Paris, Joe the Barbarian is a great read. I read it in issues and adored it, and even double dipped on the HC because the presentation was so nice. Keep your eyes posted for some Trek-related Easter Eggs in the art! I'll have to check out Bourdain's book. It's getting good reviews all over town!
I finished Worlds of DS9: Dominion this morning. I ended up liking it, but didn't quite groove to the "Let's Explain that Scene from Cordially Invited" chapters. I got the point, and some of it might have been the unseen intention of that scene, but it just didn't jibe for me. I also wish Kira had been more of a presence. She only really has a few spoken lines in the novella, and makes token appearances in a few others. I would thought highlighting Kira after Unity would have been a given for the WoDS9 books. While I enjoyed the Odo storyline, I wish it had done a little bit more. DRGIII does an excellent job of explaining the link and the nature of changelings that aren't Lass or Odo, but after a while reading about swirls and vorticies of orange gets a little tiresome. The Taran'atar story was good, though a certain twist didn't really strike me as necessary - or at least, it shouldn't have gotten as much time as it did.
Having finished this overall arc of the DS9-R, I'd have to say that while I thought, taken individually, they are each great and charming, taken together, they don't really feel cohesive, especially knowing the plot that they're building up in Bajor and Dominion doesn't exactly come to fruition. My non-scientific rating would say that I liked Ferenginar the most, followed by Cardassia, Bajor, Dominion, followed by Trill and in last place, Andor. Which isn't to say I didn't enjoy Andor, but that it was the least compelling for me, and it was perhaps too long or needed a B-Plot.
As well, I saw in the back of WoDS9 3 and I've heard it repeated here that the stories are intentionally told out of order. However, I can't really say I see a reason to do this nor do the stories rely on that type narrative. While it's perfectly fine to do so, it just doesn't seem selfevident that any story had to be told before any of the others. Perhaps I'm missing something?
Currently, I'm about 50 pages into Starfleet Academy: The Assassination Game. I'm really enjoying it. Kirk's personality isn't quite what I'd want, but then again it is Movie Kirk, but the author has Bones' voice and personality down pat. I've also gotten a huge kick out of the little nods and winks to the "Prime" Universe and to Enterprise, which are fairly substantial this early in the work. However, they don't overtake the book either. You either get the reference and share in the author's reference, or you take it as new information.