Romance on Four Worlds

The four stories in the collection, all of which originally appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction, are:{{Cite web |last=Chen |first=Colleen |date=2015-05-20 |title=Romance on Four Worlds: A Casanova Quartet by Tom Purdom |url=https://tangentonline.com/print-other/collections/romance-on-four-worlds-a-casanova-quartet-by-tom-purdom/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210121234740/https://tangentonline.com/print-other/collections/romance-on-four-worlds-a-casanova-quartet-by-tom-purdom/ |archive-date=2021-01-21 |access-date=2023-05-14 |website=Tangent Online |language=en-US}}

• "Romance in Lunar G" (1995)
• "Romance in Extended Time" (2000)
• "Romance with Phobic Variations" (2001)
• "Romance for Augmented Trio" (2004)

File:Solar system.jpg|alt=A photomontage of the eight planets and the Moon|thumb|The stories are set in various locations throughout the Solar System. Clicking on a planet leads to the article about its depiction in fiction.

circle 1250 4700 650 Neptune in fiction

circle 2150 4505 525 Uranus in fiction

circle 2890 3960 610 Saturn in fiction

circle 3450 2880 790 Jupiter in fiction

circle 3015 1770 460 Mars in fiction

circle 2370 1150 520 Earth in science fiction

circle 3165 590 280 Moon in science fiction

circle 1570 785 475 Venus in fiction

circle 990 530 320 Mercury in fiction

The stories revolve around Joseph Louis Baske, a transhuman septuagenarian who fancies himself a late-21st-century Casanova.{{Cite web |last=Di Filippo |first=Paul |author-link=Paul Di Filippo |date=2015-04-17 |title=Paul Di Filippo reviews Tom Purdom |url=https://locusmag.com/2015/04/paul-di-filippo-reviews-tom-purdom/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220813025037/https://locusmag.com/2015/04/paul-di-filippo-reviews-tom-purdom/ |archive-date=2022-08-13 |access-date=2023-05-14 |website=Locus Online |language=en-US}} At this point in time, humanity has progressed to a post-scarcity state and settled the Solar System.{{Cite web |date=2015-03-16 |title=Romance on Four Worlds by Tom Purdom |url=https://www.digitalpw.com/digitalpw/20150316?pg=71#pg71 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://archive.today/20230514221743/https://www.publishersweekly.com/9781627556354 |archive-date=2023-05-14 |archive-format=Stand-alone webpage |access-date=2023-05-14 |website=Publishers Weekly |pages=68}}

The first story, "Romance in Lunar G", is set on the Moon. Baske pursues a woman by the name of Malita Divora, who is already in a relationship with someone else. In so doing, he gets entangled in an espionage affair.

The second story, "Romance in Extended Time", is set on Mercury, which has been terraformed. A few years have passed, and the year is 2089. Baske takes it upon himself to escort a politician to an important vote in order to spend time with Ling Chime, the politician's bodyguard. On the way there, the trio encounter opposing forces willing to use violence to prevent them from reaching their destination on time.

The third story, "Romance with Phobic Variations", is set on Mars' moon Phobos, which has been hollowed out. Baske helps out his current girlfriend Aki Nento, who is indebted to mobsters, until the adolescent son of one of his previous paramours reveals that Nento is in fact a con artist exploiting Baske's tastes in women for monetary gain, and the two of them decide to turn the tables on her.

This fourth story, "Romance for Augmented Trio", is set on a spaceship in the Kuiper belt. Baske travels with his latest love interest, Ganmei, who has the superhuman ability alter his personality at will. The two of them are captured by a villain who supplements his own intelligence with machines, and they have to use their wits to escape.

A starred review in the March 16, 2015 edition of Publishers Weekly described the stories as "a pleasure from beginning to end", praising among other things the settings and the way the female characters are portrayed.

Paul Di Filippo gave the collection a positive review in Locus Online in April 2015, writing that Purdom "succeeds in fashioning some farcical yet genuinely speculative and authentic romps along themes that are noticeably and regrettably absent from so much SF". Di Filippo commended the world-building along with its progression to an increasingly more advanced future from one story to the next. He also commented that he appreciated the title's play on words with "romance" in the dual meaning of "love" and "adventure" (as in "scientific romance").

Colleen Chen, reviewing the collection for Tangent Online in May 2015, commented that she found main character Baske charming and enjoyable, if not an archetypal hero. On the interplay between the stories, she wrote that the experience was enhanced by reading them one after another, allowing her to appreciate subtler aspects of how the writing style progressed. Chen concluded that "the collection is a fun read with some depth, excellent world-building, and some interesting character building [...] These are a strong bunch of stories that are even better together".

Don Sakers, in his review of the collection in the September 2015 issue Analog Science Fiction and Fact, wrote "That the characters are engaging and believable goes without saying—Purdom writes great people—but the four societies depicted are also a lot of fun."{{Cite magazine |last=Sakers |first=Don |author-link=Don Sakers |date=September 2015 |editor-last=Quachri |editor-first=Trevor |editor-link=Trevor Quachri |title=Review: Romance on Four Worlds: A Casanova Quartet |url=https://archive.org/details/Analog_Science_Fiction_and_Fact_September_2015/page/n105/mode/2up |department=The Reference Library |magazine=Analog Science Fiction and Fact |volume=CXXXV |issue=9 |pages=105 |issn=1059-2113}}

{{Reflist}}

• {{Cite magazine |last=Dozois |first=Gardner |author-link=Gardner Dozois |date=June 2015 |editor-last=Trombi |editor-first=Liza Groen |title=Review: Romance on Four Worlds: A Casanova Quartet by Tom Purdom |magazine=Locus |volume=74 |issue=6 |pages=58 |issn=0047-4959}}

• {{ISFDB title|1860418}}
• "When I Was Writing" parts [https://philart.net/tompurdom/wiwfour.htm four] and [https://philart.net/tompurdom/wiwfive.htm five] by Purdom, about the included stories

Category:2015 short story collections

Category:Science fiction short story collections