Like many short story collections, this is a mix of quality. It ranges from the "rather good" at the high end to the "rather mediocre" at the low end -- or, in the rating parlance of the goodreads star system, from "really liked it" to "it was ok", because nothing in it was so bad as to deserve the worst possible rating (one star) nor so good as to deserve the best possible rating (five stars).

Some of the stories are a bit naive in concept; others a bit trite; others inspiring or very thought-provoking. Still others were entertaining, but not particularly special beyond that.

Some insight into the mind of the author (Ben Bova) is offered via the introductory text he wrote for each story in the collection, which is an interesting contextual addition to the value of the stories themselves.

There are many books I would recommend before Escape Plus, but it was not a waste of time, so I do not regret the read. I think I found the last story in the book the most interesting, more for the ideas that were not well explored than for the content and construction of the story itself. ( )