What is the Dominion War in Star Trek, and who is Praetor Shinzon?

I'm new to Star Trek, and just got a book called 'Gods of Night', and it's half a decade after the Dominion War, and more than a year after the rise and fall of Praetor Shinzon. Can someone explain it to me please? I'm hopelessly confused.What is the Dominion War in Star Trek, and who is Praetor Shinzon?In the fictional Star Trek universe, the Dominion War is a war between the Dominion, Cardassian Union and later the Breen Confederacy against the Alpha Quadrant alliance of the United Federation of Planets, Klingon Empire, and later, the Romulan Star Empire. The final two seasons of the series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine focused extensively on this war.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominion_Wa鈥?/a>



Shinzon is named after the character from Star Trek : Nemesis



An imperfect clone of Captain Jean-Luc Picard created by the Romulans with the intent of replacing Picard. This plan was abandoned and Shinzon was exiled to Remus. He led Reman soldiers during the Dominion War. At the beginning of Nemesis, Shinzon leads a coup d'茅tat of the Romulan Senate. Picard and the USS Enterprise-E travel to Romulus to meet Shinzon and investigate his peace overture; Shinzon reveals his identity and origins to Picard. However, the peace overture is part of a plan to lure Picard to Romulus; the cloning process that created Shinzon is killing him, and he requires an infusion of Picard's DNA to stay alive. Simultaneously, Shinzon plans to use a thalaron radiation weapon aboard his ship, the Scimitar, to destroy all life on Earth. The Scimitar attacks and severely damages the Enterprise. Picard transports aboard the Reman ship and fights Shinzon. After a short fight, Picard kills Shinzon by impaling him with a pole. Lieutenant Commander Data rescues Picard from the Scimitar and destroys the vessel's thalaron device, annihilating the ship and himself in the process.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shinzon#S

vance and hines