Pictures from an Expedition, by Alexander Irvine

I'm rather tepid about this collection of short stories. Certainly well-written, with many vivid characters and set-ups, but most of the stories seemed to be missing some crucial element. In some cases, I think this was deliberate as a (failed?) attempt to create more mystery in the story. In other cases, the stories were missing something more elementary: a plot, or a point, or a resolution. The title story is certainly one of the better ones, but I resent it for being similar to a story idea of my own that's been slowly rolling about in my head.