Helen O’Loy by Lester Del Rey Episode #493

Lester Del Ray | February 16, 2026

Helen O’LOY

Episode #493 · Written by Lester Del Rey · Narrated by Scott Miller

Helen O’Loy opens with a technical ambition that quickly becomes personal. What starts as a carefully planned experiment drifts into uncertain territory as Helen begins responding to the world with patience, longing, and expectation rather than programmed routine.

The story’s power comes from how quietly the tension grows. Love is not announced or explained; it appears in habits, in waiting, and in disappointment that cannot be fixed with tools. As the men around her struggle to regain control, Helen continues forward, treating her feelings as real because they are real to her.

Told through hindsight, the narrative carries the weight of decisions made too late or avoided too long. The question is never whether the experiment worked, but whether anyone involved was prepared to accept the outcome once it did.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Lester Del Rey was a prolific contributor to Astounding Science-Fiction, where many of his most influential short stories first appeared. In addition to his own fiction, he later shaped the genre as a major editor at Ballantine Books and Del Rey Books, guiding the publication of countless science fiction and fantasy novels.

Helen O’Loy occupies a singular place in the work of Lester del Rey, distinguished by its quiet intensity and sharply focused human setting. Instead of projecting its ideas onto vast futures or elaborate technological systems, the story confines itself to a domestic space—a shared home where routines, habits, and small gestures carry enormous weight. Within that intimate frame, questions about artificial feeling, obligation, and care are not debated in the abstract but tested through everyday life, memory, and the slow accumulation of emotional attachment. The result is a story that feels personal rather than speculative, and unsettling precisely because it unfolds so close to ordinary experience.

That approach helped secure Helen O’Loy a lasting reputation as one of the standout achievements of the Golden Age of science fiction. Over the past nine decades, the story has been republished nearly one hundred times across magazines and anthologies, a level of circulation reserved for only the most enduring works of the period. Its continued reappearance reflects not nostalgia, but relevance—the sense that its central situation still provokes unease and discussion long after the era that produced it.

In 1970, that legacy was formally recognized when the Science Fiction Writers of America selected Helen O’Loy as one of the finest science-fiction short stories published before the creation of the Nebula Awards. That honor led to its inclusion in The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume One, 1929–1964, placing it alongside works widely regarded as foundational to the genre.

The story also earned recognition through the 1939 Retro Hugo Awards, where it was a finalist for Best Short Story and ultimately placed second behind How We Went to Mars by Arthur C. Clarke. Even in competition with some of the most celebrated names in science fiction, Helen O’Loy held its ground.

Perhaps most striking of all is the context of its creation. This landmark work was only the second story Lester del Rey ever had published. That such an early effort could achieve this level of influence and longevity underscores both the unusual clarity of its conception and its importance in the history of science fiction.

LISTEN TO THE STORY

Listen to Helen O’Loy by Lester Del Rey — a vintage science fiction classic where artificial emotion becomes impossible to control inside an ordinary home.

ABOUT THE LOST SCI-FI PODCAST

The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast is the most listened-to vintage science fiction podcast in the world. Ranked the #1 Science Fiction Podcast in 34 countries and heard in more than 190 countries, the show has surpassed 3.3 million listens.

Each episode features carefully selected stories from the Golden Age of science fiction, professionally narrated. Timeless storytelling the way it was meant to be heard.

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