Kendall Foster Crossen (1910–1981)

Crossen’s book is a collection of science fiction short stories which have been grouped into Ages – The Atomic Age (1960 AD – 2100 AD), Galactic Age (2100 AD – 3000 AD), Stellar Age (3000 AD to 10,000 AD) and Delphic Age (10,000 AD – 1,000,000 AD). With the exception of the Delphic Age, each age has 4 stories grouped under its banner. The book was published in 1951 and the latest collected story has a publication date of 1951. As might be expected, given the passage of time, the stories are dated and some have not aged well. On the other hand, I think there are still enough gems to make a reading of the book worthwhile.

Atomic Age Stories:

Flying Dutchman – Ward Moore
There Will Come Soft Rains – Ray Bradbury
The Mute Question – Forrest J. Ackerman
The Portable Phonograph - Walter Van Tilburg Clark

All are post nuclear holocaust and all are very downbeat. Of the group I like Flying Dutchman the best – nothing like engineering a system with enough redundancy to guarantee trouble free functioning for a long period of time.

Galactic Age Stories:

Automaton – A.E. van Vogt
Restricted Clientele – Kendell Foster Crossen
Shambleau – C.L. Moore
Christmas on Ganymede – Isaac Asimov

Two of these stories, Automaton and Restricted Clientele, deal with human situations in the future while the other two deal with humans interacting with aliens. My preference in this group is Restricted Clientele – there is a point where guaranteed safety and prison become one and the same.

Stellar Age Stories

Memory – Theodore Sturgeon
Exiled From Earth – Sam Merwin, Jr.
Retreat to the Stars – Leigh Brackett
The Voice of the Lobster – Henry Kuttner

These stories have nothing in common save their grouping. They cover corporate intrigue, mistaken identity, escape from tyranny, and con artists in action…sort of. The story concerning corporate intrigue – Memory – is my favorite.

Delphic Age Stories

Evolution’s End – Robert Arthur
Transfer Point – Anthony Boucher
The Devil Was Sick – Bruce Elliott

I don't think this group has aged well. Basically we have the old reinvention of Adam and Eve, the devil dealing with people in the far future and vice versa, and a world where fiction writing interacts with the real world which interacts with the fiction writing....… (meer)

Insurance investigator Brian Brett is assigned the Claassen jewellery case. A million dollar heist of high profile ice. Not the first big case but one that takes him to Johannesburg, South Africa to solve it.

The case starts out straight forward but then takes some wild and sharp turns. A ready candidate replies to the reward offered for information and recovery of the jewels, but a hitch develops when it is discovered that $90,000 worth of the jewellery is missing and no one seems to know where it is.

Add to this mix an exotic nightclub dancer that distracts Brett's mind, his penchant for dry martinis and Mrs. Claassen's provocative social-secretary to the mix and Brett becomes a very busy man!

Written in the style of Chandler, Hammett and the like and it turns out to be a Goodread.… (meer)

An armored car is robbed and members of the heist crew begin turning up dead. Insurance investigator Milo March follows the survivors to Brazil where they still keep on dying. March is stuck with the task of finding the loot, spiriting it out of the country while a corrupt cop tries to grab a share and convincing the surviving thieves to return to America to face a death sentence. March is a largely forgotten PI who deserves to be brought back to readers' attention. M E Chaber weaves a tale that keeps the reader wondering how March is going to pull off his mission.… (meer)