These two novels in the Dominion War series are two of the best ST books I've read. All action plot line and you really believe that these characters have come off the screen into the book - in other words John Vormholt writes about the people we got to know in 7 years of TNG and this isn't true of all the authors who write TNG books. A twist to the normal, the Captain stays on the ship story line, gives Picard the action while Riker gets the ship repaired by becoming romaticaly entangled with the woman in command of the repairs - that is the part of the plot which meant, in my opinion, that the book was not worth 5 stars. The book is a good read - it doesn't deal with new theories about space, but it does give the definitive story about how Picard saved the Federation. What else would you expect from the best Captain in Starfleet?