I would dearly like to give this four stars, but the first third was so unnecessary, and so monumentally dull, that I seriously considered putting it down and never picking it up again. I find reading about battles boring at the best of times, and there were two in a row here. The book opened with a fight between the Klingons and a ship of alien invaders, with a very lengthy digression into changing gravity and mass that never went anywhere and so seemed like an utter waste of time. (Granted, this is the first book in a miniseries of four, so the gravity weapon might come up again, but it was pointless where it was.) Then there was an equally long and equally boring hand to hand fight on a planet between the Enterprise crew and the Klingons again, a fight which was essentially tossed to the side when the invaders came in. Both these lengthy scenes were tedious in the extreme, and both of them added nothing to the overall story.

It was a relief, then, when Kirk started building what seemed to be a friendship with one of the invading leaders. I want more from Trek than people endlessly smacking the shit out of each other and I got it here, eventually... albeit it ended tragically. The more books I read in this franchise, the more it becomes clear that the stories I really warm to are about two mortal enemies who build friendship and respect while still representing the interests of their own culture, and who manage to maintain that relationship even in the midst of serious conflict. I got that here for most of the book, so I ended a great deal more pleased than I started... but my goodness, that start was a drain on my interest.