First I was gifted this collection for a flight from the U.S. to Iceland. I appreciate the intent, but the collection of stories just didn’t spark the scfi lover in me. There just wasn’t enough depth to the characters and the plots, well they felt more like a 50’s detective T.V. show with a bit of tech and alien references thrown in more than a space adventure. I truly wanted to like the books, its scfi for good or bad, but I found myself skipping chapters a lot. Tried to reclaim the credit, but you can’t do that with gifted books.
To me it didn’t work, but to some (and the positive reviews show that) it just might be the right combination of elements for a great collection.