The Steerswoman [Mass Market Paperback]

Rosemary Kirstein (Author)

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 279 pages
• Publisher: Del Rey (August 13, 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0345357620
• ISBN-13: 978-0345357625
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,324,545 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Machination of Wizards, July 15, 2003

By 

Arthur W. Jordin (Smyrna, GA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Steerswoman (Mass Market Paperback)

The Steerswoman is the first novel in the Steerswoman series. Steerswomen, and a very few Steersmen, are members of an order dedicated to discovering and disseminating knowledge. Although they are foremost navigators of the high seas, Steerswomen are also explorers and cartographers upon land as well as sea. With one exception, they are pledged to always answer any question put to them with as truthful a response as is possible within their own limitations. However, they also require anyone of whom they ask questions to respond in the same manner, upon penalty of the Steerswomen's ban; those under the ban do not receive answers from the steerswomen.

In this novel, Rowan is a Steerswoman who is interested in some strange jewels which have been found distributed in an unusual pattern. THese jewels are made of strange materials bonded onto metal. Some think that such jewels are magically produced.

Rowan meets Bel, an Outskirter warrior, in a frontier tavern and asks her about a collection of such jewels that she is wearing as a belt. Bel tells her that the belt had been made by her father with jewels found embedded in the Dust Ridge far beyond the Outskirts. Rowan is intrigued by this information and wants to visit the site, but first she needs to return to the Steerswomen Archives. Bel has come to the tavern with friends and plans on returning to the Outskirts with them, but the chance to see the Inner Lands is too good to miss. She suggests that she travel to the Archives with Rowan and then accompany her from there to the Dust Ridge. Rowan agrees and they leave the next day.

On the way, Rowan and Bel discuss the jewels and their distribution. Rowan notes that the jewels are scattered like thrown objects. When she tries plotting various velocities and initial heights on a graph, she begins to suspect that the jewels were thrown from a very high place at great velocity. Bel suggests that they are part of the disappeared moon, but Rowan knows from her prior investigations that the jewels impacted on the surface long after the Moon vanished. One aspect of her graphs disturbs her; she notices that objects thrown from a great height with sufficient velocity will never hit the planet, but will circle it endlessly.

Early the next day, they are attacked and almost killed by one of five men who had been wearing a wizard's uniform in the tavern. Later they are almost killed when they are trapped in a burning inn which has been attacked by a swarm of young dragons; the local wizard who normally controls these dragons arrives on the scene only after the building is fully ablaze. At this point, Rowan begins to suspect that some wizard has ordered her death.

Rowan and Bel manage to slip away from the fire scene with a party from the Morgan's Chance, the vessel upon which they have obtained passage, and sail away to Wulfshaven and then overland to the Archives. There Rowan and Bel report these events and the Steerswomen make plans to investigate the wizards.

This novel has the immediacy and impact of Kingsbury's Courtship Rite. It has the same sense of exotic ambiance, strange customs and struggle to survive in an alien environment. The characters have deepset traits that motivate their actions, yet exhibit a flexible response to their environment. Best of all, this jewel of a story has sequels: The Outskirter's Secret is at least as good as this novel and The Lost Steersman should be another excellent read.

Highly recommended to Kingsbury fans and to anyone else who enjoys tales of unusual cultures on alien planets with a touch of mystery.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Making a Life of Knowledge, March 13, 2003

By 

James D. DeWitt "Alaska Fan" (Fairbanks, AK United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Steerswoman (Mass Market Paperback)

There's good news, bad news and, finally, some more good news.

This is an excellent book, especially for a first book. A well-conceived world where Asimov's Axiom - "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." - is given a wonderful twist. The geography, the culture and the people are skillfully developed. Best of all, there is a woman protagonist who is simply delightful, and who brings a life devoted to the acquisition of knowledge to a quest tale. The sequel, "The Outskirter's Secret," is even better and begins to give you glimpses of the true nature of the world in which these tales are told.

The bad news is that the tale is only half told. Fans of Kirstein and her heroine have been waiting years to see what happens next. It was starting look like the story would never be finished.

The new good news is that a third book - "The Steerswomans Road" - is coming out later this year.

With any luck, the publisher will re-publish the first two books, which appear to be out of print, and allow Kirstein's story to reach a broader audience.

This is a terrific introduction to a well-crafted world. Strongly recommended.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Possibly the best book I've ever read, April 1, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Steerswoman (Mass Market Paperback)

The story is of a traveller trying to understand more of her own world. She is a steerswoman, a navigator both in the conventional sense, and as someone who is trying to find out the truth in a land where anything incomprhensible is labelled as magic, often with apparently good reason. The usual approach in a fantasy tale is to keep characterisation to a minimum, and load up on wonder and spectacle. This is quite different. She is the focus of the story, and becomes so familiar to the reader that when she does try to disguise her manner it is obvious without being explained who this mysterious newcomer really is. What is known or unknown is a major theme. The reader will soon find the "magic" disturbingly familiar, and will even be able to second guess what an enchantment will do next. The steerswoman has no such knowledge, and her frustration at not being able to work out from first principles what the reader would have learned in school, becomes a powerful theme. Ignorance kills. This is not a heavy book. the story is short and the style unchallenging. Yet it manages both adventure without childishness and moral and intellectual themes without the crashing preachy stlye adopted by most book of the genre. Do not miss this book.