Three and a half stars, rounding up to four. It would have been a full four stars if the ending wasn't so abrupt. What Carey does particularly well, in Star Trek stories, so I've noticed over the years, is character work. I can't think of another author in this franchise who does so well at it, and I'm far more interested in character than in things like running battles, which partly explains the difference in rating between this and the last Trek book I read.

Because this is set so early in the series run, everybody is still finding their place aboard the ship. This is especially true for Riker and Troi, who are both struggling with the ill-defined nature of their roles. First Officer, as Riker points out, is very much a look-up-in-case-of-emergency position, and the extremely new (within Starfleet) role of ship's counselor has not yet settled to one that everyone is comfortable with. This is something that I find particularly interesting: the human stories of space exploration, and how such exploration develops. Everyone's used to a medical doctor being on board, but someone with nonhuman senses who's there to monitor your mental health? No wonder there's a sense of awkwardness and second-guessing. The issue of the ghost ship itself is almost secondary to all this, which is fine by me... especially as that ghost ship is basically used as a means of poking at the tension points among the crew. Riker and Data get a good storyline there, as conflict illuminates prejudice as to what does and does not count as life. It's all well-measured and thoughtful, and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it - it's a great example of tie-in fiction as far as I'm concerned. If only this was the usual standard!