Perilous Planets: An Anthology of Way Back When Futures

I'm rating this three stars because it has a couple of great stories in it. The trouble is, they're the stories which crop up in every other compilation, and the remainder are a bit flat.

Perilous Planets supposedly has a theme, but it's tenuous at best. The most you could say is “people are on an alien world, and perhaps one of them gets in a spot of bother”.

Damon Knight's Four In One is one of the most captivating stories I've ever read - but I've read it in a thousand other compilations.

How Are They On Deneb IV? by C.C. Shackelton is an interesting piece of metafiction, but too clever for its own good. I'd recommend it to someone for curiosity, rather than actual reading pleasure.

The only other story I hadn't read before that I thought was particularly good was William Morrison's The Sack.

Overall, hit-and-miss.