The Iron Chancellor

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THE IRON CHANCELLOR was Robert Silverberg’s second contribution to GALAXY (his first a year earlier in 1956 was BLAZE OF GLORY); he was 22 when it appeared and it shows a remarkably developed talent. Silverberg in his memoirs remembers how Horace Gold, the editor of GALAXY magazine, was simultaneously entranced by Silverberg’s precocity and angered by what he felt was the young writer’s eagerness to settle for production, stylistic facility and prolific output. Like all of the editors with whom Silverberg dealt in his early career, Gold alternated between impatience and admiration but he did find THE IRON CHANCELLOR a strong story and he was glad to have it at a time when so many of his regular contributors, impatient with the field and with Horace, were moving on or moving out. In this story of a controlling machine assuming a totalitarian control, the influences on Silverberg can be clearly noted--Henry Kuttner’s Gallegher stories, Robert Sheckley’s rampant and perverse technology in the AAA Ace Series (also published in GALAXY). Silverberg’s own voice has emerged and he handles his rather large cast without stereotype, with clear definition and with a good deal of control. Silverberg became an increasingly dominant GALAXY contributor in the following decade and then, in the early 1970’s when the editorship had passed to Ejler Jakobsson’s and a new publisher, three of Silverberg’s novels were serialized in consecutive issues of the magazine, "The amazing fulfillment of a childhood fantasy" Silverberg wrote.