Both a distinguished astrophysicist and a science-fiction writer, Catherine Asaro brings to her work more than a notional conception of the laws of physics and quantum mechanics. As Carl Hays noted in a Booklist review of Asaro's debut novel, Primary Inversion, the author "combines hard speculative science and first-rate storytelling to look at the galaxy's distant future." In the books in Asaro's "Skolian Empire" series, she combines science fiction and romance, each volume in the series a stand-alone title set in the same universe and dealing with the royal Skolia family. Asaro has also written more conventional sf artificial intelligence novels, as well as a plethora of professional articles on theoretical chemical physics--specifically using quantum theory to describe the behavior of atoms and molecules. And as if to push the envelope with activities, the novelist-physicist is a mother, wife, and a ballet dancer who teaches dance and has...