(Found) Searching for a book that's driving me mad!!

mezzer

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May 9, 2014
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Perhaps as much as 20 years ago I was reading a sci fi book that I never finished and have wanted to pick up again but I can't find it. The memory of it continues to drive me mad so please help!! ;) The story was based around the human race being controlled on multiple planets by a computer/AI that had been built by humans and had effectively taken over. The story followed some humans who tried to turn the computer off by travelling in space and learning more. The computer was programmed in such a way that there had to be the possibility of it being turned off. The computer had robot "agents" that I believe were called "vals". To get information from the various planets the humans could undergo a one time transmutation to another form of humanoid to meet the environment of the planet they were visiting. As I recall the story started off, or very early in the story, with a group of humans flying up to an abandoned space ship in orbit in a scout ship of some description. The controller of the scout was removed and put into the spaces ship (again, back to this possibility of shutting down the computer stuff). I can remember the controller saying "I'm ... huge!" and needing time to process what was going on as it had just gone from being a small scout to a massive starship. That's about all I can remember at the moment, please help if you can, this is a real head-banging-against-the-wall thing for me!! Thanks!
 
This sounds as if you were reading Jack L Chalker's "Rings of the Master" tetrology, or at least the first volume*"Lords of the middle Dark". As far as I know, this was never published in one volume, so when you achieved the end of the volume it would have been 'now read on. There are three more books for your delectation before you reach the conclusion' (no individual books as standalones as with his '"Well of Souls" series).

Jack L Chalker
Rings of the Master
1. Lords of the Middle Dark (1986)
2. Pirates of the Thunder (1987)
3. Warriors of the Storm (1987)
4. Masks of the Martyrs (1988)
 
Thanks a lot, that definitely ticks a lot of the boxes. I came across a picture of the front page design and that seemed to ring a bell, or maybe I just imagined it... I appreciate your help and will post back if/when I can confirm. Cheers !
 
Thanks so much for pointing me to the correct series that I was looking for. I'm thinking that 20-odd years ago I was actually reading the second book of the series, not the first, so now I'm getting hold of the whole Lord of the Middle Dark series. Thanks again, one more "brain worm" down!
 

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