Marion Zimmer Bradley was a popular author of fantasy science fiction from the 1950's to the late 1990's. In 2000, she was posthumously awarded the World Fantasy Award for lifetime achievement.

In The Colors of Space, young Bart Steele, Space Academy graduate, is waiting in a spaceport for a ship to take him home when something happens that suddenly thrusts him into the center of a quest for the secret of interstellar travel. The method of faster than light travel, called "warp drive" in later Sci-Fi stories, is a tightly kept secret of an alien race known as the "Lhari." Some humans feel that they should not have to depend on the Lhari to get to far away planets and enlist Bart to help them wrest the secret from the Lhari by undertaking a perilous mission. Bart's survival and the freedom of the human race suddenly depend on his courage and wits.