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The second Star Trek: Picard novel is more successful as a story, but this is at the price of it being less successful as a prequel.

For those who kept up with post-series novels over the last twenty years (I haven’t), there is apparently much familiar here, as characters and elements are taken from the Titan novels. This explains why some characters seemed to be a bit glossed over, as they’re guest-starring here. And this is in the revised continuity, so it’s not entirely tied in with those.

This is 2386, a year after the synth revolt on Mars, and thirteen years before season 1 of Picard. Riker is captain of the USS Titan, and dealing with the Romulans. That had me thinking it would explain just why there’s a wrecked Borg cube in Romulan space, but no. It does tie in with Picard, but the threads are more tenuous, and in keeping with the Romulans, the real tie in does not show on the surface.

The good news is that it feels like a fairly strong Star Trek adventure. Seeking out new worlds and new civilizations. Encountering the unknown, and getting to know a bit more about ourselves. In general, the Romulans are well handled here, from the honorable and professional Captain Medaka to the Jazari. They’re a MacGuffin alien of the week in one sense, but given the length of a novel, Swallow does a good job giving a bit of depth, and are really well handled.

If you’re looking for explanations of the background of Picard, this novel will disappoint. It doesn’t more than hint at Riker and Troi’s decision to retire to a largely uninhabited planet, nor get at some of the bigger parts of the series, though it does borrow one to use as a natural part of the novel, though the explanations are all in the series itself. But it is a satisfying novel of Riker at his prime as an independent captain.