A Pound of Cure E-Book

Lester Del Rey

• Herausgeber: Wildside Press
• Kategorie: Fantasy und Science-Fiction
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024

Seitenzahl: 24

Beschreibung

Henry's life is unraveling: his wife, Maryl, is struggling with the grief of never having more children and the absence of their son, Jimmy, staying with his grandmother. Desperate, Henry resorts to a drastic measure, substituting Jimmy with a robot twin while the real boy recovers from an accident.

Maryl’s acceptance of the fake Jimmy brings temporary relief, but as the lines between reality and illusion blur, Henry's decision spirals into a haunting exploration of love, deception, and the pursuit of happiness. What will become of a family built on such a fragile foundation?

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

COPYRIGHT INFORMATION

INTRODUCTION, by John Betancourt

A POUND OF CURE, by Lester del Rey

LESTER DEL REY: SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

COPYRIGHT INFORMATION

Copyright © 1953 by Lester del Rey.

Originally published in Star 2 Science Fiction, edited by Frederik Pohl.

Reprinted by permission of the author’s estate.

Published by Wildside Press LLC.

wildsidepress.com

INTRODUCTION,by John Betancourt

Lester del Rey was one of the most accomplished writers in the early days of genre science fiction. His novels and short stories appeared in every leading magazine from the 1930s through the 1950s. His work explored robotics, time travel, telepathy, alien invasion, space exploration, first contact, and many more themes, all with vivid writing and realistic, believable characterizations.

He was highly creative, and, in fact, made up most of the “public” details of his life. He often told people his real name was Ramon Felipe Alvarez-del Rey (and sometimes even Ramon Felipe San Juan Mario Silvio Enrico Smith Heartcourt-Brace Sierra y Alvarez del Rey y de los Uerdes). He also claimed that his whole family was killed in a car accident in 1935. However, after his death, his sister confirmed that his name was, in fact Leonard Knapp, and the accident in 1935 killed his first wife but not his parents, brother, or sister.

In the 1950s and 1960s, he moved from short fiction to writing novels for adults and young adults, while simultaneously embarking on an editing career. Along with his fourth wife, Judy-Lynn, Lester del Rey met his greatest success at Ballantine Books, where they established the fantasy and science fiction imprint Del Rey Books in 1977. Del Rey Books continues to this day.

Del Rey was a member of the literary banqueting club, the Trap Door Spiders, which served as the basis of Isaac Asimov’s fictional group of mystery solvers, the Black Widowers. (He was the model for “Emmanuel Rubin.”)

Following Lester del Rey’s death, I purchased his literary estate from his heirs and have been working to put all of his classic fiction back into print.

Judy Lynn and Lester Del Rey at Minicon 8 (1974).

(Source: Wikimedia Commons.)

A POUND OF CURE,by Lester del Rey

Maryl sat in the same spot as he’d left her in the morning, and the house was a mess, except for the big electrochord Henry had bought for Jimmy’s first lessons. That was polished to a gleam of synthetic mahogany, and topped by the tri-di picture of the boy, taken a year ago. Now she sat with her hands in her lap, facing it. Wrapped around one finger was the yellow curl she’d saved from the boy’s first haircut, and her thumb was caressing it softly.