Shadrach in the furnace [Hardcover]

Robert Silverberg (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: 1976

The stunning novel of a man surrounded by machines that flash instantaneous pictures of everything happening...a man surfeited with drugs that allow him to be eyewitness to the living past and pleasured by sensual women who vie for his favours...a man named Shadrach who finds little rest in his miracle-infested world. A supershocker about what happens when telemetric sensors no longer suffice, when the great Khan, ruler of the Earth, needs more...when he needs to survive through the body of a virile, healthy very special man - through Shadrach Mordecai

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Filled with intrigue, paradoxes, mystery, subplots, and best of all, a surprise ending.”—Library Journal

(Library Journal )

"A child of its times yet still relevant today and, above all, brilliantly entertaining and occasionally darkly poetic, this book is a winner all-around. Kudos to Bison Books for bringing this neglected classic back into print!"—Jim Lee, Tales of the Talisman

(Jim Lee Tales of the Talisman ) --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

About the Author

In his illustrious forty-five-year career as a novelist and author of short fiction, Robert Silverberg has belonged in the company of the best writers of the 20th century. His writing has been compared to Conrad, Huxley and Orwell. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 245 pages
• Publisher: Bobbs-Merrill (1976)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0672519933
• ISBN-13: 978-0672519932
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #198,117 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A neglected classic..., May 21, 2004

By 

Addison Phillips (San Jose, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Shadrach in the Furnace (Paperback)

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.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars There are only so many ways you can say "he's great!", October 1, 2004

By 

Michael Battaglia - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Shadrach in the Furnace (Hardcover)

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 typically effortless techniques to weave a plot that falls together perfectly, surprisingly and in the only way it could. Although the ending has an open ended quality to it, Silverberg never wrote a sequel to it and he never needed to. Along with the rest of his stuff, this is highly recommended and well worth your time to track it down, or badgering a publisher to get it back out there again.