There was a Sci-Fi book about a planet(?) of people who were being watched by a spacecraft with a computer.?

Question

The spacecraft "placed" the humans on the planet maybe as children(?). They not knowing they were being watched by a computer. Computer called "himself" a name, also forgotten by me. Eventually (I think) the population or someone was informed(?) of the situation. Good read.

Answer 1

It sounds in a way like several Orson Scott Card books. His Homecoming Earth series a family of humans living on another planet--colony--come to discover that a computer/space ship has been watching them...waiting for the day they could return to Earth. Or possibly a story in the Worthing Saga.

Memory of Earth...by Orson Scott Card

From Kirkus Reviews
First of a five-book series from the author of Xenocide, the Alvin Maker tales, etc. Planet Harmony, settled 40 million years ago following the destruction of Earth, is overseen by the Oversoul, an intelligent computer able to communicate telepathically with certain of the inhabitants. Set up to prevent war and ensure the colony's survival, the Oversoul is now breaking down, and for repairs must journey to Earth (where, the Oversoul theorizes, a new civilization surely will have arisen by now). Needing help from Harmony, the Oversoul first contacts young student Nafai of the matriarchal city Basilica, hoping to persuade him and others of his family to secure the Index--an ancient machine that will enable the Oversoul to talk directly with everyone. A major complication is that as the Oversoul decays, the mental blocks it implanted in Harmony's people eons ago to prevent war are also breaking down; and soon the women of Basilica find themselves trapped in a power struggle between two hostile male armies. Where Card focuses on children--as he often does here--he writes fluently and persuasively. Elsewhere, his adult characters and motivations are much less appealing. Neither is the ancient- computer backdrop, with its far-fetched Earth connection, particularly convincing. All in all, an uneven and irritatingly inconclusive starter. -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

But it could potentially be a number of sci-fi books...

Answer 2

That's a lot of books. A sf literary convention, actually. Some good examples of the type: Bear's Maze of Stars or those "... of Earth" Orson Scott Card books about Basilica, that sounds like Exodus or whatever--I think also others, but I'm fatigued...