Host

James, Peter. Host. London: Gollancz, 1993. New York: Villard-Random House, 1995.

Technothriller, starting with a premise similar to that of the 1980 film Fatal Attraction. Significant here for the theme of (in Gilbert Ryle's phrase) "the ghost in the machine," literalized to the downloading of human personality into a computer and then uploading into another body. Unlike the joy of cyberspace, the personalities in the computer Archive and associated machines are not happy, feeling very much unempowered and claustrophobed. Includes minor motifs of computer surveillance. (RDE, 07/07/96)