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The Missing Prince
It's the anniversary of the discovery of the Wormhole, and ships from all over the galaxy are headed to Deep Space Nine to celebrate. When the freighter Ulysses docks at DS9, an animal escapes from one of the crewmembers and heads straight for Jake Sisko. It does not speak or eat, but loves to play ball! Since the furry little creature presents no threat to the station and the owner is under investigation by Security Chief Odo, Commander Sisko allows Jake and Nog to keep the pet until the situation can be straightened out.
Besides, the Commander has more important things to worry about. For starters, a huge new ship has come through the Wormhole and its captain is threatening to blow up the station unless his Crown Prince is returned—unfortunately for Sisko, he's never seen the prince. Also, mysterious creatures have begun terrorizing the station. With time running out, Sisko and his crew search the station for clues, while Jake and Nog try to save their pet from an alien's evil plan.
It's the anniversary of the discovery of the Wormhole, and ships from all over the galaxy are headed to Deep Space Nine to celebrate. When the freighter Ulysses docks at DS9, an animal escapes from one of the crewmembers and heads straight for Jake Sisko. It does not speak or eat, but loves to play ball! Since the furry little creature presents no threat to the station and the owner is under investigation by Security Chief Odo, Commander Sisko allows Jake and Nog to keep the pet until the situation can be straightened out.
Besides, the Commander has more important things to worry about. For starters, a huge new ship has come through the Wormhole and its captain is threatening to blow up the station unless his Crown Prince is returned—unfortunately for Sisko, he's never seen the prince. Also, mysterious creatures have begun terrorizing the station. With time running out, Sisko and his crew search the station for clues, while Jake and Nog try to save their pet from an alien's evil plan.
128 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 1994
2 people are currently reading
89 people want to read
About the author
Mel Gilden
120 books16 followersMel Gilden is the author of many children's books, some of which received rave reviews in such places as School Library Journal and Booklist. His multi-part stories for children appeared frequently in the Los Angeles Times. His popular novels and short stories for grown-ups have also received good reviews in the Washington Post and other publications. (See new publications under his name at the Kindle Store of Amazon.com.)
Licensed properties include adaptations of feature films, and of TV shows such as Beverly Hills, 90210; and NASCAR Racers. He has also written books based on video games and has written original stories based in the Star Trek universe. His short stories have appeared in many original and reprint anthologies.
He has written cartoons for TV, has developed new shows, and was assistant story editor for the DIC television production of The Real Ghostbusters. He consulted at Disney and Universal, helping develop theme park attractions. Gilden spent five years as co-host of the science-fiction interview show, Hour-25, on KPFK radio in Los Angeles.
Gilden lectures to school and library groups, and has been known to teach fiction writing. He lives in Los Angeles, California, where the debris meets the sea, and still hopes to be an astronaut when he grows up.
Licensed properties include adaptations of feature films, and of TV shows such as Beverly Hills, 90210; and NASCAR Racers. He has also written books based on video games and has written original stories based in the Star Trek universe. His short stories have appeared in many original and reprint anthologies.
He has written cartoons for TV, has developed new shows, and was assistant story editor for the DIC television production of The Real Ghostbusters. He consulted at Disney and Universal, helping develop theme park attractions. Gilden spent five years as co-host of the science-fiction interview show, Hour-25, on KPFK radio in Los Angeles.
Gilden lectures to school and library groups, and has been known to teach fiction writing. He lives in Los Angeles, California, where the debris meets the sea, and still hopes to be an astronaut when he grows up.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
January 9, 2018
The writing was more polished and there was much less padding than in the previous book, thankfully. The main problem here is that the plot is really obvious, and stretching out the "mystery" chapter after chapter doesn't work well. With less foreshadowing and bit more misdirection it could have been more enjoyable. I say this thinking that even as a teen I would have seen the resolution coming miles away. To be fair, though, it has some nice character development and a few cute touches regarding the series background.
June 29, 2021
Relativ vorhersehbar, auch, wenn das für die Zielgruppe (etwa 10-jährige) sicherlich nicht schlecht ist. Es lässt aber Chancen verstreichen, mehr Tiefgang zu bekommen (wenn ein Tier intelligent wirkt, darf man es dann noch als Tier halten) und lässt DS9 wie eine Anarchie wirken. Immerhin klingt es völlig hirnrissig, dass ein Föderationsbürger den Sohn eines Sternenflottencommanders umbringen wollen würde und dann noch glauben würde, damit davon zu kommen. Und fremde Lebewesen ohne Check nach Viren, Allergien,... an Bord zu bringen? Keiner kann mir sagen, dass die Föderation oder wenigstens Bajor SO wenig Bürokratie hat. Das macht es für Leser*innen, die schon Kontakt zur richtigen Welt hatten, ziemlich unglaubwürdig.
March 24, 2025
The storyline here is blindingly obvious and I think any child reader would say the same, but it's still an enjoyable read. A furry, rhino-type creature is smuggled onto the station and Jake and Nog rescue it and have fun with their new pet, who is not all he seems. My opinion of these Trek children's novels (because they're not young adult by any stretch of the imagination) is always closely linked to how credible the story is, given the age of the two protagonists, and this one's bang-on. It's a sci-fi twist on boys-and-their-dog, and it's completely believable that kids would get excited about the possibility of a pet and take it to their secret clubhouse and eat ice-cream sundaes together. I mean, who wouldn't?
December 26, 2021
Yeah, sure.
I'm not that familiar with Deep Space Nine, so there wasn't a lot of logical explanation as to why I decided to read a book set in the Deep Space Nine timeline. The Pet is marketed as a "Young Adult" novel, but it reads like a kid's book, and is the 4th of like 14 or something.
It follows Jake Sisko, son of Benjamin, and his adventures on Deep Space Nine. Something leads to something else, then a weird pet appears, some angry feller wants that pet, potential end of the world, impending doom, duh duh duh...
The prose is very basic and the book is barely 100 pages long. It's not bad and it probably appeals to a younger audience, but it's not as good as some other Trek books.
I'm not that familiar with Deep Space Nine, so there wasn't a lot of logical explanation as to why I decided to read a book set in the Deep Space Nine timeline. The Pet is marketed as a "Young Adult" novel, but it reads like a kid's book, and is the 4th of like 14 or something.
It follows Jake Sisko, son of Benjamin, and his adventures on Deep Space Nine. Something leads to something else, then a weird pet appears, some angry feller wants that pet, potential end of the world, impending doom, duh duh duh...
The prose is very basic and the book is barely 100 pages long. It's not bad and it probably appeals to a younger audience, but it's not as good as some other Trek books.
November 14, 2018
Jake and Nog rescue a pet like animal from a violent alien trader. They decide to look after it, with interesting results.
The story is predictable but the characters are well written and it does have the feel of a TV episode. A good read.
The story is predictable but the characters are well written and it does have the feel of a TV episode. A good read.
July 15, 2019
Awesome book! I like thin books like these and this is one of them that are the best with one if the most exciting outer space stories, in fact this is the first ever star trek book I ever read which developed my love for Star Trek deep space nine!
October 29, 2022
Cute little story. Jake plays baseball in the holodeck. Jake and Nog take care of a harmless seeming alien. The station is facing an attack with aliens demanding the return of their prince.
November 20, 2019
A fun Trek book focusing on Jake and Nog from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. The author gets the characters just right. While this series is geared towards a younger audience, I found it to be an entertaining, quick read.
For more on this, tune in to my special interview with author Mel Gilden for the All the Books Show: https://soundcloud.com/allthebooks/ep...
For more on this, tune in to my special interview with author Mel Gilden for the All the Books Show: https://soundcloud.com/allthebooks/ep...
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews