It's rare for Trek fluff to annoy me enough to drop a star (I never expect these to be Great Literature, after all), but this one managed it. Hints of interesting ideas scattered throughout (such as the conflict between the Federations post-Khan "no genetic manipulation EVAR" mindset and a society where genetic manipulation for particular environments is commonplace), but marred with bad characterizations and characters both.

(Minor spoilers follow.)

One of the two primary antagonists is a high-level Federation administrator in charge of enforcing Prime Directive regulations, and simultaneously horribly xenophobic. While the book tries to explain it away

Spoiler

(clumsily, in a few short sentences at the end) through nepotism and favoritism

, it was too unrealistic that such a person could have been appointed to that position (let alone that

Spoiler

Kirk would see her as a romantic interest immediately after she verbally abuses his bridge crew

). Definitely one of the least impressive Trek novels I've read.