Well, the first thing wrong with it is that it has almost nothing to so with ST IV. There's nothing about time travel, whales, the probe or even Klingon Birds of Prey in there.
The book falls into three main sections. First there's a collection of essays on the state of the Federation, Starfleet military justice, etc. These are mostly just fluff . One essay is dedicated to the Operation Armageddon simulation that FASA invented outright (it was going to be a board game but was never published).
The second section is a timeline of events from 2/00 to 2/24 (that's 2200 to 2224 in the FASA timeline or roughly five years before TOS through to ST IV). A lot of this material is FASA only and some of it has been contradicted by later sources. It is useful in that it places all the FASA adventures published up until that point at specific points in time. This is the most detailed, for this period, of the various timelines that FASA published.
The third and longest section is a collection of pieces on alien races. These are all those aliens seen in the background of the council chambers in the film (at last a connection with the book's title!). The aliens covered are the Xelatians, Arkenites, Tellarites, Zaranites, Ariolo, Andorians, Efrosians, Caitians, Arcadians, Edoans, Vulcans, Bzzit Khaht, Kasheeta, Deltans and Alpha Centaurans. Very little of this information has been contradicted by on screen sources but some has been contradicted by published LUG of Decipher material.
Personally I find the race section to be very useful and the timeline to be useful in keeping track of other FASA material. The essays don't do anything for me.
"And all I ask is a tall ship, and a star to steer her by."
"Though a cloaking device, pulsed phaser cannons
and a full load of quantum torpedoes would be quite nice too."