I just completed this novel. According to Memory Alpha it takes place in 2367 (during the 4th season of TNG). It features the Enterprise taking on an exchange officer from the Tarn, a reptilian species the Federation was at war with for a long period of time. There is currently a cease fire though there are forces within the Tarn government that don't like the cease fire and want to maintain aggression, including the exchange officer named Karish. While entering the negotiated neutral zone between the Federation and the Tarn the Enterprise encounters a ship that was thought lost during the battle along with the Tarn ship it was fighting, both destroyed. They then find out the decendents made their way to a nearby harsh planet and have continued the fight for 200 years and are now at the point of using atomic and biological weapons on each other. Picard tries to enforce a cease fire but the decendents, hardened by war, aren't interested. Complicating matters is the appearance of Tarn vessels to make sure the Enterprise does not try to help the Federation combatants on the planet. One wrong move can lead to war between the powers. Captain Picard finds a rather unique way to encourage the factions to end the war.
There is a bit of confusion about the timing of the lost ship. The book notes a couple of times the war and the battle took place about 200 years prior, yet it was also noted a couple of times they were contemporaries of the Enterprise under Captain Pike, which was only 100 years prior. This would appear to be an error. This book was released before Enterprise aired so you can't expect it to be consistent with that show. But by the time the book was written it was pretty well known TNG was only a century after the original series. Not sure how the author missed that.
Overall I'd rate the book as average, maybe a little better. Riker encounters an old love of his from his past in the historian. At first I thought she was going to have some 'Mary Sue' qualities, but that was quickly put to rest. She is simply an 'also starring' character and no attempt is made to make her look good at the expense of the regular characters. Worf has some interesting interactions with Karish, the Tarn officer. There is a tragedy in the story involving the death of a young girl that was upsetting for me as a father of a daughter, I have to admit. But it was an important element of the story that had some significance. And it added real consequences to the war of attrition that has been going on. There is not sudden bringing her back from the dead either. One complaint I have about a number of Star Trek books is adding a tragedy, but then undoing it. Not all stories have a happy ending.
So overall a decent enough book. It was good enough to read, but it's probably a book 5 years from now I'll remember very little about. It's fun for the moment but at least for me I feel it lacks anything that will be significantly memorable down the line.
There is a bit of confusion about the timing of the lost ship. The book notes a couple of times the war and the battle took place about 200 years prior, yet it was also noted a couple of times they were contemporaries of the Enterprise under Captain Pike, which was only 100 years prior. This would appear to be an error. This book was released before Enterprise aired so you can't expect it to be consistent with that show. But by the time the book was written it was pretty well known TNG was only a century after the original series. Not sure how the author missed that.
Overall I'd rate the book as average, maybe a little better. Riker encounters an old love of his from his past in the historian. At first I thought she was going to have some 'Mary Sue' qualities, but that was quickly put to rest. She is simply an 'also starring' character and no attempt is made to make her look good at the expense of the regular characters. Worf has some interesting interactions with Karish, the Tarn officer. There is a tragedy in the story involving the death of a young girl that was upsetting for me as a father of a daughter, I have to admit. But it was an important element of the story that had some significance. And it added real consequences to the war of attrition that has been going on. There is not sudden bringing her back from the dead either. One complaint I have about a number of Star Trek books is adding a tragedy, but then undoing it. Not all stories have a happy ending.
So overall a decent enough book. It was good enough to read, but it's probably a book 5 years from now I'll remember very little about. It's fun for the moment but at least for me I feel it lacks anything that will be significantly memorable down the line.
OMG. 
