Picard's stint at The Captain's Table was a bit of a crawl for me. It seemed like tiny morsels doled out over a long period of time - a bit like the plot lines of 'choose your own adventure' stories. The chapters were three or four pages long - over the course of nearly 200 pages this became a bit silly. Much of these chapters were filler and seemingly an attempt to stretch the story to a predetermined page count.
What is good about the story is that it involves Picard and Worf, on their own (under cover)- I'm particularly interested in their relationship, now that it is known that Worf becomes Picard's choice for first lieutenant once Riker departs the Enterprise (post-Nemisis continuity).
It is a decent swash buckling jaunt with pirates, and there is a rare love interest between Picard and another character. In the end, there are no surprises and I was glad once I had finished the book. It was eminently put-downable, and I daydreamed about what to read next through much of the climactic chapters. ( )