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In memory of Bill Russell, who combined awesome breadth of knowledge with great depth of imagination, and still dared to be cheerful
There are seven such collections in all, the other six being Designer Genes (Five Star, 2004; Borgo Press, 2013), The Cure for Love (Borgo Press, 2007), The Tree of Life (Borgo Press, 2007), In the Flesh (Borgo Press, 2009) The Great Chain of Being (Borgo Press, 2010) and The Golden Fleece (Borgo Press, 2012). There have also been eleven novels of the same ilk: Inherit the Earth (Tor, 1998), Architects of Emortality (Tor, 1999), The Fountains of Youth (Tor, 2000), The Cassandra Complex (Tor, 2001), Dark Ararat (Tor, 2002), The Omega Expedition (Tor, 2002), The Dragon Man (Borgo Press, 2009), The Undead (Borgo Press, 2010; in a double volume with the novella Les Fleurs du Mal), Xeno’s Paradox (Borgo Press, 2011), Zombies Don’t Cry (Borgo Press, 2011) and Nature’s Shift (Borgo Press, 2011). Many, but by no means all, of the stories in the series share a common future-historical background, an early version of which was first sketched out in a futurology book, The Third Millennium: A History of the World 2000-3000, written in collaboration with David Langford in 1983 and published by Knopf and Sidgwick & Jackson in 1985.
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As always, Giovanni was the first to try out his new discoveries; the pioneer spirit that forced him to seek out new solutions to his personal troubles was as strong as ever, and the prospect of combining celibacy with ecstasy appealed very much to his eremitic frame of mind.
So Giovanni ceased to live as a recluse. He came back into the social world, with his attitude adjusted yet again, determined to make new relationships. After all, he still had the magic at his fingertips—or so he thought. He looked around; found a grey-eyed journalist named Greta, a Junoesque plant physiologist named Jacqueline, and a sweetly-smiling insurance salesperson named Morella, and went to work with his seductive touch.
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