The Spin, an ancient artificial cluster of eighty-eight planets and twenty-two suns - is in decline. However when they arrive they realise all is not well - a new green star has appeared in the sky, sparking the growth of a socially repressive cult which is quickly taking over, making Seldyan wonder if Web City is any improvement on the Hive.

It is a hundred millennia after Iron Gods. The Spin is nearing the end of its life. Its inhabitants are divided between those who live unknowingly in the relative paradise of one of hundreds of Virtual Realities - vrealities - and those who scrape a living in what remains of the real world. The massive servers needed to maintain the vrealities are draining the resources of the Spin. And an escalating, desperate and seemingly futile war has begun between those who tend the servers and those who believe they should be shut down, killing millions. But one amongst these unwitting...