The Best of Lester Del Rey ✬☆☆☆☆ DNF@74%

 

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Title: The Best of Lester Del Rey
Series: ----------
Authors: Lester Del Rey
Rating: 0.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF Short Story Collection
Pages: 350 DNF / 259
Words: 130K DNF / 96K

Synopsis:

TOC

"The Magnificent" [introduction] (Frederik Pohl)

"Helen O'Loy" (from Astounding Science-Fiction, Dec. 1938)

"The Day Is Done" (from Astounding Science-Fiction, May 1939)

"The Coppersmith" (from Unknown, Sep. 1939)

"Hereafter, Inc." (from Unknown Worlds, Dec. 1941)

"The Wings of Night" (from Astounding Science-Fiction, Mar. 1942)

"Into Thy Hands" (from Astounding Science Fiction, Aug. 1945)

"And It Comes Out Here" (from Galaxy Science Fiction, Feb. 1951)

"The Monster" (from Argosy, Jun. 1951)

"The Years Draw Nigh" (from Astounding Science Fiction, Oct. 1951)

"Instinct" (from Astounding Science Fiction, Jan. 1952)

"Superstition" (from Astounding Science Fiction, Aug. 1954)

"For I Am a Jealous People!" (from Star Short Novels, Oct. 1954)

"The Keepers of the House" (from Fantastic Universe, Jan. 1956)

"Little Jimmy" (from The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Apr. 1957)

"The Seat of Judgment" (from Venture Science Fiction Magazine, Jul. 1957)

"Vengeance Is Mine" (from Galaxy Magazine, Dec, 1964)

"Author's Afterword"

My Thoughts:

Several of these stories made quite clear what Del Rey thought about Christianity as a whole but I was able to read past them. Then I got to “For I Am a Jealous People” and it got downright blasphemous. I was teetering on dnf'ing and trying to make up my mind when another sentence hit me. A character is talking about the Bible and God and says something like “I just wish I knew where Jesus fit into all of this”. That did it. The Bible is crystal clear that Jesus is the second person of the Godhead, is not a created being AND is the only way for humanity to get to heaven. It was obvious that Del Rey knew exactly what he was doing as his deliberate misuse of Scripture by a character showed his was very familiar with it.

So dnf'd at 74% and 1/2star for blasphemy.

✬☆☆☆☆