By Melissa Scott
First Published: 1993
In Burning Bright, Scott tells a passionate, colorful tale of love and death, her best yet. Setting her tale on the free-port planet of Burning Bright, nexus of trade, politically balanced between the human and Hsai empires in space, and center of virtual-reality-gaming for all of civilization, Scott weaves a network of intrigue and suspense.
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 fortunes turn.