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.