Kirk: The Star to Every Wandering

Star Trek: Crucible #3

by David R. George III

IN A SINGLE MOMENT
. . . the lives of three men will be forever changed. In that split second, defined paradoxically by both salvation and loss, they will destroy the world and then restore it. Much had come before, and much would come after, but nothing would color their lives more than that one, isolated instant on the edge of forever.
IN A SINGLE MOMENT
. . . James T. Kirk, displaced in time, allows the love of his life to die in a traffic accident, thereby preserving Earth's history. Returning to the present, he continues a storied career as a starship captain, opening up the galaxy. But as he wanders among the stars, the incandescence that once filled his heart remains elusive.
IN A SINGLE MOMENT
. . . that haunts James T. Kirk throughout his life, he preserved the timeline at the cost of his happiness. Now, facing his own death, the very fabric of existence collapses across years and light-years, forcing him to race against -- and through -- time itself, until he comes full circle to that one bright star by which his life has always steered.

Genres: Star Trek, Science Fiction, Fiction, Star Trek Original Series, Science Fiction Fantasy, Ebooks

320 pages, Paperback

First published February 27, 2007

Reviews

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

(Copy of review posted on my Facebook page on 7/17/19.) Just finished reading book three in the Star Trek: Crucible trilogy, "Kirk: The Star to Every Wandering".

As I'd seen some others indicate in their own reviews of this book, it is indeed the weakest of the three books. It is not a bad story by any means, it just is a more straight forward "mission" adventure type of story and is no where near as deep and expansive an individual character study of James Kirk as the other books are of Leonard McCoy and Spock.

Also, the references back to the common tying element between all of the three books, the original series episode, "The City on the Edge of Tomorrow" and its doomed love story of Kirk and Edith Keeler, seem the least connected (and almost fell simply obligatory) in this novel in reference to everything else going on in it (although the Guardian of Forever from "City" plays a major role).

Perhaps the thing that separates "Kirk: The Star to Every Wandering" from "McCoy: Provenance of Shadows" and "Spock: The Fire and the Rose" is that for most of the Kirk book the story is focused on the "Star Trek Generations" age James Kirk, the one who has retired from Starfleet and left that all behind him and begun enjoying his retirement years only to agree to see off the brand new "Enterprise-B" (NCC 1701-B, that is) on a highly publicized launching ceremony and "quick trip" around the solar system which ends up going tragically wrong and ends up placing Kirk in a magically seeming wish fulfillment environment cashed "the Nexus" while everyone back in the real world believes that he has been killed. Kirk is eventually found seventy-something years later by Jean-Luc Picard, the captain of the USS Enterprise-D and the two work together to defeat a man named Soran from carrying out a plan that will kill hundreds of millions of people.

The other two books also show us McCoy and Spock during this post death of Captain Kirk aboard the Enterprise-B period and the impact the death of Kirk has on each of them. However, in the McCoy book it is only a relatively small part of the overall story, the book being a pretty much linear narrative of key events in McCoy's life from "City on the Edge of Forever" up to "Generations" and beyond. And in the case of the Spock book, while most of the "present" in that book is that of Spock struggling with his emotions after the death of Kirk and his quest to rid himself of those emotions, the Vulcan process he undergoes repeatedly takes the reader back into Spock's past as well.

In the Kirk book, however, a lot of time is spent reenacting scenes from "Generations" and filling in the unseen connecting scenes between them, including Picard's locating Kirk in the Nexus and bringing him back with him to defeat Soran. However, when we get to the inevitable moment of (Spoilers for the movie "Star Trek Generations") Kirk's actual "real" death after being crushed under the weight of a collapsing metal bridge, in "The Star to Every Wandering" something unexpected (not actually from "Generations") happens which keeps James T. Kirk alive and the only person capable of preventing an even larger "doomsday" level event from occurring, one tying back into a mysteriously high spike of the levels of "chronometric particles" discovered in Kirk's cells by McCoy (a story element in "McCoy: Provenace of Shadows") after every time Kirk had traveled through time.

From the point Kirk realizes what must be done, the plot itself feels more typical of an episode of "Star Trek: The Next Generation"--Kirk working to prevent some huge technobabble laden disaster from occuring--than that of the original series.

Which doesn't mean that I didn't enjoy it. There were scenes that were actually quite interesting to read, such as the relationship alluded to in "Generations" between Kirk and a woman he almost married named Antonia during his first retirement from Starfleet and what drove him to end that relationship, and also Kirk's reluctant agreement to return to temporarily return to duty to see off the Enterprise-B at the request of an old friend and former crewmate from the original Enterprise days.

The plot itself becomes pretty convoluted when it comes to which version of Kirk we are following sometimes and his mission is based largely on time travel shenanigans that don't even entirely make sense if thought out (hmmm... kind of like "Avengers: Endgame").

Definitely worth reading if one has already read the first two books in the trilogy if for no other reason than to see certain plot threads from the first two books play out in the third. And one should also be sure to read them in the original release order: 1) "McCoy: Provenance of Shadows", 2) "Spock: The Fire and the Rose", 3) "Kirk: The Star to Every Wandering".

"Kirk: The Star to Every Wandering", three stars (out of five).

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent Star Trek novel by David R. George, published in 2007. It's the third in a trilogy and focuses on Captain James Kirk. I read the first one, focusing on Dr. McCoy but I haven't read the second, about Mr. Spock. The trilogy revisits one of the best episodes of Star Trek The Original Series ( and one of my favorites), "The City on the Edge of Forever." In that episode, McCoy enters the Guardian of Forever and causes history to change. Kirk and Spock have to go back in time to prevent McCoy from changing the past--and destroying their present. It was a powerful story as Kirk fell in love with a woman who has to die so history can get back on "the right track," so to speak. In George's book, we also go back to the nexus, in which Kirk existed after his death ( in the Star Trek film, "Generations."
There are a lot of references to Star Trek TV episodes and movies--and even the animated series, which I only saw very little of. As I said, an excellent story but it gets a little too convoluted, especially with two Kirks running around! I give it 4/5 stars. And I liked the first book in the trilogy better ( "McCoy: Provenance of Shadows Crucible").

[Richard Tubb · Rating 5 out of 5]

Time Travel, Emotion and TOS References Galore

I was bought this novel, the third in a series, without having read the earlier two novels.

This story links to the two prior novels, but is also self-contained- so I enjoyed it as a standalone story.

The story primarily revolves around James T Kirk and his experiences with the mysterious Nexus featured in the movie Star Trek: Generations.

An unintended consequence of that movie sees Kirk needing to leave the Nexus at an early point, and then utilise other time travel methods to put right a mistake.

For any Trek fan, especially of The Original Series, you’ll love the references to previous TOS material - including some quite emotional and character exploring aspects of the story.

I found this story to be intriguing, well written and a real pager turner. Recommended for any Star Trek fan!

[Daniel Kukwa · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is (deliberately so, according to the author) very different from the McCoy entry in the "Crucible" series. It's shorter, faster paced, takes fanwank to a new degree of complexity, and is an overall extremely clever book. That's my problem...it's clever in the way "Avengers: Endgame" was clever...but like "Infinity War", the more intense drama and emotion I crave are present in the McCoy novel. This is an enjoyable read and a fine conclusion to the 40th anniversary trilogy, but I'll always default to "intense" as opposed to "clever".

[Andy Stjohn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was decent, but I wish it was set during a different time period of Kirk’s life. Out of anyone affected the most by Edith’s death, it was him. There was probably tons of other ways to explore his grief and so on and still have an action packed story. The stuff with the Nexus and time travel was fairly convoluted but it was cool to see Guinan’s homeworld in a way finally. But most of all, this was a decent story despite those flaws.

It all came together emotionally in the end with Kirk asking to see the lives of his loved ones with the Guardian, but this book could have benefited from not focusing at the end of Kirk’s life and the Nexus and explore another period. Overall, I would still give this book a 7/10.

[Cora Anne · Rating 5 out of 5]

He Sacrificed Everything

Maybe the title to this review is a bit OTT, but lately, I've been taking a more philosophical view of StarTrek characters.

This novel has voiced some of my own thoughts and I have realised that James Kirk devoted his whole life to Star Fleet, sacrificed his chance for happiness and that actually made me cry.

So here within this book we are left with the feeling that maybe Kirk will go on to find that happiness. How that happens you'll have to find out for yourselves, as it unfolds in the book...

[Bruce Stephenson · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is the third and final book in the Crucible series, each one examining the life of one of the 'big three' characters in the the original Star Trek series - McCoy, Spock, and Kirk. All three books connect to the events portrayed in the Star Trek episode 'The City on the Edge of Forever'. Each book spans decades of time for each character and incorporates events from the original series, animated series, and movies. It is unfortunate that this book, Crucible: Kirk, spends so much time with the events of the movie Star Trek Generations. The concept of the Nexus - an extra-dimensional realm in which wishes are fulfilled - is problematic. Kirk's 'problem to solve' in this book has to do with a shockwave in the spacetime continuum that is destroying everything in its path which was created by his entering and leaving the Nexus resulting in a temporal loop. He decides that he must somehow stop the creation of this shockwave - yet he can't leave or enter the Nexus again himself. Perhaps the manufactured technobabble in this artificial problem is already evident to you... To make things even worse, along with the Nexus, we also have time-travel through the Guardian of Forever. It is telling that sometimes Kirk ponders the nature of time travel and how he can possibly exist in multiple places and times and can come up with no cohesive explanation.

I also found that this novel did not really examine Kirk in any way that has not already been done before. His love for the Enterprise and space exploration constantly pull at him - but perhaps his love for Edith Keeler could have been different? We know the answer to that question when Kirk made the choice he did in the 1930s.

Overall, it was difficult to connect with the story when it is so obviously manufactured. There is no sense of impending danger or real threat. This is most certainly the weakest of the three Crucible novels.

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyable book, however I found myself liking the other two books in the series much more (McCoys being my favorite). I felt a bit disappointed that we didn’t get to know Kirk through this book like we got to know Spock and McCoy on a deeper level. Kirk remained two dimensional.

[Rob Cook · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rewrites Trek history by giving Kirk another adventure after his death, which like recent fan film 'Unification', I found frustrating. Just let Kirk rest in peace!

[Glenn · Rating 2 out of 5]

I picked this up as a way to feed my Trek craving in the weeks leading up to the new Star Trek movie. My wife had bought it as a surprise, knowing my fondness for Kirk I decided not to read it after learning it was part three of a trilogy, and put it away until I could get the first two. As the new movie loomed closer and closer, I decided I couldn't wait any longer.



With all due respect to an author who has feelings and (I'm guessing) a family, this was a so-so trip into the Star Trek universe, and if this is any judge, I don't need to bother with the first two books in the series. One of my pet peeves in Star Wars and Star Trek fan fiction is authors who attach too much importance to their creation's relative place in the worlds they are playing in. A prime example is Steve Perry's "Shadows of the Empire," which gives a his character of Dash Rendar important bits like giving Luke his black Jedi outfit in "Return of the Jedi" (he just "happened" to have it stashed away in a compartment of his spaceship).



In a way, what George does is worse. This book does nothing less than rewrite key scenes of an existing Star Trek movie (I won't say which), resulting in the new low of completely preempting the existing canon in favor of the writer's own world. In fan fiction, this is called an Alternate Universe, or AU, and is an accepted practice. I don't know what it's called when a licensed and bonded author of official Star Trek fiction does it, but I expect more from people who are actually getting paid.



George isn't a bad writer, and Lord knows I have read FAR worse official Trek fiction than this. In fact, there is some promise here. The scene of Lt. Kirk's encounter with the Tholians at a Federation research station is genuinely well done. Had the author leaned more on events like these, I think this book would have succeeded. As it was, this breaks virtually no other new ground in the character of Kirk. There's a lot of semi-confusing temporal jumping around, and far too much of this book involves chapter-long repeats of scenes just about any Star Trek fan is going to know by heart. Sometimes twice, with variations. What's more, George never really nailed the character of Kirk for me as some other authors have.



All in all, this feels more like a corporate product instead of a labor of love. Unless you're on a mission to read every Trek novel ever published, this probably isn't worth your time,

[Mikael Kuoppala · Rating 3 out of 5]

In the preface of this book author David R. George III explains that he wanted to do something different for the final part of the Crucible trilogy, unwilling to bend to reader expectations no doubt roused by the two preceding volumes. I must say that, yes, I had expectations for “The Star to Every Wandering,” but most of them were disconnected from “Provenance of Shadows” or “The Fire and the Rose”. This is the Kirk book of the trilogy, and I wanted to read about the character, learn new things.

It does in a way make sense that George III chose to write a compact, more adventurous story for Kirk and not the epic character study he delivered for both Spock and McCoy, who always were more contemplative characters than their commander. But I must say that even though we do get some character insights, I was left hungry. The novel reads smoothly, and I enjoyed it reasonably well, but at the end my main thought was: “Was that it?” And I claim that this isn’t only due to the fact that I never really cared for Kirk, finding both of his sidekicks clearly more interesting. And in the end the same themes of loss, memory and growing old are the backbone here, just as they were in the previous Crucible installments. This only underscores the lightness and brevity of this piece.

Nevertheless, I have to compliment George III on his bold risk taking. The story is very unique, utilizing an experimental structure and fearless plot development. Still, as a whole “The Star to Every Wandering” is an interesting, but at the same time too messy and too simple adventure that has a bit too little meat on its bones.

[The other John · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is the third novel of the Crucible trilogy; the shortest and the most straightforward. For me, it was also the least enjoyable. Which is not to say that it's a horrible book. As far as Star Trek books go, it's quite all right. The main sin of this book was that it tried to follow the format of the trilogy and have the protagonist--Captain Kirk, in this case--come to terms with his life and especially, the events of the episode "City on the Edge of Forever". The problem is, unlike Spock and McCoy, who live to a ripe old age, James T. Kirk dies a heroic death. How can he confront the demons of his past after he dies? Unless, of course, there's some twist added to his death to make it quite not so fatal. Well, you get the idea. It's a story that, in one sense, shouldn't have been created, much less told. On the other hand, I did really enjoy the end, which made up for it just a little bit.

[Don Incognito · Rating 1 out of 5]

I read this Star Dreck novel because I didn't feel up to reading anything more challenging. Two reading days wasted. It's definitely not one of the better Star Dreck novels. Besides the writing skill being unimpressive, the plot is a cop-out: the back cover promises that Kirk will deal with his angst over losing the love of his life, but it's largely about his convoluted plan to clean up some temporal damage he accidentally caused while helping Jean-Luc Picard in the movie Star Trek: Generations. The only idea that interested me is a minor plot detail. Many different Star Dreck authors have used the Guardian of Forever, and have all had their particular ideas of what happens to it after the television episodes. This author posits the most interesting idea I've yet seen: the Guardian of Forever is gone, the Klingons having destroyed it because they feared its use as a weapon.

Anyway, the book is going into my recycling bin. Not recommended.

[Ken · Rating 3 out of 5]

The closing to the Crucible trilogy, this third book, focusing on James T. Kirk, didn't tie into the two others very closely. In fact, except for a flashback to the episode "City on the Edge of Forever", I don't think Kirk interacted with Bones or McCoy at all. Mostly it was a time-travelling adventure centered around his time in the nexus, from which he emerged only to die in Star Trek Generations. The new background regarding the development of his relationship with Antonia, an Idahoan hippiater, was interesting and gave some new depth to the character. But otherwise, I felt the book was too much about temporal anomalies and too little about the man.

[Rich Meyer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a bad Trek novel, but it really didn't live up to the standards of the first two parts of the Crucible saga. It was a lot more confusing than the other two, and didn't integrate nearly the background information on Kirk as the others had on McCoy and Spock. The writing was good, but parts did not make a lot of sense, and the story itself made a few changes to Trek Canon that the other books didn't attempt to, and relied far too much on a single artifact from the original series.

Read McCoy's entry, and if you like that one, read Spock's. This one is NOT necessary to enjoy the others, and really isn't doesn't add anything to Jim Kirk.

[Bobo · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book ties the Crucible trilogy together nicely. There have been some criticism of the first 2 books being very cerebral and the last one very action oriented. My answer is this; it works. The first two books build on each other very well indeed. They could be considered complete in themselves, but the third book is a nice surpise. This is like a buy 2 get one free deal. i enjiyed these titles as the first serious Star Trek books I have read in 15 years...

[Julia · Rating 2 out of 5]

When Kirk allowed Edith Keeler to die, he went on to ruin all future loves: she was the love of his life – his guilt wouldn’t allow him to be successful with other women. The parallel stories occur 70 years apart, for Kirk was caught in a temporal nexus that long.

This one didn’t work as well for me as the ones about Spock and McCoy, possibly because we know less about them, possibly because I care more for them, possibly because I wasn’t in the mood.

[Steve · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this book hard to put down. The author even mentioned my concern about the series in this book foreword, which was rather interesting. It approached the problem of how to wrap up the series in an unique way, using well know tropes in a new way. I am amused that this book disagrees with the Shatner-verse, but that's the way it goes. There wasn't really a climax, or even a build-up, but the resolution was far too short for my liking, with the author leaving much of it to exposition.

[Stephanie Bogdanich · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this series but I think this author is maybe the worst of all time a writing female characters. Every single one of them is beautiful, brilliant, intuitive, supportive, emotionally mature, and fun in bed. It got very frustrating over the course of three book where they talk a lot about these women characters. Otherwise I liked all three stories, I liked how they fit together and that they covered the entire lifespans of Kirk, Spock, and McCoy.

[Gmartin]

Great TOS book

[Wendy · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was all right. It had some action, which was nice. It was a little confusing at two different points, but it soon straightened out.

The most frustrating part was how slow it went. It dragged severely. Probably a hundred pages could've been cut, and then it would've got a third star from me.

[Bill · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. Not as much as the McCoy volume, but more than the flawed Spock volume.

It circumnavigates established continuity, and nicely undoes a particularly disappointing part of the established continuity.

It gives Kirk a much more satisfying and credible fate than Star Trek Generations or the Shatnerverse novels.

[Becca · Rating 4 out of 5]

Captain Kirk was really quite a melancholy figure. Besides which, this book was actually fairly well-written--which, in my experience, is not the norm for these kinds of books.

[Keith B · Rating 2 out of 5]

Confusing at times. I probably will read the others in this trilogy but not expecting too much. More interested in some back story on Bones and Spock.