(Found) Science fiction novel read in the early 1980s paperback

[Nick Lewis]

I have been trying to find a book I read in the early 1980s
I do not recall the title or author.
However it had a cover which looked like a city scape but on closer inspection was made of circuit boards and not skyscrapers.
The plot was about computers linking up to take over the world and fighting against this was a scientist who was a Zen Buddhist along with a couple of assistants
I can’t remember anything else but would dearly love to read this novel again, any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[tinkerdan]

This sort of sounds like D.F. Jones' Colossus series although the circuit board covers were more recent than the 80's and I cant recall the Zen Buddhist part.
However the rest tracks well with the plot .

The funny thing is that I picked up the first two books in ebooks recently; however it looks like someone pulled those out of Amazon recently so they are no longer available.

 

[Nick Lewis]

Had a look on google images couldn’t see the cover and not convinced this is the book trying hard to remember more and think the notion of a ghost in the machine was quite strong ....does this suggest anything else? Thanks for trying

 

[psychotick]

Hi,

The plot doesn't marry up well but something about the cover reminds me of the trilogy by Mark Adlard; Interface, Volteface and Multiface.

Cheers, Greg.

 

[Nick Lewis]

Thanks for the reply, again I’ve checked out the covers but they do not match, the cover on the book I read was white at the top with the circuit board electronic component landscape in I think browns and golds underneath, it looked like a cityscape at night. The cover was the thing I remember most and enjoying the book but I can’t remember any more than I have already mentioned. The zen scientist was an attractive character in the book and the computers taking over an intriguing plot with interesting twists and turns.

 

[tinkerdan]

The more I think on your description the more I think you should go through Bruce Sterling's bibliography and see if anything matches. Good luck finding the cover--if it is old enough it's hard to say if that's the cover you'll find even if you find the book.

 

[Nick Lewis]

Well I bought a copy of Colossus and it is the book I read so many thanks to tinkerdan for suggesting it. I haven’t been able to find the cover which was on the paperback that I read in the 80s. I have tried google image searches with no success which is a shame as it was a great cover totally in synch with the books theme. I read the book while staying on a kibbutz but have no idea where the book was originally published. Would still love to find the cover and discover the artist responsible for creating it.

 

[tinkerdan]

The ebook I have has this cover