Re-reading this after a couple of years, the "time jump" actually makes it a good jumping on point. Although it obviously follows up on the previous books in the series, I don't need to re-read all of them to refresh my memory for the subsequent novels. It seemed a bit odd to skip a few years, since the previous books were so closely linked together, but it's really the equivalent of the films (e.g. the gap between Insurrection and Nemesis) and it gets all the 24th century stories in synch.

As for the story itself, there's a good plot, character development, and humour. Basically, everything I'd expect from the author. I'm also glad to see Lyla get a bit closer to her 2099 counterpart.