Star Trek: The Next Generation, "Relics" (The Novel) is a poor adaptation

The book begins with the original Star Trek crew, which was omitted from the actual script for obvious reasons. There's a plot with ensign Darrin Kane, Captain Armstrong and a bunch of minor characters that I'm not too familiar with from my time following the novel. It doesn't get resolved in this novel either and seems to be done just to bad things out.
The novel does capture the characters' voices, and I like how each chapter is basically like a scene and transition from Next Gen, but so much was taken from the Next Generation episode that it's sort of hard not for that to happen.
The holodeck scene is interesting but minor and Geordi's scenes are cut and minor, despite his role in the original episode. Overall, quite disappointing.