I enjoyed this, but for the life of me I can't figure out why Worf is on the cover. He has a decent supporting role in this, but this seems like a much better book for Troi to be on the cover of! After all, it's based around the theft of Betazoid artefacts from a major ceremony on Betazed, and she's primarily involved in getting them back. It's an interesting story - I like seeing some more exploration of an alien Star Trek culture that isn't Vulcan or Klingon, for a change - although I figured out the Ferengi twist before she did... which might actually underline Xiomara's legend, come to think of it, given my own lack of telepathic ability!

There's a secondary plot, too, about Crusher discovering a very different sort of life on a planet slated for terraforming. I remember reading, way back, a Trek novel of the original series, where Uhura and company were feeding new languages into the universal translator - I can't remember the title - but I really enjoyed that, and I liked the slow realisation of communication here too.

The one thing that didn't quite gel for me, though, was Picard's characterisation. His discomfort with Lwaxana Troi is both canon and legitimate - the woman is a lot - but his sulking his way through another culture's ceremonies isn't what I'd expect from a seasoned diplomat like Picard. It might not be his favourite part of the job, but before things went to custard he was unusually ungracious.