Starchild: Frederik Pohl and Jack Williamson

Book II of Starchild. During the third millennium Earth is ruled by a computer that has replaced freedom with order. Boring - but efficient. Then things go wrong and Machine Major Boysie Gann has to find out what. It seems the trouble is coming from the Reefs of Space, where a group of Earth People had been exiled. Putting the Sun out was just one of their annoying little tricks. But the more Gann discovers, the more confused he gets. Freedom was banned a LONG time before he was born. But from what's happening on the Reefs of Space, it seems to have its good points. Cover art by Jacques Wyrs.