Harvest Of Stars: Poul Anderson

Book I of Harvest Of Stars. Earth is in the grip of the Avantists, an oppressive regime that has crushed dissent and now threatens the last bastion of liberty, a maverick interplanetary corporation known as Fireball. Kyra Davis, beautiful young space pilot, is on a mission to rescue an electronic ghost - Fireball's founder, Anson Guthrie, whose mind was stored in a computer after his death - and rally the resistance to strike a blow against tyranny. Pursued by Avantist forces, she and Guthrie engage in a desperate battle of wits against a brilliant adversary - a computer copy of Guthrie that has been reprogrammed to serve the enemy. On an interstellar odyssey that takes Kyra from Earth's rebel enclaves to the decadent court of a lunar colony and the endangered frontier world of Demeter until under the light of Alpha Centauri, she undergoes an awesome transformation to ensure humankind's survival among the stars. Cover art by Vincent Di Fate.