I know books are never canon, but even though I lived and breathed on-screen Trek for decades, I’ve found a lot of enjoyment in the novels. The timing of this one was brilliant, more so because I hadn’t read all of it by the time Episode 4 of Picard aired. So the night before I had literally met Zani and Elnor on the page, only to see them in flashback on television the day after. Tremendous!

The biggest interest for me was Raffi. Episode dialogue doesn’t always lend itself to explanation of relationships, so seeing some of her background and how much she came to mean to Picard gives a lot of grounding to her depiction in the series. There’s also a lot of Romulan material, both political and cultural, and if some of it is retconned, it is handled fairly smoothly, with perhaps a bit more subtlety than the Spock and Burnham angle of Discovery.

I obviously don’t know how many more novels are planned, but there’s a great deal more to be filled in. We don’t know any more about either Laris or Zhaban. There’s bound to be more between Jocan and Tajuth, Agnes and Bruce – and the whole Synthetic angle is ripe for further exploration. Holograms have proliferated on television even as research into androids has withered.

So to conclude, a spectacular way of getting some background on the TV series. Even if the ending was a little forced-through, the deep emotional impact of seeing Picard attempt to help during the Romulan crisis is potent, and I won’t deny having a few scenes from the show come to life on the page was magical to me also.