I have finished reading The Last Best Hope.

I absolutely love Una McCormack's work! Her dynamic style in writing this story is simply phenomenal, managing the little background information to detail Picard's last mission and all the political drama behind it. I loved the way it elegantly handled the issue raised in ST 2009, presenting ramifications within the Romulan Empire and how this directly impacts within the Federation.

It genuinely made me understand how difficult it is to choose when wanting to help everyone and why, although it is still not justifiable, Starfleet's decision is more understandable in the face of the political panorama presented.

Another aspect I loved was the character development, not only completely selling the dynamic between Picard and Raffi (although I still think the "JL" wasn't necessary), but taking a genuine interest in characters like Bruce Maddox, a character that, before this novel, I simply detested.

My only negative point would be the fact that the story, as a concept, could have been much more! The book could easily have been extended further, this being slightly noticeable in the final chapters, which I felt were slightly abrupt; in addition to delving deeper into the Romulans (yes, one senses why they do what they do and Nokim serves that purpose, but I still feel that we could have seen more of them). Oh and, while I like what she did with Bruce, I definitely don't like Agnes Jurati in this novel. She feels like a weird mix of Betty Grof and a shy anime character (in a bad way). I feel like she was more a plot tool for Bruce than someone.

As a separate comment, I can definitely see this story within the chronology of the series, with certain changes, of course (replacing Victor with Jellico, more presence of Beverly, etc.), but, in general, this is one of the best Star Trek novels I have read. Hopefully at some point Una can work on ST as a screenwriter, because certainly her writing is phenomenal.