Shadrach in the Furnace

I'm sure Mr Silverberg has mediocre or less than brilliant books somewhere lurking somewhere in his canon (good as he is, nobody has a perfect batting average, unless you only write one great book and then die, which is a different kind of bad) and maybe I should go off and read some of those, because it would sure make reviewing his classic books that much easier. This is yet another excellent addition to the world of SF, detailing a coherent and believable future world with a story that focuses more on characters than wowing us with hard science and uses the trappings of SF to tell said story, putting plot and characterization first. Of course, it's no longer in print, but that's pretty much a given with this stuff now, eh? In yet another interesting twist on an old concept, Silverberg takes the idea of the old man wanting to live forever. Now, this can be done well (like this book) or poorly (Heinlein's I Will Fear No Evil) but Silverberg doesn't just focus on the situation, but expands it to include the world itself. Genghis II Mao IV Khan (or something like that) has taken over the world some years back and his governments rule over everything, in the wake of a Virus War that has inflicted most people with an organ rotting disease. However, he's an old man now, nearly a hundred and subject to constant transplants and surgeries to stay healthy, and he's looking to the day when those no longer work. Shadrach is his personal physician, wired with sensors and things that constantly key him into the dictator's state of health. When it turns out that the dictator's scientists will be able to transfer his mind and peronality into another, younger, healthier body, the person they settle on is . . . Shadrach himself. Silverberg takes this central concept and travels far with it, creating compelling characters, from the scientists working to further the dictator's agenda, to the possibly not wrapped too tight dictator, to all the people who willingly work with a despot, to Shadrach himself. The plot is by no means breakneck but a heck of a lot happens as Silverberg details a world enslaved but still functioning after a fashion. He makes no moral judgements, not painting anyone as truly good or evil, everyone is grey, from the security guy who hates torturing people but does it because it's his job, to Shadrach, who has to wrestle with keeping the man who rules the planet with an iron fist healthy. In the process he shows us all the corners of the world, the inner workings of a dictator's reign and even the state of religion in a world falling apart. Again, one of the most amazing things about Silverberg is his ability to cram all these concepts into a slim (two hundred and fifty pages!) book and make it feel complete. His use of the present tense gives the book a calm immediacy, sprinkled with Shadrach's version of the Khan's diary. This is SF at its quietly experimental best, telling a thought provoking story and utilizing his typical

I first read Shadrach Mordecai's story in the pages of the July 1976 Analog magazine, so this story has been with me a long time. It affected me so strongly, that I remember the *other* stories in that edition of Analog (the cover story was "Tricentennial", a story you've NEVER heard of--see what I mean)This book, with Stochastic Man, Thorns, and a couple of others came just before Silverberg took a decade long hiatus from writing. Each of these "last" books was mind blowingly powerful, deep, and affecting. This book, out of print and mostly overlooked for much of that time, is in my opinion the best of those pre-hiatus novels.The story is basic SF. Shadrach is doctor to the world's tyrant dictator, and his job is to keep the ancient tottering monarch alive until a more permanent solution to old age can be found. That solution is to move the tyrant's mind to the body of a younger man and slowly Shadrach learns that the younger man chosen is---Shadrach Modecai.Set in Ulan Bator (today's capitol of Mongolia, and, here, world capitol), this novel follows Shadrach's dealing with this problem: how he is mentally affected and how he solves the problem in a world where everything is monitored. As usual, Silverberg gives us both the interior of a compelling character and spectacular and vivid flavor of a future world unlike our own.Highly recommended.