my usual caveat here - I listened to the audio, have no idea how the book is compared to the abridged audio version

Yes, this one, like many others have said, this is a story that happens just at the end of the original 5 year mission, so we see how they break up and how Kirk gets Admiral and Spock stays on Vulcan. But the main thing that I came away from this one with is how very Star Wars-y this one is. With the ancient Vulcan katra that came back that they had to fight and all this stuff- it was very Jedi and Sith like. :)