Love how it all comes together. Sometimes wish that the whole set - including Wounded sky for #6 - would be re-edited as a single book. Still, an excellent bit of work. ( )

I was a little bit disappointed in this ending to the series that I otherwise love. ( )

Finally got through this. It's an excellent book on war in space, and conflicting loyalties, and new tech, and what Duane's Rihannsu are going to do and be...but it's not a very good Star Trek book. Kirk does a lot of musing, but he doesn't sound like Kirk to me - just a bit off. I'm not sure any of the other ST canon characters get a viewpoint scene - can't remember seeing anything through Spock's eyes, or McCoy's. Ael also does a lot of musing, and it works OK for her - she's a Duane character, and it matches. So does Arrhae, though a lot of her scenes are dealing with twisty plotting and hidden motivations, which don't interest me much. There are some very good, interesting new characters introduced, some rather extreme space battles, quite a lot about how to conduct a war against a planet that you don't want to destroy. And a desperation move that threatens Sol and Earth, dealt with at the last second with some of that new tech - Scotty gets to show off his talents (but still, only seen through others' eyes). It's a great space opera; I kind of wish it wasn't Star Trek at all. Not bad, but not wonderful. I'll continue to reread My Enemy, My Ally, and maybe I'll reread the rest of the series sometime. ( )

I have enjoyed the series over the years. I know that back in Swordhunt the note from the Editors said that Diane's Rihannsu were no longer "canon" Star Trek because Next Generation had taken the Romulans in a different direction, but at the end of this book she comes the closest I know to explaining the 70 some year hiatus that Next Generation says happened with contact with the Romulans. As far as I can see it could still be canon because Diane seems to tuck it right back into main line Star Trek. ( )

The very first time I read this I was so excited to see how the story ended that I went through it in half a day and concluded it was utterly brilliant. I still found it to be thoroughly enjoyable a second time through, but a few faults showed up much more clearly upon closer examination.

I think the problem lies mainly with the presentation and not the story itself; had the story told in Swordhunt, Honor Blade, and The Empty Chair been heavily edited and revised into a single novel, the result would have been much better. But of course, the publishers would rather sell three novels at 300 pages each than one at 600 pages, so we're left with far too many pages of Kirk or Ael moping about the loneliness of command, endless discussions of tactics, descriptions of everyone sitting around the rec room waiting for the battle to start, etc.

This still manages to rise far above the average Star Trek novel, mostly because Diane Duane puts so much thought into her work. She clearly researched military history and tactics and thought about how they might apply to starships in order to make the space battles much more believable. The same with her treatment of the Romulan (sorry, Rihannsu) government - she clearly has a cheat sheet somewhere in her notes where she's worked out who's who and how it all works, instead of just throwing around a few random titles and names. Duane also gets full marks for character development, which is another of her strong points. The familiar characters are well-written and her original characters are full of an energy and depth that is too often lacking in other stories of this kind.

Ultimately, what we're left with is a fun and entertaining book with a few too many slow sections and some minor but irritating plot holes. While I was definitely entertained, I was also very frustrated - the material for a much tighter, better-paced story is absolutely there, and we know that Duane can deliver because she has done so often in the past. ( )