Story about helpful aliens, and books about Company driven galaxy

[FJM]

Hi - I am trying to find two books/stories I read some time ago.

The story, possibly a novella, I think dates from at least the early 1970s, possibly earlier. In it earth is invaded by thoroughly nice aliens, who instigate a regime of happy, healthy living for all. The governments of earth see them as enemies, of course - the hero eventually resolves the situation by arranging for the aliens to be employed to run the earth, as they are obviously better at it than we are. I remember they had a wonderful instant weight loss machine (perhaps why it has stuck in my memory so long!)

The book (part of a sequence, I think) I read in about 1981. It concerned a series of worlds, threatened by a powerful Company. The top family on one world had a dodgy son, who cloned himself a son after experimenting on the intelligent natives. There was a woman who had some cat in her genetically-engineered background, and one story centred on her rescue of her baby, put into stasis by the Company as a way of controlling its mother.

Can anyone help? Thanks in advance!

[Lucien21]

For the first one there was a book in the 80's that dealt with that subject but Not sure if that particular story is in it, The Science Fiction Weight Loss Book.

The Science Fiction Weight-Loss Book by Isaac Asimov, Martin H Greenberg and George R R Martin

[FJM]

Thanks Lucien - I think the short story was probably from the 50s/60s - I read a lot of collections in the early 70s, and the titles and autors I remember are very much from those early collections. I'll try and find a contents page for the Science Fiction Weight Loss Book - what a fabulous title!