Romance on Four Worlds

The Moon. Phobos. The Kuiper Belt. A giant globe-circling habitat on Mercury. Joseph Louis Baske roams the Solar System in the same way the great 18th century adventurer, Giacomo Casanova, roamed across Europe--and gets in trouble for the same reason. Romance is the glory of his days. It never lasts, but every episode is an adventure. "I have loved architects, engineers, musicians, politicians, geologists, surgeons, athletes, economists, and women who approached activities like diving and mountaineering with the same passion I have lavished on the central concern of my life," Joe writes. "From all of them I have learned something. The shortest route to someone's affections is to listen."

Analog reviewer Don Sakers summed up Tom Purdom's first collection Lovers and Fighters, Starships and Dragons as "a perfect blend of really cool ideas and believable, sympathetic characters." Purdom's Casanova Quartet applies the same formula to a happy, freewheeling vision of the future awaiting mankind.