly overweight float free of gravity, opprobrium, and social restraint; and Stephen King's "Quitters, Inc.," which tells how to give up smoking and lose weight—or else. Some of the less well-known but equally yummy tales just might put you off your victuals permanently: a hilariously sickening eating contest (T. Coraghessan Boyle); a robot family chef determined to starve its flabby charges (Robert Silverberg); a ladies' club whose members fatten up their husbands for the dinner table (John Anthony West); a despised fat girl who consigns her enemies to a world of lollipop trees and chocolate rivers (William Tenn); a painter whose foody murals are subliminally enhanced by restaurateurs to whip patrons into a frenzy of feeding (Scott Sanders); and finger-lickin' goodies from Orson Scott Card, R. A. Lafferty, and others. Simply scrumptious—however familiar some items on the menu.