I really enjoyed this series but I think this author is maybe the worst of all time a writing female characters. ( )

I really need to stop reading these Star Trek novelisations, but, but - oh OK, just one more! This is the third novel of a trilogy, focusing on Bones, Spock and Captain Kirk of TOS, only I have long harboured a massive crush on Kirk, so I started at the end. Erm, I think a higher level of Trekdom than my lowly novice status is required to truly follow and understand the plot here, about Kirk bouncing back and forth in time. Recent viewings of the first season episode City on the Edge of Forever - next on my agenda - and the Generations film are definite requirements.

From what I could grasp of the tricky time-travel concept, and my patchy memories of Kirk's character, George has written a clever but melancholy story about James T., poignantly capturing the captain's love for his ship and his fleeting love affair with Edith Keeler. A quick but satisfying read for a closet ST fan! ( )

http://decemberjoy.wordpress.com/2011/03/23/book-review-crucible-kirk/
(For the full review, click on the link above) Thank you!

Crucible: Kirk The Star to Every Wandering was about Kirk’s journey between three different timelines. The story begins with Kirk in the Nexus and retells the storyline you see in the movie Generations. This pretty much sets up the story as Kirk doesn’t die on Veridian Three as the movie originally tells but instead is recaptured by the Nexus. From that twist, David George III is able to create a tantalizing tale about Kirk and the entwining lives of his past, present, and future self.

The main plot line of the book is for Kirk to find a way to stop a temporal loop that he created when he exited the Nexus. As Guinan put it, “Your (Kirk’s) departure with Captain Picard to Veridian Three then initiated the convergence loop.” The convergence of this loop destroyed every planet in its path and ultimately ended up killing scores of people. Of course Kirk couldn’t let this happen and so the story begins.

Personally I really enjoyed the story David George III weaved together. It is complex and keeps you wondering at how Kirk is going to fix this mess he created. And although you are reading about three different Kirks, the story is told well enough that you do not find yourself confused about which Kirk you are reading about. ( )

After reading the first two books in the Crucible series, I wondered how the author would present the last. would the formula be a repeat of the first two or different. I was pleasantly surprised and a bit confused at times, but I enjoyed the entire trilogy and would recommend it to any TOS fan. It gives a background and a future to the three main characters of Star Trek: TOS. ( )

The third in George's trilogy which takes TOS episode "The City on the Edge of Forever" as a focal point. My reviews of the first two are here (McCoy) and here (Spock).

This is a decent Star Trek novel, but as a third to the first two in the Crucible series, it's quite disappointing. The first two are basically character studies, and in the tradition of some of the best fan fiction, they attempt to connect points in the canon and fill in gaps to tell us something about the characters that we didn't get from the original material. The Kirk installment is more of an adventure story (George admits as much in his afterward to this volume), and it focuses on a part of canon I find to be boring and unsatisfying (Kirk's death on the Enterprise B and subsequent efforts to help Picard stop Soran from blowing up the star around which Veridian III orbits). As an action story, it's fair; as an insight into Kirk's character, it's fail. George makes it clear that Kirk was never able to find happiness with a woman after Edith's death because she was his soul mate and no one else could compare (and the very few scenes we get between him and Edith are pretty nice), but the book really isn't about that. George said he wanted to disrupt reader expectations with this book. He certainly did that for this reader. He also disappointed me and left me feeling like Kirk, who should be the most interesting character to explore in relation to "City," got short shrift. ( )