Robots and Changelings

by Lester del Rey

The Pipes of Pan
Little Jimmy
The Coppersmith
No Strings Attached
The Still Waters
Kindness
Stability
The Keepers of the House
Uneasy Lies the Head
The Monster
Into Thy Hands

Genres: Science Fiction

175 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1957

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

[Cheryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

If these were the stories I've found typical of the era, the kind that read like episodes of the original Twilight Zone, that'd be great. Turns out they're better, more thoughtful, more creative... and a tiny bit more challenging, as evidenced by the fact that after the first few stories I wasn't impressed, but by the end I wanted to go back and read them all over again.

Bonus: given the era, the sexism isn't too bad.

Read again April 2021. Admire it even more (even the first stories!), and am keeping my battered copy to read yet again because the author is totally under-represented on projectgutenberg and openlibrary. Dang! Y'all are missing out!

[James Henderson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Isaac Asimov was not the only science fiction author who wrote excellent robot stories. Lester del Rey first started publishing stories in pulp magazines in the late 1930s, at the dawn of the so-called Golden Age of Science Fiction. He was associated with the most prestigious science fiction magazine of the era, Astounding Science Fiction, from the time its editor John W. Campbell published his first short story in the April 1938 issue: "The Faithful", already under the name Lester del Rey. This anthology was published in the mid-fifties and contains some of his best stories.

[Sffgeek · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not re-read this in decades - don't need to, I still remember all the stories...