The Lost Steersman

by Rosemary Kirstein

Book Overview

At last, here is the eagerly anticipated new novel by Rosemary Kirstein, critically acclaimed author of The Steerswoman and The Outskirter's Secret . This though-provoking story calls to mind the... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0345462297
• ISBN13: 9780345462299
• Release Date: August 2003
• Publisher: Del Rey
• Length: 432 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.5" x 1.0" x 5.5"

Customer Reviews

Pure Reading Delight

As a writer, I find I have trouble even finishing someone else's book because, too often, I'm thinking how it could have been better. This is one book that made me settle back and enjoy. It's been a long time since I read something so delightful! Yes, from a series standpoint, it goes in a different direction, but what a fun trip! Kirstein's level of invention is extraordinary, and she constantly finds new ways to explore this world. If you've been looking for a sense of wonder, here it is.I am intrigued by the tension she sets up between the reader (who knows all about science fiction concepts) and Rowan ( who is discovering the truth about her world). Some of the things so mysterious to Rowan seem fairly obvious to me, but part of the fun is wondering how and when she will come to understand them.Characters are vivid and intriguing as ever, and this book includes some moments when I laughed out loud. Also, one of the best alien first-contact scenarios I've ever read.

Great book!

I discovered the Steerwoman books only recently with the publication of this one; this is a great set of books and I certainly hope it won't be too long before the next one. Yes, this isn't the final book and doesn't take Rowan in the direction we expected, but the story does continue!This is not genre work at all but rather a great set of novels witha great plot, a fascinating backdrop, and real human characters. I highly recommend it!

More Than One Way to Be Lost

Finally, the third book in the Steerswomen series! It has been almost 11 years since "The Outskirters Secret," the last book in this remarkable series. It was probably worth the wait, at least if we don't have to wait ten years for the next volume.At the risk of spoilers, imagine a world that's nearly uninhabitable by man, filled with plants and animals inimical to earthkind. Now imagine a program for the terraforming of that world, a program that will take centuries if not millennia, involving first infrared bombardment by satellite and the burning of the borderlands, then sowing a genetically engineered plant that serves as a transition to earth life, and then a succession of increasingly earth-like plants. After hundreds or thousands of years, in the areas treated first, the land is pretty much indistinguishable from earth; at the borders, life is strange and harsh. Most of the planet is apparently unchanged. Different peoples and cultures inhabit the various zones as the millennia-long terraforming proceeds. To make things stranger still, those with knowledge have made themselves sorcerers and wizards, wielding technology when and how it suits them, quarreling among themselves and extirpating ordinary people who try to recover science and technology. As a result, most residents in this world are technologically ignorant, unknowingly held in that state by the technocractic wizards. Most humans think technology is magic, in a neat reversal of Clark's Law. Everyone but the wizards is completely unaware this is an alien world.The sorcerers tolerate a band of Socratean scholars, the Steerswomen, who have re-developed principles of logic and serve as explorers, historians and cartographers. They mingle with the people of this world, operating by two rules: they will answer any question you ask, provided that you answer the questions they ask you. If you refuse to answer a Steerswoman's question, they shun you. It works pretty well... Sometimes a steerswoman - and some steerswomen are men - quits the order. They are said to be "lost."But the wizards have their schemes, and as Rowan the Steerswoman struggles to understand them with the help of Bel, an outskirter, a member of one of the tribes on the fringe of the terraforming, the importance of understanding those schemes is increasingly urgent. Because one of the wizards is willing to use one of the terraforming tools in the satellite system to burn terraformed lands, and it is a terrifying weapon. The same wizard has caused one of the satellites to crash, at what jeopardy to the terraforming product we don't yet know. It is fascinating to watch Rowan struggle to understand the issues and her situation, to see her begin to grasp that the world she knows is not the world on which earthkind evolved. With her, we are ignorant as to the wizards' motives, but we can understand better than her the risks their actions are creating. The first two novels led to the conclusion that one of the wizards had set

Well written! Can I have some more, please?

This is a wonderful series! I read the three books all together; and, therefore, did not have to wait years and years in between like others did. Ms. Kirstein writes the Steerswoman into some great adventures, and those "one-liners" that she throws in had me laughing out loud and asking the closest family member to read that paragraph. Wasn't it fun to see Steffie start to think like a Steersman? I highly recommend these books and hope there are more to come. The situation with the demons left a bad taste in my mouth. And what about Slado?

Demons in the Inner Lands

The Lost Steersman (2003) is the third novel in the Steerswoman series, following The Outskirter's Secret. In the preceding volume, Rowan and Bel discover that the wizards are keeping the Outskirts under surveillance. One of the wizard's agents tells them everything he knows, including information on the upcoming Routine Bioform Clearance. Rowan and Bel lead the Outskirter tribes in a wild flight to safety. In this volume, Rowan has returned to the Inner Lands, staying at the Annex in Alemeth in hopes of discovering more information about Slado. She finds the resident Steerswoman, Mira, to be recently deceased and the Annex left in a confused mess. While Rowan starts organizing the books into some semblance of order and searching for magic events that are not connected to known wizards, she finds herself being unfavorably compared to Mira. To her surprise, Rowan also finds Janus, the lost Steersman, residing in Alemath. He stills insists that he has resigned and that he can't -- or won't -- talk about his experiences. Janus has been put under the Steerswomen's Ban by Ingrud, a former friend, because of his refusal to answer her questions about what happened to him, but Rowan thinks that she may be able to get him reinstated. Then the demons show up in Alemeth. This novel is a worthy successor to the first two tales. Rowan has to deal with an almost overwhelming string of new experiences that run counter to her own beliefs. We are kept in suspense to the end of the tale (which had better have a sequel) and are shown first hand why Rowan is a good Steerswoman. I have only one peeve about this story: the lack of romantic interest. Will Rowan ever find, and keep, a man or woman to become her partner? She finds plenty of people who could be close friends, but always falls for the wrong man, and she keeps being separated from Bel, who has rapidly become her closest friend. Recommended for Kirstein fans -- who have long awaited it -- and for anyone else who enjoys tales of exotic societies, alien plants and animals, and a restless urge to see the other side of the hill. -Arthur W. Jordin