A definite improvement over the second book in the series. The hard-SF aspects are explored well, with a focus on the mysteries of the Heechee, AIs, dark matter, and consciousness, all without the troublesome themes of the prior book. 

Much like _Gateway_, the prior book in the series, there's a lot of really neat hard SF worldbuilding. Unfortunately, there's also a lot of uncomfortable-by-today's-standards focus on whether the 14-year-old girl is going to jump in bed with her brother-in-law or the raised-by-horny-computers orphan. _Gateway_ had a little bit of this sort of thing — the main character at one point in that book is in a relationship with a woman who is described as said-she-was-18, looked 16, but even that was questionable — but here it's a fairly major thread for the first half of this book. Thankfully, it more or less fades away in the latter half, but it was rather painfully obvious that Pohl (who was in his early 60s when he wrote this book) was absolutely part of the "old white men indulging their puerile fantasies" crowd of mid-century SF. In the end, the interesting SF parts kept me invested and I'm proceeding to the next book in the series.

The basic concept and ideas are good (flipping “college-ready students” to “student-ready colleges”), but at times really needed a stricter editorial eye (the point where a sentence begins “In short…”, but then goes on for nine lines, and is already three sentences into a page-and-a-half paragraph being a prime example).

The main character’s something of an ass (admittedly, this is part of the story, so at least he’s not an ass for no reason), but the general conceit and worldbuilding is fascinating. Humanity has found the remnants of an alien race, including a fleet of FTL ships…but nobody really knows how to work them. Take one out and you might come back with treasures worth millions, you might come back with nothing, you might come back dead, you might not come back at all…and the odds aren’t in your favor.

Overall, there was a more melancholy feel to this collection, but bookended with two very enjoyable and hopeful stories (the first, one that I’d even qualify as hopepunk). Bradbury continues to be a lifelong favorite of mine.

A clever attempt at tying together virtually all of the "travel back in time to 20th century Earth" episodes into a single adventure. Enjoyable, though I did end up getting a bit confused about timelines towards the end, but not enough to be a major bother.

A locked-room murder mystery in space, with mysterious AIs, interstellar politics, and somewhat mystic aliens. I really enjoyed Thompson’s earlier Wormwood trilogy, and this absolutely holds up. His characters are fascinating and very real (even when artificial), and motivations are not always as clear cut as they might seem.

A murder mystery on an asteroid mining colony, under investigation by an AI-expert-turned-indentured-security-officer after a catastrophic disaster on their scientific expedition ship. I had fairly good guesses at several of the final reveals, but enjoyed the journey even if it never really caught me off guard.

A solidly stronger than average anthology of stories exploring how the old gods get by in modern times.

I wasn’t sure at first, but the more I got into this surreal dreamworld of westerns, circuses, and mythology, the more I enjoyed it. Like reading a dream and being caught up in the emotions of the dreamer. Really enjoyed this one.