The Steerswoman

The Steerswoman

Original UK Cover
Author	Rosemary Kirstein
Language	English
Series	The Steerswoman
Genre	Fantasy Science Fiction
Publisher	Del Rey
Published in English	13 August 1989
Pages	279
ISBN	0-345-35762-0
Followed by	The Outskirter’s Secret

The Steerswoman is a 1989 fantasy/science fiction novel by Rosemary Kirstein. It follows the journey of Rowan, who is a Steerswoman in an age that is just beginning to gain technology and advancement, though most don’t understand it and those who do hoard the knowledge amongst themselves. A Steerswoman (or Steersman, though far less frequently) is a traveling scholar looking to supplement as well as share their knowledge. They are required to answer any question put to them by anyone and in turn, any question they ask must be answered, or the questioner will be placed under a ban where no Steerswoman will ever answer a question from them again. If they lie about an answer, same thing. There are two groups that commonly pay little attention to the Steerswoman’s ban, those being wizards, who refuse to share their magical secrets, and Outskirters, who, as their name suggests, live on the outskirts of civilization and aren’t really familiar with Steerswomen or their customs.

The novel was originally published on August 13, 1989 by Del Rey. It is the first book in the Steerswoman series. In July 2003, the novel was combined with the second novel in the series, The Outskirter’s Secret and reprinted as The Steerswoman’s Road.

Plot

The story begins with the Steerswoman Rowan investigating the origins of a number of beautiful blue crystals that have been found in random locations throughout the land, highly polished and cut, but simply sprinkled throughout as if by a giant throwing them toward the east. During her investigation at an inn, she meets Bel, an outspoken Outskirter who can turn a marvelous tale. After leaving the next day, Rowan is later attacked on the road by another former guest at the inn, and Bel comes to her rescue, easily hefting a sword and making quick work of the attacker. The two women agree to travel together for a ways, as Rowan can see the benefit of having Bel around, and the Outskirter wants to explore the area and could use a guide. However, Rowan makes Bel to agree to not use any knowledge she gleans from Rowan’s help to allow her tribe to attack the outlying villages, which Outskirters do on occasion when their goats cannot sustain them.

The pair make their way back to Rowan’s Steerswoman Academy to check in, quickly becoming fast friends despite their differences. Bel’s blunt nature and Rowan’s honesty sometimes get them into pinches, but they’re always able to work their way out. As they’re preparing to leave by ship to make it to the Academy, the inn they’re staying at is attacked by dragons. The pair manage to escape the fire breathers and set sail with a particularly obnoxious man and his lad in tow.

While on the boat, Rowan and Bel converse with some of the sailors about magic, and one of them shows them a box in the hold that has been magicked for the voyage. When Bel is close to it, she can feel a warning buzz and a touch sparks her hand away from it. Rowan feels nothing, which the sailor tells her is a side effect of her being a Steerswoman. They dare the young lad to touch it, and he is sparked as well. When they’ve nearly arrived, they find the body of the boy next to the chest. He’s tried to open it, and was killed by the protection spell.

Rowan makes it to the Academy and fills her fellow Steerswomen in. They agree that she needs to continue to investigate, but in a different manner than before, as her current investigations are drawing notice and attempts on her life (the man from the inn, the dragons) and suggest she goes undercover. This is very much against Rowan’s truthful nature and she resists, but eventually agrees it is the best way.

At this point, the story switches perspective to a young runaway named Will, who has a talent for making things explode, much in the way wizards do sometimes. He joins up a caravan headed away from his home and the reader eventually realizes two of his traveling companions are Rowan and Bel, traveling in disguise. Will becomes very attached to Bel and although the pair try to get rid of him as they leave the caravan to continue their investigation, he follows along to help out.

Bel and Rowan come to the town they intent to investigate as a rumored source of the stones and find a shopkeeper who claims to design and sell the stones himself. With Will’s help, the pair discover this to be a false trail left for them, and quickly leave town, pretending to believe the story. However, they are stalked by a group of soldiers who have orders to capture them and bring them to a pair of wizards, Dhree and Shammer, a brother and sister who Rowan eventually learns are under the control of a wizard named Slado. She and Bel slip into the stronghold of the wizards disguised as guards until Rowan is captured.

Rowan is surprised to discover that Dhree and Shammer are barely teenagers, and probably too young to actually be in control. She is able to converse with them by giving them information freely and not asking them any questions that they would refuse to answer, thereby earning them the ban. The siblings talk amongst themselves in her presence and she gleans valuable information from them for a time before they shut her up in a room to wait for Slado to arrive and take her. But Bel and Will spring her from her prison through the distraction of Will’s exploding magic.

Back at the Academy, the Steerswomen put together the clues they have gathered and conclude that the blue stones are pieces of a fallen guidestar, brought down for some unknown reason by the wizards, who may have put them up there in the first place. Rowan plays the same information game she did with Dhree and Shammer with another wizard who isn’t exactly loyal to Slado and learns a lot. She also gets him to take Will on as an apprentice. Will promises to share information about wizard magic with the Steerswomen as long as he finds that there isn’t a good reason for the information to be kept secret.

Reception

Jo Walton has called the Steerswoman "terrific fun to read", with "really good prose",^[1] while James Nicoll stated that it was "what SF should aspire to be".^[2] Pornokitsch has described The Steerswoman as "a lovely example of an epic story driven by brains over brawn, and wit over magical destiny", noting that "unlike many of its contemporaries, [it] has not aged badly".^[3]

References

External links

• Author’s Website