Burning Bright is a free-port planet, nexus of trade, politically balanced between the human and Hsai empires in space, and center of virtual-reality-gaming for all of civilization.
When spacepilot and ambitious young game designer Quinn Lioe gets shore leave on Burning Bright, determined to play the game at its brilliant center, she becomes enmeshed in the conflict between two great empires, a key figure upon whom the fates of fortune turn.