The Star to Every Wandering

The Star to Every Wandering is a Pocket TOS novel – the third and final novel in the Crucible trilogy – written by David R. George III. Published by Pocket Books, it was first released in .
== Summary ==
;From the book jacket
: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.
 
== Background information ==
* Having delved into character exploration with the first two novels in the series, author David R. George III was keen to defy reader expectations he realized he had set up for the third: "I couldn't have that. If I take readers from Point A and then to Point B, you can rest assured that I'm going to do my best to avoid following that up with a tale that brings them to Point C. Too obvious. Way too obvious." (The Star to Every Wandering foreword) He looked to create something different instead: "I reasoned that since the first two novels of the trilogy would be such heavy character pieces, perhaps I should consider a more action-oriented story for Kirk. I would still want to tie it in to the other two books through the crucible of the events in , but I wanted to find an unpredictable means of doing so." (The Star to Every Wandering afterword)
* George then focused on Kirk's final moments, in , and began to explore the storytelling opportunities afforded by the Nexus, as well as his relationship with Antonia reflecting on the impact of Edith Keeler. He originally intended to end the novel with Kirk's death on Veridian III; however, Pocket editor Marco Palmieri was reluctant to close out the 40th anniversary story with the death of the series' central character. Re-examining the story, George found "that another avenue existed for Captain Kirk at the end of the book, a road he could take that would be, I thought, completely unexpected." (The Star to Every Wandering afterword)
* The novel's title derives from Shakespeare's .
== Characters ==
;James T. Kirk : Starfleet captain.
== References ==
; Nexus; Guardian of Forever
== External link ==
* 
de:Der Leitstern des Verirrten
Star to Every Wandering, The