The Steerswoman
core novel 1989 The Steerswoman
Record
| First published | 1989 |
|---|---|
| Original language |  EN |
| Work type | novel |
| Canon status | core |
| Reader rating | 4.03 (3,945 ratings, collected 2026-08-27) |
| Page count | 279 |
| First-edition ISBN | 9780345357625 |
| Internal chronology | 1 |
Synopsis
Rowan is a Steerswoman, a member of a guild bound by strict rule to answer truthfully any question put to her, in exchange for the same honesty from others. Her latest inquiry concerns a scattering of unusual blue gems found across the land, whose origin and purpose she cannot immediately explain. As she investigates, joined by the warrior Bel, a member of the nomadic Outskirter people, Rowan's questions increasingly draw unwanted attention from the secretive wizards who rule much of the Inner Lands and who refuse, unlike the Steerswomen, to share what they know. Her search for the truth behind the gems sets her on a path toward uncovering just how far the wizards will go to protect their hidden knowledge.
Where it sits
- Universe: The Steerswoman
- Series: The Steerswoman core; position 1 of 4 in the series' recorded order
- Author: Rosemary Kirstein
Notes
- From the series record (The Steerswoman): A planned 7-book sequence; 4 published so far. Admitted transparently on the same genre-boundary basis as Dragonriders of Pern/The Book of the New Sun: shelved and marketed as fantasy, but the setting gradually reveals a lost-technology, post-catastrophe science-fictional explanation for its apparent magic.
Neighbouring works
Publication order and internal chronology are tracked as two separate orderings, but they resolve to the exact same sequence for this book, so one combined line is shown instead of two identical ones.
- Reading order, within the series The Steerswoman: position 1 of 4: next The Outskirter's Secret (1992)
Sources
← The Steerswoman dossier · All universes
Part of the Library. Fields without an identified source are omitted, never guessed.