SciFi and Fantasy Book Club discussion

I'm looking for a science fiction novel I read years ago, in the mid 1970's. Unfortunately, I know neither the title or the author! I have no idea whether it was a new novel at the time I read it – I got it out of the library. I would love to find it again. If anyone has any ideas of what it might have been from the following description, I'd appreciate any help.

Overview: The novel was about a spaceship which landed (crashed?) on a planet that was run by “gods.” The “gods” were actually computers, and they set about trying to kill the ship's crew as heretics. Each chapter was headlined by a different quote concerning religion – the whole book seemed to be a diatribe about the pitfalls of organized religion.

Various specifics: I remember that the ship's captain was female. Early in the book, the captain and crew realized that the flowers in the field they were making their way through were actually microphones, relaying their conversation to the planet-controlling computers. At one point, they traveled through a system of caves, the only place they could escape the computer's sensors. In the cave they all found it necessary (I don't remember why) to strip, but as it was dark, mixed-sex modesty wasn't an issue (figures that scene would stick in the memory of an adolescent boy.) The indigenous life on the planet resembled teddy bears.

Book edition specifics: It was a hardcover (and, as mentioned, a library book.) I believe the dust jacket was yellow, and pictured one of the teddy bear-like planet inhabitants.

I know that's not a lot to go on, but if anyone has any ideas, I'd appreciate hearing them.

Thanks!

The most famous teddy bear aliens before the Ewoks of Star Wars were the Hoka by Gordon Dickson and Poul Anderson. I kinda think they were all short stories, but maybe there was a novel in there.

Thanks, I checked those out but it looks like they were written too late to be what I'm thinking of. I don't believe the indigenous life played a very big part in the story - it was mainly a conflict between the spaceship survivors and the computers that ran the planet.

Could it have been Rocannon's World? There are bear-like creatures, a sort of AI/computer thing happening and some of the earlier jackets were yellow. Published initially 1966.

A good thought, but no. Appreciate it, though.

Anthony wrote: "Thanks, I checked those out but it looks like they were written too late to be what I'm thinking of. I don't believe the indigenous life played a very big part in the story - it was mainly a confli..."

Oh well, that was my only shot. Good luck in the search!

Point of temporal procedure, though: the original Hoka stories were written in the 1950s and 60s. When RotJ came out we speculated Lucas was ripping them off for his movie. (As he did with Hidden Fortress and later with Dinotopia, etc.)