The Best of Lester del Ray

by Lester del Rey

Sixteen short stories by Lester Del Rey and an Afterword by the author. Seven-page introduction by Frederik Pohl. The Pyrotechnics of Lester del Rey. Science fiction's most protean personality--writer, editor, critic, publisher--sets off an incomparable fireworks display in these tales of robots and humans, animals and aliens, ghosts and gods, science and the supernatural...
Contents:
* The Magnificent (1978) • essay by Frederik Pohl
* Helen O'Loy (1938) / short story by Lester del Rey: If you want an ideal mate, build her!
* The Day Is Done (1939) / short story by Lester del Rey
* The Coppersmith [Ellowan Coppersmith • 1] (1939) / short story by Lester del Rey
* Hereafter, Inc. (1941) / short story by Lester del Rey; This is Heaven? The hell it is!
* The Wings of Night (1942) / short story by Lester del Rey
* Into Thy Hands (1945) / short story by Lester del Rey
* And It Comes Out Here (1951) / short story by Lester del Rey
* The Monster (1951) / short story by Lester del Rey
* The Years Draw Nigh (1951) / short story by Lester del Rey
* Instinct (1952) / short story by Lester del Rey: The robots labored to re-create the extinct human species--but there was one element they somehow left out.
* Superstition (1954) / novelette by Lester del Rey
* For I Am a Jealous People! (1954) / novella by Lester del Rey: "In God We Trust" is a great motto--until you find you can't.
* The Keepers of the House (1956) / short story by Lester del Rey
* Little Jimmy (1957) / short story by Lester del Rey: The invisible kid was a ghost for sure. But whose?
* The Seat of Judgment (1957) / novelette by Lester del Rey
* Vengeance Is Mine (1964) / novelette by Lester del Rey (variant of To Avenge Man)
* Author's Afterword (The Best of Lester del Rey) (1978) • essay by Lester del Rey
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Genres: Science Fiction, Short Stories, Fiction, Collections, Anthologies

366 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1978

About the author

Lester del Rey was an American science fiction author and editor. Del Rey is especially famous for his juvenile novels such as those which are part of the Winston Science Fiction series, and for Del Rey Books, the fantasy and science fiction branch of Ballantine Books edited by Lester del Rey and his fourth wife Judy-Lynn del Rey.

Also published as:
Philip St. John
Eric van Lihn
Erik van Lhin
Kenneth Wright
Edson McCann (with Frederik Pohl)

Reviews

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book collects sixteen of del Rey's best short works, most from John Campbell's Astounding SF magazine. It's a good companion volume to the two volume Early del Rey collections, as it contains most the works he mentions in the autobiographical sections of those that they don't include. (I hesitate to agree that they're his best stories due to the lack of Nerves, surely a classic and possibly his best.) He was one of the early giant names of the Golden Age of SF, his writings continued and flourished after many of those contemporaries had waned, and his influence is still felt. Here he writes best about robots and rockets and religion, but creates realistic characters within the framework.

[Theo Logos · Rating 5 out of 5]

These are classic, Golden Age of SciFi stories written by a nearly forgotten Grand Master of the form. Many of them have sweeping space opera settings and backstories. A few have a hard SciFi feel, and a couple are fantasy tales. Several use post-apocalyptic settings. His robot stories are among the best of the genre. Religion in often unorthodox guises is a fascinating and recurring theme throughout. And he is a maestro extraordinaire of the poignant tale.

Del Rey’s writing is straight forward, sometimes almost breezy. But his ideas! His ideas are deceptively powerful. From my first reading of these stories as a teen they burrowed into my brain. They are optimistic but subversive, cynical and world weary while remaining hopeful. Above all, they are fiercely humanistic in outlook, explicitly centering Kantian ethics.



Helen O’Loy 4 ⭐️
A Pygmalion story for the space age, wherein a couple of clever young men take on the challenge to build a better robot, and one of them ends up falling in love with their creation.
This one reads like Golden Age hard science fiction that takes a turn into romance.

The Day Is Done 2 ⭐️
A story of the last Neanderthal, unfortunately outdated almost to oblivion.

The Coppersmith 4 ⭐️
An elf tinker awakens after 120 year sleep, and attempts to ply his honest trade. He finds his art is useless on the new stainless steel and other metal alloys that have replace most copper and brass pots and pans, and almost despairs before finding a shop where a master tinker elf’s skills are still valuable. A fun fantasy tale.

Hereafter, Inc. 3 ⭐️
A puritanical old fanatic learns the hard way that heaven and hell are what you make it.

The Wings of Night 4 ⭐️
A couple of freight rocket jockeys crash land onto the moon and into an ancient hidden crater that contains the last survivor of an unimaginably old Lunar race. A first contact story that examines human nature both in general and in specific. Clever and hopeful.

Into Thy Hands 2 1/2 ⭐️
A post-apocalyptic parable, with with robots attempting to decipher the Genesis story of the fall.

And It Comes Out Here 3 ⭐️
A breezy little tale of a time loop wherein a man visits his former self and passes on the knowledge that changed his life. Not at all original, but still fun.

The Monster 3 ⭐️
The story follows a confused person, apparently on the run, but with no memory of who or where he is. By bits and pieces he discovers that he is terribly important, and that people fear him and consider him a monster. He may be running out of time to discover the answers.

The Years Draw Nigh 4 1/2 ⭐️
Human civilization built to a grand pinnacle, perfecting life extension into centuries, establishing a spaceport on Mars, constructing starships that could explore hundreds of light years into the galaxy looking for habitable planets and other intelligent life. But years passed, starships returned, one by one, their missions failed, and prospects of new frontiers and possibilities withered. Profound ennui beset humanity, its dreams of exploration and new frontiers dying. But then the final starship, fifty years past due, returned to the abandoned Mars spaceport…

Instinct 4 ⭐️
Robot scientist are attempting to revive the long extinct human race to study what caused their extinction event, and to gain knowledge of what changes robots can safely make to themselves without triggering the same fate. Head researcher robot Senthree believes the answer lies in the fabled instinct that humans had but apparently did not pass on to their robot creations. A cautionary tale.

Superstition 4 1/2 ⭐️
While on a critical mission in a galactic war, a spaceship captain and his abbreviated crew are marooned on a primitive but friendly planet. The simple natives appear to control vast powers the captain can only attribute to some massive, hidden technology, but the locals say it comes to them through their dead god.

This is a complex tale with thousands of years of humanity’s history with space travel, colonization of the galaxy, and civilization-destroying warfare as backstory. It explores issues of human psychology and self-deceit with a cynical edge but a fundamentally optimistic core.


For I Am A Jealous People 5 ⭐️
Amos Strong is a provincial minister, laboring in an undistinguished parish, delivering his Sunday sermon to his congregation as savage alien invaders from the stars are attacking and occupying Earth. It almost seems as if the Hand of God is turned against the human race, as plagues of locus attack their crops, and natural disasters like cyclones and meteors destroy their defenses. But Amos, with a lifetime of serving his God knows, “God’s ways are not man’s ways.”
Like Job, Amos is quickly stripped of everything and everyone he loves because of this fearsome invasion, but through long habit he hides behind his trust in God as he and his atheist friend Doc are harried from their homes and captured by the vicious alien horde.
But what should a man of God do if God has turned his back on humanity? What new cosmic arithmetic then calculates his allegiance?

The first time I read this story it shocked me, then thrilled me. Its concept was both blasphemous and absolutely liberating. I never forgot it. I find it as powerful now as I did over forty-five years ago.

The Keepers of the House 4 ⭐️
A dog’s eye view of a post-apocalyptic world, as the old dog King is drawn by scent and instinct to the laboratory he once knew as home. Disturbing hints and clues give a foggy idea of what might have been the genesis of the disaster, but the author doesn’t show us anything beyond what the dog can ken. Atmospheric and eerie.

Little Jimmy 4 1/2 ⭐️
Little Jimmy is the most haunting ghost story of all time. Not the best. Not the scariest. But its twist is simply the most psychologically haunting of any ghost story I’ve read. This story has haunted my imagination and my ideas of my own personal ghosts for over four and a half decades.

The Seat of Judgement 5 ⭐️
This story’s title refers to a brutal form of execution, and the story itself is both brutal and fascinating. The story is surprisingly risqué, both sexually and religiously, for its 1957 publication date.
An old Earth ambassador must deal with a fanatical religious uprising that threatens both Earth’s subjugated colonial planet and possibly the corrupt home empire of Earth itself. Thirty years before he dealt with another of the periodic religious crises of this odd planet, and now he must solve the problem of a gentle prophet who inspires fanatical zeal that threatens both the colonial planet’s religious hierarchy and Earth’s political stability. The twist is a mind-screw gut-punch, creative, blasphemous, and devastating.

Vengeance Is Mine 4 ⭐️
Sam, a robot left on the moon base when the men abandoned it for the war raging on Earth, activates after 30 years to find that humanity is gone — destroyed by an unknown enemy in a catastrophic war. Driven by fierce anger against the anonymous race that destroyed his creators, Sam builds a new race of robots, and a new, grand civilization that heads out to the stars on a mission of vengeance against the destroyers of mankind.

[Phil Giunta · Rating 4 out of 5]

You will find no shortage of robots and strange religions in this collection of stories from Lester Del Rey. As with any collection, there are stories ranging from mildly interesting to absolute gems. My favorites included:

Helen O’Loy - Robotics experts Dave and Phil create a female robot complete with emotions and decide to name her Helen O’Loy, a derivative of Helen of Alloy, which is a pun on Helen of Troy. Got that? The only problem is that she falls in love with Dave, making his life miserable…at least at first.

The Coppersmith - Industrious elf Ellowan Coppersmith emerges from a long sleep in the Adirondacks looking for work among humans only to find that his skills in repairing copper and brass items are no longer in high demand. Worse, mankind has developed horrid combustion engines. Perhaps Ellowan could use his skills to bring an eventual end to that…

Hereafter, Inc. - Righteous and judgmental Phineas Theophilus Potts returns to work after a long illness, forcing himself to be kind to the disgusting sinners around him, until he begins to realize that something is amiss. Some of his colleagues had died before his illness, so what are they doing here? Perhaps the question should be, what is Phineas doing there?

The Wings of Night - Two astronauts land on the moon to repair their ship and encounter a bizarre but benevolent alien named Lhin. Through trial and error, the astronauts find a way to communicate with the alien and learn that Lhin is the last of his kind, but with a small supply of copper could repopulate his species.

For I Am a Jealous People - A preacher’s faith is shaken when aliens attack the Earth claiming to be on a holy mission from the Lord Almighty to eradicate humans from the planet. This is one of three novellas in the collection.

Vengeance is Mine - A robot named Sam is left behind on the moon when the humans are evacuated to Earth. Shortly thereafter, Sam notices bursts of light on the Earth’s surface before the planet goes completely dark. Believing that aliens had attacked, Sam finds his way back to the planet only to eventually learn the truth behind the death of mankind. The last of three novellas.

[Gu Kun · Rating 2 out of 5]

p.9 ("Helen O'Loy"): "wisps of silk and GLASSHEEN that were the fashion" - searched the internet in vain - anyone?

[Scott Holstad · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book really didn't do it for me and I'm somewhat disappointed by that. I had heard of his novels and his editorial influence for some time, but these short stories got to be so predictable that I didn't even want to finish the book. The first story, "Helen O'Loy," about a female robot who wants to be a human-type wife, is fairly decent and somewhat original for the times. However, Del Rey devolves into telling stories where the protagonist is the last of his kind of earth and he is so "weary." We've got the last elf, the last robot (do they really get weary?), and so on. At some point, there will probably be the last grasshopper. I don't know. It got pretty boring pretty fast. I guess the author was at his best when he was serving as editor and publisher of his own imprint, Del Rey Books. Not recommended.

[Dylan Graham · Rating 5 out of 5]

If I could give it ten stars, I would. This was literally one of the best collections I have ever read, and if I ever see another piece of literature by Lester del Rey again, I won’t hesitate to purchase it. All of the stories have such great depth and character development, and the ideas behind the story are just mind blowing. I would absolutely recommend this book to anyone who loves science fiction, and especially recommend it to someone who is trying to get into the genre.

[Steve Rainwater · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is fine collection with several excellent stories and only a few uninteresting ones.

I found at least two fell into the category of science fiction stories that once read, will never be forgotten: "For I Am a Jealous People" and "Vengeance is Mine". The first starts out like a stereotypical 1950's alien invasion story but with a very unexpected religious complication. Humans are always claiming that God is on their side during wars but what happens if God turns out to be a real entity, who actually shows up and proceeds to pick the wrong side? The second story starts off with one marooned robot trying to rejoin his human friends and ends in a galaxy and millenia spanning quest for justice. Those two stories alone are worth the price of the book.

The most well-known inclusion is the over-rated and somewhat dated, "Helen O'Loy", with a little robo-sexual action which must have seemed very risqué when it was published but seems a bit predictable today. It will probably be hard to read it without recalling the Space Pope's warning on Futurama: "Don't Date Robots!" There are several other entertaining fantasy and science fiction stories in the volume. The introduction by Frederik Pohl and afterward by the author are surprisingly entertaining as well. Recommended.

[Bent Andreassen · Rating 3 out of 5]

16 of del Rey's short stories/novelettes.
Ranging from 3 minus to 4 1/2 stars in my view.
Best are:
The Day Is Done
The Coppersmith
Hereafter, Inc.
The Wings of Night
The Monster
For I Am a Jealous People
Vengeance Is Mine

[DB in Richmond · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the very best books of science fiction stories/short fiction I have read.

[Stephen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Much like THE BEST OF DAMON KNIGHT, I find the "best" in the title to be doing a bit more work than the one in, say, THE BEST OF C. L. MOORE. Is it because sf writers who became better known as sf editors and publishers were more middling than the pure writers? Or maybe it's that, as publishers, their personal biases had more weight?

I suspect it might be more of the latter than the former. Del Rey can certainly write a good sf story. "Helen O'Loy" deserves its repeated anthology presence, but some of the stories in the back half of the book are surprisingly kickass - "For I Am a Jealous People" and "Vengeance Is Mine" have certain themes in common, and are also good.

One big drawback of the collection as a whole can be seen in Del Rey's own afterword: he identifies "an automatic element of drama and strong feeling attached to the last of a kind." Too many of the stories in the collection trade on this theme, however solid they are as individual pieces.

Overall, 2.5 stars, rounded up.

[William Jackson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This enjoyable collection of stories about robots, religion, and it’s apocalyptic settings will entertain you for months. Of course, Helen O’Loy is a favorite, and there are other gems to be discovered herein. Medical robots on a quest to fabricate a man, the end of the human race and its logical succession, a prehistoric fable, a ghost story — it’s all here. Del Rey also helps build the vocabulary by sprinkling in several literary terms bearing further investigation. Well worth your time.

[Stephen Heverin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent collection of short stories. I recently discovered his works and have been working through his collection. All of these stories really drew me in, i really enjoyed their concepts and writing. A number of them have me wanting to know more about the worlds in which they were created.

[David Allen · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the stronger entries in the Ballantine's Best series, this has gem after gem. Notable were several stories (from the '50s and '60s) taking a bitter view of God and religion. And it's got "Helen O'Loy," a charming piece of fluff, and "The Keepers of the House," a post-apocalyptic tale told from the point of view of a dog.

[Charles Shilling · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read the 1978 copy from Ballantine Del Rey ... and the intro by Frederick Pohl and the afterword by Del Rey made this such an enjoyable read. I wish there were intros and outros to every story. I very much enjoyed reading all of these immensely

[Kirk · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read an earlier edition (c) 1978, with a foreword by Frederick Pohl rather than Terry Carr. Enjoyable, though (as one would expect) some tales are dated. Good fun!

[Tentatively, Convenience · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lester del Rey's the kind of writer I might've read in my early teens (but didn't) & then decided that he represented the kind of SF that all SF seemed to me to be at the time: sortof interesting but not that well written or experimental. I wd've then moved on - remembering him w/ some affection but not in any hurry to read more.

Now that I'm 44 yrs past my early teens, del Rey still strikes me that way but I've read so many other things by now that I can respect del Rey just for being what he was: a somewhat generic, but still inspired, SF writer.

The history of SF, in the US at least, seems to be often grouped in periods determined by the tastes of the influential magazine & anthology editors of the time. In this case, del Rey falls fairly firmly in the John W. Campbell / Astounding Science Fiction era. These stories range from 1938 to 1964.

There're alotof robots. I like del Rey's robot stories. But even more important to me personally, there's alotof picking away at the religious fanaticism of the ilk that I grew up w/. "For I am a Jealous People!" was one of my favorites here. Extraterrestrials attack Earth w/ the apparent intention of wiping out humanity. Why? It's discovered that they, in fact, worship the same GOD that the Reverend Amos Strong, the protagonist, but that GOD is on their side & has instructed & empowered them to wipe out humanity, the great sinner. Ha ha! What a moral dilemma for the reverend!

These stories contain much of the content that helped shape the ethics & concerns of young boys (primarily but not entirely) growing up in the 40s, 50s, & 60s - humanity wiping itself out w/ atomic warfare (or whatever), eg. & I was right there w/ them.

[Martin · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've had this book sitting around as a "briefcase read" for several years. Lester Del Rey just doesn't do it for me. I enjoyed a non-fiction book he wrote, but this collection of short stories had several I rate "not very good." It does help to remind me that there is a big gap between the giants (Heinlein, Bradbury, Niven, Zelazny) of SF short stories and the third tier. Del Rey remains famous, but not because of his short fiction.

[Dr. Awkward · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mind blowing. As a great appreciator of classic science fiction, I can't believe I went this long without realizing del Ray had written so many fine pieces -- his are less abstract and world-building, like those which speak to magnificent, far-flung places, futures, and concepts (though those are wonderful too!), but touch human character and emotion in a thoroughly powerful way.

Prepare to be taken for a ride -- 16 rides, really, one for each treasure of a story in this book.

[CV Rick · Rating 4 out of 5]

He's a classic pulp writer, editor, and grandmaster of the genre. These stories seem simplistic, but my appreciation runs in the realization that he was ahead of his time and if the tropes seem cliche today, it's because Del Rey invented many of them and others followed behind, copying, honoring.

They are good. Some are great.

[Bob · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sixteen short stories written between 1938 and 1964 from one of the old masters of science fiction. Perhaps better known as a publisher, these stories show a wide variety of subject matter. Some of these stories were simply great. Worth a look.

[Nicholas Whyte]

http://nhw.livejournal.com/42619.html[return][return]Well, this was worth the

[Debra]

Stephen King favorably mentioned author for science-fiction stories written in post-war WWII in Chapter one of King's 1983 Berkeley paperback edition of Danse Macabre.

[Sean Brennan · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent collection of stories from the largely forgotten Del Rey.