Star Wars: Children of the Jedi

Hambly, Barbara. Star Wars: Children of the Jedi. New York: Bantam (etc.), 1995.

Relevant here: a very young Jedi on the Dark Side using the Force and a brain implant to control "'droids and mechanicals" who attempts to control an automated, AI "battle moon" spacecraft; a very humanoid robot that was made by having the personality of a human being transferred into it; and a Jedi Master putting her "spirit" into a gunnery computer until she transfers into the body of a human woman. Note that the battle moon—another great Imperial death machine—becomes a temporary home for numerous species controlled by "The Will": an AI that rules this "metal microcosm." SW:CJ, then, offers strong motifs of "the ghost in the machine" and organic sentients trapped inside a huge cybernetic mechanism. Cf. and contrast "spirit" transfer in the film Metropolis and the generation-starship motif in R. A. Heinlein's "Universe" and similar works (listed under Film and Fiction respectively). For audio version, see under title under Drama. (For electronic library searches for the book and tape, try first the subtitle, Children of the Jedi.) (RDE, 12/10/95)