Customer Reviews

The Steerswoman's Road

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The Steerswoman's Road is an omnibus edition of the Steerswoman series, including the first two volumes. 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 The Steerswoman, Rowan is interested in some strange jewels which have been found distributed in an unusual pattern. She meets Bel, an Outskirter warrior, in a frontier tavern, asks her about a collection of such jewels made into a belt, and agrees to allow her to come along on the journey back to the Steerswomen Archives. On the way, they are attacked and almost killed by one of five men who had been wearing a wizard's uniform in the tavern. After almost being killed later in a burning inn, Rowan begins to think that some wizard has ordered her death.

In The Outskirter's Secret, Rowan and Bel travel to the Outskirts, where green vegetation is seldom found, but red and black grass and other exotic plants abound. They travel with Outskirter tribes and Rowan learns much about the fringes of human society. Outskirter life is hard and various forms of alien death surround them, including goblins and demons.

These novels were written over a decade ago and the sequel, The Lost Steersman, has been long awaited. Re-reading these stories reminds me why. The world, cultures and characters seem to fit each other so well that the story seems inevitable. Moreover, the tone and mood closely resembles that of Kingsbury's Courtship Rite, one of the most unique examples of excellent SF worldbuilding.

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

Rowan is a Steerswoman. If you ask her a question, she has to answer with the truth; if she asks you a question, you, too, have to answer. If you don't, no steerswoman anywhere will answer your questions. Under these simple rules, steerswomen have become the navigators, cartographers, explorers and researchers of their world. Knowledge is a steerswoman's life.

There is another group that holds knowledge on this world: the wizards. They can work magic. But they don't share their knowledge, they won't answer any questions, and they are under the steerwomen's ban. Early on, a reader will recognize the wizards' "magic" as simply technology, a technology that the wizards deny to the rest of the world.

"The Steerwoman's Road" is a compendium of two earlier books set in this world, "The Steerswoman" and "The Outskirter's Secret." In "The Steerswoman," Rowan is investigating bluish-black jewels that she has found in odd places along a long line across the Inner Lands of her world. For some reason, this simple investigation causes the wizards to attempt to kill her. Allied with Bel, a barbarian from the "Outskirts," the primitive part of the world, she narrowly escapes repeated attempts on her life. Finally, with the help of her sister steerswomen, Bel and an unlikely, even unwanted ally, she tries to solve the mystery of the wizards and their magic.

In "The Outskirter's Secret," Rowan and Bel journey beyond the edge of the known world, to and beyond the Outskirts in their quest to solve the mystery of the blue-black jewels and a possible fallen guidestar. But it is the journey that is important, because in the course of that journey Rowan learns more about her world; she begins to understand the truth about the world she and her sister steerwomen have taken for granted. And she begins to understand just how serious a threat the wizards, and one wizard in particular, may be.

These are brilliant stories. Exceptional plotting, vivid characters, a well-imagined, consistent world and important themes. Because the reader understands technology, Rowan's struggles to come to grips with wizards and their "magic" are particularly delightful. A reader will recognize the "blue-black jewels" at once as integrated circuits, and the "fallen guidestar" as a fallen geosynchronous satellite. Watching Rowan use principles of logic to comprehend technology is simply delightful. And in the Outskirters and the Outskirts Kirstein has created a beautifully realized culture and environment.

It's wonderful to have these stories back in print; it's even better to have a sequel, "The Lost Steersman," after eleven years of waiting. Very highly recommended.

I read the second novel in this volume, The Outskirter's Secret, when it came out back in the early 90s. When The Steerswoman's Road came out, I finally got the chance to read the first book in this series. I knew what Rowan discovers at the end of the first book, which took some of the mystery out if The Steerswoman. Despite the fact that the second book makes reference to events in the first one, it turned out that what really happened was different than the way I had imagined it, so if, like me, you somehow missed the first book and caught the second the last time around, it is still worthwhile reading.

Rosemary Kirstein is the kind of speculative fiction author that I like. She has the background of her world worked out, but doesn't need to include all the details in the story. There are some things that might feel contrived if Kirstein stopped to spend three paragraphs explaining them, but since she is willing to just present the world the way it is, I didn't have to look too closely at my willing suspension of disbelief.

If there are a few pieces in the first book that seem a little out-of-place, keep going. Things are not quite what they seem. If you are a regular reader of speculative fiction, by the end of the first book, you should have a few more pieces to the puzzle than Rowan does, and things will make sense to you in a way that they do not to her.

I read a lot of SF, and I have remembered The Outskirter's Secret all these years. I was very excited to see that there was finally a third volume - I had given up on it ever coming out, and this book clearly demands a sequel. Although The Lost Steersman wasn't quite what I was hoping for, I enjoyed returning to this world in this book and spending time again with Rowan and Bel.

I love finding new authors and series, particularly when a long-anticipated sequel is on the printing press! The Steerswoman's Road is an excellent blend of fantasy and science fiction, dropping all sorts of clues for the reader to pick up alongside the characters. The characters are really well-drawn; they're interesting, believeable, and varied. Ditto for the cultures. One measure I use in evaluating fantasy books is: "would I want to live there?" And in this case, I would!

I can't think of another book I've read recently that would compare to this one, although for some reason David Gemmell's 'Jersusalem Man' series (not the proper title) springs to mind -- possibly because of the bits and pieces of his fictional world that overlaps with our world, just as they do in Kirstein's book.

As much as I love the fantasy genre, I am the first to admit that most works in this form are terribly written. It is a rare thing to discover a novel that combines the imaginative spirit of fantasy with a well-written and compelling narrative. Steerswoman's Road accomplishes just that. It took me a few chapters to get into the story of the steerswoman, but the fine writing kept me going and I am so glad. By the end of the second book, Outlander's Secret, I was on the edge of my seat and breathless with Kirstein's attention to detail. The world she has created and the characters she portrays are very moving. I was disappointed that the novel ends with a real cliff-hanger, but I guess I am better off than those poor folks who have been waiting for twenty years to read the conclusion. I hope Ms. Kirstein keeps writing.

The review that follows is for the sequel to The Steerswoman's Road-- a book entitled "The Lost Steersman." All books in this series are highly recommended!

This book had very real-seeming characters, and it showed a great efficiency in exposition that seemed to take me to the center of the story in very few pages. I'm going to try to convey my excitement with this book while avoiding a "spoiler" plot summary. So here goes . . . .

As the book begins, there's a great peril facing the small, seaside town. Rowan, the steerswoman, turns her considerable experience and skills to both combating the threat with her sword, and analyzing the origins and nature of the threat. A steerswoman is a kind of wandering combination of a warrior for good, while at the same time a researcher and scientist. Thus her defense of the town involves both her sword and her scholarly analysis.

The book is an excellent mystery. Rowan seems to unfold "theory #1," but then it gives way to "theory #2," and so on. As she gets more information, her analysis shifts and changes. The reader is brought along, gripped and fascinated. Each hypothesis seems to drastically rewrite the sense of what is happening.

As the book nears its conclusion, there is a kind of epiphany of beauty and good on one hand, and an almost diabolical evil on the other. This goes beyond some glib surprise ending. It is woven deep into the structure of the novel.

It appears no further titles will appear in this series, since these "steerswoman" books are back into print after an initial release a decade ago. It is a pity, since much of the larger story is yet to be revealed, and the ending seemed to prepare for a sequel. Some developments of the book just STOP, with no explanation.

A really extraordinary read. I have already ordered more of Ms. Kirstein's "steerswoman" fiction from Amazon, and am counting the hours until my order arrives.

I picked up this book on the recommendations of various aquaintences who thought I might like it. I enjoyed it enough that I'll probably seek out and read the next book in the series (The Lost Steersman), but it had some problems that disappointed me.

First was the entire concept of the Steers[wo]men. The wandering scholar part is well done, but the "if you lie or refuse to answer her questions, she'll not answer yours" quickly becomes stilted, gimmicky, and interferes with the smooth telling of the story. It is the hardest part of the story to believe, and the "moral dilemmas" presented by it seem artificial. I seem to find the author digging herself out of this hole often enough that I don't believe the concept could have survived in this fictional world as long as the story claims it has -- it's limiting enough to have endangered the survival of the entire stees[wo]men organization. Worst of all, I don't believe the concept is central to the book. The story could have been told (possibly better) without it.

Next is a writing style that occasionally plods, particularly during dialog. A character will make a statement or ask a question, and the main character spends one or two or six paragraphs turning over in her head how she might respond. When she finally does, you've nearly forgotten what she was responding to, making the thread of the conversation difficult to follow. This is particularly a problem in the first book of this omnibus. Kirstein seems to be ambivalent about trusting the reader. The world-building and the puzzles it presents are excellent (particularly in the second book), but nearly every detail of the here-and-now and its potential impact on the flow of the story is spelled out explicitly. Perhaps this is partly due to the pedagogical leanings of the viewpoint character, but I found myself talking back to the her (saying, "Yeah, I know, I know, get on with it,") far too often.

If this volume had not been an Omnibus, I likely would have quit the series after the first book. It's a good journeyman effort, but not compelling, and I might not have sought out the second. That book is far better than the first, even though it shares some of its faults. The story line is fascinating, and gets better as it progresses. The characters are strong, particularly the outskirters, and the worldbuilding is effective. I expect the next two books to be even better.

Kirstein's novels are sometimes described as SF, sometimes as fantasy, probably because the main characters believe in magic - they see wizards do it. By the end of the first book the reader suspects that the wizards are using what we think of as science.

The first thing that delights me in the story is the (unspoken) point that it doesn't matter what you call it; it matters whether you understand it, and what you do with it. This is the worldview that made the technological age, and for that matter the glory of ancient Greek philosophy. I miss it in a lot of modern stories - SF or not - that assume that understanding is someone else's problem.

One of the other interesting reviews here is annoyed by the understand-everything stance, because there are (I oversimplify) depths to the human psyche that can't be understood. It's very true that the kind of ambiguity we venerate _Hamlet_ for is not what the steerswoman Rowan, or even the author Kirstein, specialize in.

Instead of ambiguity we get enormous, really astounding, complexity. By the end of _The Language of Power_ I wonder if any of the exciting bits of background will stay background. There's lots of great background; it's an adventure novel, so there are wizards and castles and unmapped territory and barbarian tribes and fiendishly dangerous humming demons. There are dragons! In average SF or fantasy novels all these excitements are basically props. In Kirstein's they're all connected; each one has its own logic that opens into a whole complicated subplot that might confuse or illuminate the problem the novel started with.

One of the pleasures of this is that the numerous adventures are all a bit different because the problems are different. Different monsters, different swordfights, different town politics, different betrayals and divided loyalties.

The main character is bright and driven the way born journalists and born scientists are - and her job combines both, so that's just as well. She's really, really bright, enough to be a little improbable; but this is common in adventure stories, and not totally unknown in reality. Also, as the series goes on, there's reason to suspect that the average person in that world is descended maybe from the smartest people in ours.

The economics are good, the ecology is interesting, the minor characters have their own purposes.

I want to read the rest of the story.

I don't often come across a book that is this well-written, fast-paced, with real characters and a great setting. Kirstein is both creative and talented. This is a great series of novels all around, with nothing "genre" about it.

Reprint of two novels:

Steerswoman: Original and exciting story, from general plot to specific action, of a female, swashbuckling scholar. Enjoyed the philosophy and integrity of the Steerswomen. Enjoyed figuring out the science behind the wizardry. Wizardry based on science, so much more interesting and exciting than mysticism. As the book cover says, "...by using their power against her, the wizards risked more than they realized. For Rowan questioned magic itself!"

Outskirter: Another original and exciting story of this female, swashbuckling scholar. The author has done her research and knows her subject: from a clever sword fight test to uncover the true identity of an opponent, to interesting contrasts of the moral/social considerations of nomads as opposed to village dwellers (there is a core element of agreement, or there would be no basis of understanding).