So I've only just finished up the first story, and maybe it was a mistake to go through this with Cold Forge so recent in my mind, but stuff that was exemplary in Cold Forge just isn't handled here well at all. Take the first story for instance. In it we have a generic setup; WY crew sent out to Zeta Reticuli (couldn't even make up a new system), come across xenos, the company tells them it wants one, shit ensues, etc. It's all paint by numbers. Not very interesting at all. Secondly, and made all the more glaring by Cold Forge actually addressing it, is the fact that the "Leapers" are humanoid, despite the only native life around being apparently these big floating jellyfish things. The story is just lazily constructed by inserting plot A into setting B and filling in a bunch of Aliensverse sounding names.
The next one is by Dan Abnett, who I know can write a story and whose worked I've enjoyed before, so fingers crossed the anthology gets better from here on out.
Perhaps it's because I, while liking Aliens decently enough, am not as crazy in love with it as others are (including it seems the editor of the anthology) but I get the impression this body of work may take me a while to get through...