This is miles better than the first volume in the Day of Honor series! I'm tempted to get myself a copy of it to keep, seeing as this one has to go back to the library. I especially enjoy that the focus is spread quite evenly between a number of different characters... I think Bashir's storyline is my favourite, focusing as it does on his role as a doctor and his increasing communication with a new sentient species, but there was genuinely no storyline here that I didn't enjoy.

I think the vast improvement from that first volume lies in the fact that it's more subtle in its depiction of what honor is, and what it means to Klingons. It's still not especially subtle, don't get me wrong, but the choice to have Kira as the character who so often questions how Klingons approach honor is inspired - she tries to wrap her head around it from a Bajoran perspective and largely fails, simply because their cultures are just too different. It's not that failed understanding that's the focus, though... it's the attempt to understand, even when that attempt is baffling and frustrating and goes against every biased, preconceived notion that she already holds. There's something fundamentally optimistic about that determined attempt, and it's an optimism that permeates all the storylines. It's just very well done, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.