I can’t quite believe I hadn’t read this before. David’s not a stranger to the universe of course, yet somehow this hadn’t come through my life.

And what a story. It’s got so much of what makes great episodic Trek novels powerful, plus a now rather hopelessly outdated yet for the time grippingly vivid extension of the Borg. The non-Enterprise characters were all painted boldly enough to be very distinct, and I particularly enjoyed the subtle Selar nod but most of all the ending, which was a clever Einsteinian twist. There’s no doubt that Jeri Ryan took and ran with the concept of what now we must call XB’s, yet without her impact on the saga this is a fascinating yarn all its own.