Notes
The Stochastic Man, a standalone novel by Robert Silverberg.

Previously published as a three part serial in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction (April-June 1975).

The image opposite and the blurb below are from the 1976 Readers Union hardback edition. Cover designer unknown.

Publisher's Blurb – Jacket Flap
Lew Nichols is in the business of stochastic prediction. A mixture of sophisticated analysis and informed guesswork, it is the nearest approach late-twentieth-century man can make to predicting the future. In Nichols' hands, it is a tool of almost uncanny accuracy, and his expertise gains him an important place in the entourage of Paul Quinn, the ambitious and charismatic Mayor of the virtually ungovernable city of New York, whose sights are set on the Presidency in 2004.

Effective though it is, there is nothing paranormal about stochastic prediction. Nichols guesses the future; he cannot actually see it. That's the extraordinary gift the reclusive Martin Carvajal offers to teach him – total clairvoyant knowledge of the future. Caught up in an obsessive desire to help Quinn into the White House, it is a chance Nichols is unable to resist, even though he can clearly see the effect on Carvajal of knowing in advance every act of his life, up to and including the moment of his death.

The Stochastic Man is a characteristically thorough and satisfying exploration of an sf concept; strongly-plotted, well-written and thoughtful, it shows Robert Silverberg at his brilliant best.