This book held my interest enough for me to finish it and I mostly enjoyed it, but the author has an irritating habit of "explaining" things that don't need explaining. For example: “[Kirk] counted his lucky stars that they’d made it out of the Neutral Zone in time to rendezvous with the Bellingham; Captain Greer might have been reluctant to risk interstellar war by venturing into the Zone. One errant starship on a supposed rescue mission was bad enough. The Klingons would not have taken kindly to two Starfleet vessels waging battle against the Orions so close to their empire.” That last sentence is unnecessary. Another example, after Uhura tosses back a grenade that has landed at her feet: “[Kirk] didn’t want to think about what would have happened had [Uhura's] reflexes been just a heartbeat slower. A photon grenade could inflict a lot of damage, as the battered Orions had just experienced firsthand.” Again, the last sentence is unnecessary. Mr. Cox, give your readers some credit for being able to understand things without needing those things to be spelled out for them.

This was a great read. I couldn't stop reading it cause I wanted to find out what happened next. Great story :)