Swordhunt

This book is directly continued in the fourth of the series (Honor Blade), and those end with a "to be continued" message leading to The Empty Chair. How to review two-thirds of a story?

There are a lot of engineering shenanigans. Duane brings in a character from The Wounded Sky to work with Scotty, and in addition to that they acquire some interesting technology from certain Romulans.

There is a lot of grand space battle stuff, with Kirk as the Federation Admiral. While this doesn't directly fit his character, it is a lot of fun to watch - and surprisingly, his plan does mostly survive contact with the enemy.

There are a lot of Romulan politics and an excellent connection to the previous book. "Take me out to the ball game" though? Secret meetings and a foiled assassination are all well told.

None of the above is concluded, though. One must have The Empty Chair near to hand to finish the job.