I purchased this book partly for the Corgi story and partly for the training information. Who can resist a book showcasing a Pembroke Welsh Corgi on the cover?

Howard Weinstein lets the reader peek into his life with Annie and perfectly describes Corgi ownership--from tummy control to mommy watch. This enchanting story makes you feel as if you know Annie, Howard and their circle of family and friends. If you own a Corgi, you should read this book. If don't own a Corgi, you should get Corgi, then read this book. Even if you're just a dog lover, you should still read this book.

I highly recommend it.

PUPPY KISSES begins as a humorous, touching and honest account of the author's fifteen years as the companion of Mail Order Annie, a Pembroke Welsh Corgi... What really amazed me was how well Mr. Weinstein captured Annie's personality and spirit, and truly brought her to life on every page.

The second half of the book includes a 9-week training plan that is simple and easy to follow...emphasizing the importance of training the behaviors you want from the very beginning. He thoroughly discusses choosing the right dog and the pros and cons of a purebred vs. adopting a mixed breed from a shelter. The section on crate training is especially well-written... The book manages to strike just the right tone -- it neither talks down to a new puppy owner nor confuses him with too much information.

But I keep coming back to Annie's story. What sets this book apart from others is how honest Mr. Weinstein is in covering the mistakes he made as he and Annie grew together... Although it is Annie's story, you can also clearly see Mr. Weinstein grow as Annie continues to teach him life's lessons.

As more people read this book, I predict that a new word will creep into the lexicon...the "corgi-cule," defined by Mr. Weinstein as "the smallest particle of food still discernable to the eyes and/or nose of a Welsh Corgi -- and often too small to be detected by humans (or, possibly, even electron microscopes)." It is moments like this -- or when his four-year-old neighbor tells her parents that the stars in the sky are Annie's footprints going to Heaven -- that make you laugh and cry and truly touch your heart.

This is a wonderfully insightful book for new puppy owners, especially Corgi puppy owners... The two halves intertwine gracefully. It is often hard to tell where the storytelling ends and the lessons begin...

Mr. Weinstein beautifully recounts Annie's last days and how she faced them with courage and dignity. I cried along with him and his wife as they faced life without her. I genuinely rejoiced as they discovered Annie's last gift to them. The funny thing about Annie is that she was no more special or extraordinary than my dog or yours. But what Mr. Weinstein manages to do is write the beautiful memoir that I would want to write for my dog.

(excerpted from a review in THE TIDE, the newsletter of
the Pembroke Welsh Corgi Club of the Potomac)

Mail Order Annie...a little Pembroke Welsh Corgi who taught her owner many lessons about life and living with dogs, which are shared in this charming and cleverly-organized book. Life with Annie, told lovingly in wonderful stories, inspired sensible and helpful lessons for raising any puppy. This delightful volume will be recommended as a "must-read" for all my friends and new puppy-owners.

Lois E. Kay
Breeder of Champion Corgis
Terenelf Pembroke Welsh Corgis

"The Covenant of the Crown" was an excellant book. After reading it, I was left in awe that any person could write something so good on a science-fiction subject. It was the perfect combanation of wit, humor, suspence, and drama to keep nearly any reader hungry for more. I thank the author of this book for bringing such a terrific novel into our lives

This is a fun Star Trek - The Original Series novel, as long as you keep it in perspective. This was written before there was a Next Generation, and even before The Wrath of Khan Movie. It was actually written before Star Trek the Motion Picture, but was published after the movie's release. What this all means is that we are privvy to a lot more Star Trek history and backstories than the author was at the time he wrote this novel.

Anyway, to get to the plot. Captain Kirk's past catches up with him as the King of Shad, that he originally transported into exile years ago, must be returned to his planet to help the Shaddan empire return to its former glory. The King trusts no one other than Captain Kirk to take him back home. The reunion between the King and Kirk is bittersweet, as the King is quite old and frail.

In order for the King to regain his throne, he must have the Crown of Shad. The King had put the crown into hiding 18 years ago when he was being sent into exile. Now the Kings only daughter, Mr. Spock and Dr. McCoy must go to the harsh world that hides the crown to recover this royal relic.

There are some very nice character moments between Spock and McCoy as they try to recover the crown and protect the royal princess. There is also an amusing side story with Chekov. The one negative thing about the novel is there are a few loose ends - such as a female Klingon - what did they do with her, and another subplot involving the royal retainers. Otherwise this is a brief, taut and interesting story. Fans of the original television series will enjoy this book.

Call me sentimental but I really liked this story. Spock and McCoy work together to protect and facilitate the ascension of a young woman to the throne of her war torn world. Part adventure story, part coming of age story, and not a bad commentary on the subject of leadership, this story held my attention throughout and may even warrant additional readings. Even staunch fans of the venerable Captain James T. Kirk will be pleased to see that the team of Spock and McCoy are themselves capable of not only saving the day - but also carrying a storyline through the majority of the novel. Recommended.

Howard Weinstein is a long-time Trek fan, and the writer of the animated episode "The Pirates of Orion," so it isn't surprising that he has a feel for the characters of Star Trek. He also has a deft touch as a writer. This is the first of several novels he has written, in addition to comic books, and the result is the best ST book since David Gerrold's effort.

A surprise birthday party for Dr. McCoy is interrupted by a call from Starfleet Command to divert to Starbase 22. When there, Admiral Harrington informs them that the civil war on Shad has turned, and it is time for the exiled king to return. Captain Kirk had been stationed on Shad at the time of his exile, year before, when the war had been going badly enough that the royal family was deemed endangered enough to go into exile on a planet some parsecs away. The Klingons had been quietly supplying the rebels, hoping to disrupt the entire sector by the fall of Chad's government.

When the Enterprise reaches Orand, the queen has died, and the king is aged and infirm. But their daughter is now an adult, and will be the one to assume the monarchy. But first, the ritual crown must be retreived from a different world. Only the true ruler of Shad can wear the crown, so the question will be, can young Kailyn perform the task? It won't be easy, with Klingons trying to disrupt the mission, as subtly as possible. To circumvent the surveillance, Spock and McCoy set off in a shuttlecraft with Kailyn to retrieve the crown, while the Enterprise proceeds. But, there is a spy on the king's staff, and the Klingons follow the shuttle. Now, Kirk must find the spy, and Spock and McCoy must keep the young princess safe while they deal with both the natural forces of the planet and the troublesome Klingons.

Weinstein has a good ear for dialogue, and nothing about this story feels forced, as many of its predecessors were. The characters flow along with nary a ripple, and the comic relief of Chekov and the extra ten pounds is deftly handled. Weinstein has a special feeling for McCoy, and his feelings of growing old in the story are very well-written. The characters who enter the path of the Enterprise crew, from King Stevvin to Shirn O'tay, are natural and do not seem out of place in the Star Trek universe. This is simply a good story, and an excellent setup for the regular characters.

I really enjoyed this book as a 13-year-old, but I haven't re-read it as an adult. For those who have seen the NBC miniseries "V", it's the story of the same events, only told about a New York resistance group

This was a good book. I first read it back in 1984. It's about a New York resistance group called White Christmas. It opens with the Vistors, led by Roger, the commander of the New York Mother Ship, and his second-in-command, Angela. Lisa, one of those on the New York Mother Ship, is lied to and told that they've come to Earth on a peaceful scientific mission. That's not true. The Visitors are here to conquer us without a fight. The two miniseries were the pilots for the short-lived 1984-85 television series. It's mentioned in the Larry Niven-Jerry Pournelle science fiction novel Footfall but not in the 1996 science fiction movie Independence Day. Read this book and Footfall.

Star Trek - The Next Generation: Perchance to Dream written by Howard Weinstein is a lighter Trek novel... Oh, there is some suspense and intrigue, but it doesn't come out and grab you by the ears and makes you want to read this book in one setting.

In this book there is a planetary life force which can move mountains and dig valleys in a single day, make new oceans and change the course of rivers. With all of this said, this race is rather a benevolent and what they really want is to communicate with the humanoid species that are now claiming the planet for their own the Tenarins.

On a rountine survey of the planet Domarius IV, Captain Jean-Luc Picard and the Starship Enterprise crew encounter the Tenarins as they try to hijack an Enterprise shuttle with Data, Troi, Wesley Crusher and two of his friends as they leave the planet with some interesting soil and rock samples. Caught up in the Tenarin tractor beam the shuttle is about to break up when it disappears in a flash of colorful light and is transported to a subterranian location.

Now, with the Enterprise closing in, the Tenarin captain and Jean-Luc Picard also become missing in a flash of colorful light and are transported to the planet's surface. All of the time under the watchful eye of the planetary intelligence which are diamond shaped with light of different colorsul coursing though them.

Until the planetary intelligence discovers how to communicate with the humanoids things become quite mystifing. Data is the link by which the planetary intelligence gains the knowledge to communicate. All along the planetary race that can move mountains is preparing the planet for humanoid life and as they begin to wake-up from their one-thousand year sleep, their mission is about to become complete as the Tenarins looking for a home are invited to stay.

This was an interesting read and kept my attention, but it wasn't one of the best TREK novels as the mystery, intrigue and action-adventure was rather lacking and some areas of the story bogged down to a near halt.

All in all, this story is a good 4 stars it could have been written with more action-adventure and intrigue to carry the reader to the ending.

Not the worst Star Trek novel I've ever read, but not the best either. It lacked tension. There was never a feeling that anyone was really in danger. I felt the inclusion of Wesley's young friends superfluous. It felt flat though not entirely boring.

I must say there our times when the book is better than the show. This is one of those times. It's a good thing Picard does alot of reading or the show and the book would have had unhappy endings. I enjoyed this book so much I read it twice in the same week. After which I brushed up on my Shakespeare. This book is very good reading for all

What I see, and have always seen in Trek, is a basically clean series with noble and good characters. I'm fourteen, and I need influences like that. What I found in this book was that a favorite character of mine has an affair with an alien woman, who has a child, and THEN it turns out that other immoral stuff has happened. I won't spoil it for those of you who will read the book. But what I want to know about a book before reading it is this: Is it good, is it clean, will I enjoy it? While I enjoyed most of the book, (it IS well written) it wasn't very moral. I just want you to know that before you pick it up.

This book has great merit in that it gives you a look at a rather tender side of McCoy that you know is there but seldom see. This is especially apparent as he fights to save a daughter he didn't know he had. He is thrown on an emotional roller coaster in the first few chapters and it doesn't get any easier by the end of the book. My only problem was that the ending just left me hanging. I wanted to know what happens to Anna. Even so, this book is definitely worth reading. I would also highly recommend Weinstein's book Deep Domain.

If you love the trio, and wonder about McCoy's past, then this book is a must! Watch Spock and McCoy battle with the words they use so well, while Kirk is unusually confussed. See McCoy do as any father would to protect his little girl, who just happens not to be so little anymore. And see the dynamic trio come together in the face of danger with surprising skill as only they can, while supporting their valued friend.

This book is a must for those who love to see the trio in action within another secret that becomes news. I laughed throughout the whole book while getting insight into McCoy's past.

Weinstein is a good writer, and a good Trek writer. Covenant of the Crown, his first, was a good book. But since then, he's just used Star Trek as a medium for environmentalism. I know the late 80s were filled with "Save the Earth" propaganda, but I don't like to read that in my Trek.

I won't go on, but I can't recommend this except to Trek book completists (like me).

Howard Weinstein is very concerned about the environment. If you read the author's notes at the beginning of the book, you almost don't have to read the novel. Mr. Weinstein is quite correct in his concern for the environmental conditions on planet Earth, but I think there are better ways he could have expressed these concerns then in this by the numbers novel.

The Enterprise D is called to the planet Thiopa to bring supplies for victims of famine. When they arrive at Thiopa the crew discovers that everything is not quite as the primary planetary government purported.

Meanwhile Data decides to do a little looking into the planet's environmental concern, and discovers that their food shortages, drought conditions, etc. were caused by the people of Thiopa's own short-sighted rush to attain a technological society. The crew becomes concerned that even if they do provide assistance to the planet, they will just become extinct within 50 years if they don't change their pollutionary ways. Of course there is the sticky prime directive to deal with - how much can we tell them without interfering in the planet's natural progress.

This story probably would have worked well as a short story. In Mr. Weinstein's drive to expand the story to a novel, he added a number of stories and characters to expand the story. These include a race called the Nuarans that basically are annoying, like gnats buzzing around the ear. He starts to give background stories on some of the people surrounding Lord Stross, the planet's government leader, but then doesn't proceed to do anything with the character or the information.

The story is fast paced and a quick read. There are some enjoyable moments, such as Worf trying out for Riker's jazz combo. This is not a bad book, it's just not that interesting. If you're not a huge Next Generation fan, I'd probably give this story a pass.

This was a fascinating character study of opposing sides in a political conflict; fascinating because it was very realistic. There were no simple "good guys vs. bad guys" conflicts here; the leader of the planetary government, while clearly not doing everything he could possibly have done to help his world at a crisis point, clearly believed that what he was doing was for the best, and his charisma (necessary in a leader of his type of government) was well-enough portrayed that the reader could feel it, and couldn't help but like him in spite of knowing better. Meanwhile, his opposition was also well-meaning and determined, convinced of the rightness of her cause, if somewhat less charismatic than he was. Both of them were plausible, at least somewhat likeable, wishing the best for their world...and absolutely incapable of working together or reaching compromise in order to save it, even with the Federation's best efforts at mediation. Sad, but all too plausible.

On the downside, one character who DID grow during the course of the story (Ambassador Undrun) did so rather IMPLAUSIBLY. Still, a well-done book with an interesting plot and mostly excellent characterization.

"Exiles" is based on a truly "Roddenberrian" concept. It deals with environmental issues and the preservation of animal species, both subjects still relevant.

Alaj is a Federation member world, that faces a disaster as it's overly industrial culture renderes the planet uninhabitable.

Etolos is a world populated by a people exiled from Etolos centuries earlier. They are the experts on the preservation of nature with high technology. It just happens that their planet faces it's natural end just as the situation on Alaj escalates beyond apparent savation.

The formerly bitter enemies must find a common tone as the people of Etolos offer to save Alaj in exhange of them getting to live there. The deal includes a few individuals of an animal species called Nefittifi, vich is a highly rare sacred animal to both the Alajians and Etolosians.

The result is an uneventfull and cliché filled story, with nothing new to offer.

Howard Weinstein starts off promisingly as he describes the diplomatic situation between the two worlds, but soon the story looses all originality and reverts into a predictable and badly paced sience fiction cliché.

There are only a few twist in the ploand they can be predicted from miles away. The situation is made worse by horrible scenes about Wesley Crusher and his discustingly cute Britney-Spears-clone girlfriend that make vomit crawl up the reader's throat. And it doesn't help one bit to have a bad sub-plot about Troi dealing with a Nefittifi expert in his twenties having a crush on her. A horrible waste of a character, say I.

The characterization is pretty accurate in most parts, though, exept for Data, who's been portrayed as he was in the beginning of the show: a truly failed attempt at forsfully writing an original character. At the point of the series "Exiles" takes place, it should no more be the case.

The ending of the book is as predictable as the rest of it and makes the reader want to finish reading as quickly as possible.

Not worth bying.

But it's more than a bit preachy and overly simplistic.

The plot is good, (except for the deus ex machina toward the end) the characterizations well-handled, the dialogue good if unspectacular. But this is a book with a message, and its message is the same one as in Dr. Seuss's "The Lorax", and this book's presentation of that message ("pollution bad") is every bit as detailed and nuanced as the presentation was in that children's story. There is no discussion of HOW one would go about reducing the pollution and overuse of natural resources in a society, or what level is acceptable, or what sacrifices it might be appropriate to expect people to make to save the world, or any of the other difficult questions that such an issue deserves or any acknowledgement that the issue is a difficult one at all; as in Dr. Seuss, it is simply assumed that if people are poisoning their world, it is because they're too stupid to figure out that they need to stop, or to see the obvious things they need to do to stop. If they'd merely listen to wise people of good will, the problem would go away.

Now, obviously, I have nothing against "The Lorax". It's a marvellous children's story and conveys the danger of pollution very well for its intended target audience. As a children's story, it isn't EXPECTED to have nuance or balance. And while I'm sure that there are people out there saying, "This is a mass-market Star Trek novel; why would you hold it to a higher standard than you do Dr. Seuss?", my response is, that's true of Star Trek stories that are intended to be no more than entertaining action/adventure stories. This (again) is a book with a message. But its message conveys little or nothing; I'm reasonably sure that all us Star Trek fans are already well aware that pollution is bad. The question is, "what do we do about it?" That question isn't even addressed, much less answered, in this book.

This book was kind of boring. I've read a lot of star trek books, and even if they aren't great its nice to settle into a familiar characters. This book has the names but not the personalities. Toward the end you get the feeling of a deadline and it all kind of falls completely apart. I wouldn't recomend it.

I believe this was Weinstein's first foray in Trek novel writing. He had previosuly written an episode of the Trek animated series. The problem with this book is that while it is a very good story, it takes a while to build up any interest in it with some very plodding prose that does pick up in pace as it goes along. The problem is that the pace gets too fast that one is left with a very quickly resolved ending. It almost seems like an episode of The Next Generation series. Give us some buildup and then finish it fast to hit the right page count. And the tacked on ending of Kirk and company parting ways seems so contrieved.

There are a few quibbles that I have with this book, most notably that it's difficult to place it on the Star Trek timeline. The intro by the author says that it is a story that arose out of the same brainstorming sessions that produced the movie "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home", which would suggest a similar time-frame. But that concept clearly doesn't work, as the events in the second and particularly the third Star Trek movies have obviously not happened (notably, the death and return of Spock and the destruction of the Enterprise). Thus, given those facts and a few hints toward the end of the book, it seems likely that it takes place between movie #1 (Star Trek: The Motion Picture") and movie #2 (Star Trek: The Wrath Of Khan"). It would have helped if that had been made a little clearer a little earlier, but truly, this is a minor quibble.

The problem is, the book itself isn't really good enough to cause one to be willing to overlook minor quibbles. It isn't terrible; the writing is fairly good, the characters recognizable as themselves, the dialogue plausible, the minor characters from the Enterprise and the missing science team interesting enough. But the characters that the Enterprise crew must interact with range from vanilla personalities with no real spark to stock villains with no real spark. And the plot itself, while not without promise, never fulfills that promise. There was never really any sense of drama, never any sense of compelling interest. It was, quite honestly, mediocre.

If you're a Trek fan with a real need for a fix, there's no reason not to read this one; it's a perfectly acceptable read. But if you aren't desperate for a Trek story, there's no particularly driving reason TO read it, either.