I've finished the first 5 stories in that anthology in my chronological MU reading... so far I've liked 3 and felt 'meh' about the other 2.
Update: read two more, and it was hit and miss.As usual, I have one book that I read in paper/hard copy form, and another as eBook - depending on the situation...
1) I've read 4 out of 7 novellas from Seven Deadly Sins anthology - Cardassian, Klingon, Mirror Universe and Romulan, and I'm just starting the Pakled story. So far they've all been good (particularly the Cardassian one), though the Romulan one started a bit slow and didn't grip me until the last couple of chapters. Full review after I finish the book.
2) on the eBook front, I've been reading the Mirror Universe fiction from the Glass Empires-Obsidian Alliances-Shards and Shadows anthologies in chronological order.
Age of the Empress seemed OK, though not bringing anything new, until halfway through. It lost me with T'Pau's line that Humans, despite their ruthlessness, don't have a tendency for indiscriminate murder. Um, really? Forgive my skepticism, but the real human history offers more than enough evidence to the contrary. And that was just the beginning, as the rest of the novella was doing its best to establish Hoshi and the Humans as not such bad guys after all, in comparison with all those aliens who are even worse. This is not the Federation, it's the Terran Empire we're talking about! Terran Empire has been portrayed on screen as the worst of the worst, not flawed antiheroes who are still nicer than the rest of the galaxy and that we should root for!
Next up was "Nobunaga", Dave Stern's short story, which I liked better, because of its non-linear, what-is-real-and-what-is-not structure, and because it restored some of the dread and creepiness to Empress Hoshi and the Terran Empire. It felt a bit unfinished, especially with T'Pol's role being so ambiguous, and I would love to read a sequel.
"Ill Winds" about MU Robert and Sarah April didn't grip me, probably because I am not familiar with the prime universe Aprils. But Margaret Wander Bonnano's "The Greater Good" was excellent, with its portrayal of MU Kirk, Pike and the Talosians, and an effective ending.
Now reading The Sorrows of Empire (the novella).
Hit: "Black Flag" by James Swallow - Wow. That was dark even for MU standards. I really liked it. I've never read any of the Vanguard novels, but now I'm interested to see what the prime universe versions of those characters are like.
Miss: "The Traitor" - eh, this was rather pointless. First it looks like we'll get to see alternate versions of Picard and Guinan and their different relationship in the MU... but it turns out they're not really Picard or Guinan. Meh.
I also remember trying to read "Family Matters" a few months ago, getting bored and stopping halfway through. I'm not looking forward to the Human rebels vs Evil Empire of Klingons and Cardies stories. Not really a very interesting context. I'm still at the part of the chronology where Humans are slaves, so it's not that bad. I did like "Freedom Angst" from Seven Deadly Sins. Which is a really good anthology, BTW. It rarely happens that I actually like all the stories. I'm nearly finished with the last one, so there's a full review coming up.
Now starting to read: The Worst of Both Worlds.
Oh, and I'm afraid there are no lesbians so far.
Well, there's one character in "Ill Winds" who hints that she's bisexual, but that's all. In fact, out of all the above-mentioned stories and novellas, only The Sorrows of Empire has a lesbian couple, and they're peripheral characters.
