The wizards, or one of them anyway, whose powerful enough to force the others to do his bidding, seem intent on bringing all the species of the world into conflict. Playing on the inherit fear and mistrust humans have for things they don't understand they hope by forcing contact between peoples and species that the result will be conflict.
All that stands between this are people like Rowan and her sister Steerswomen. They are the only ones who can serve as emissaries between the different segments of the world by learning and than teaching what they've learnt. Steerswomen don't lie, so they will be believed and listened to when they speak.
In The Steerswomen and The Outskirter's Secret Rosemary Kirstein establishes a setting for a study of one of the major problems our own world faces. How a select few try to use superior knowledge and access to information to control the majority.
Ms. Kirstein has created marvellous characters that make the themes she is addressing all the more real. Rowan and Bel; the cool, rational, Steerswoman and the fiery, emotional Barbarian Outskirter, could easily have become stereotypes, or clichés. Instead we are given two individuals who unique even amongst their own people. As the reader we see almost everything through Rowan's eyes, so our worldview evolves in tandem with her's.
We share her revulsion at the things the wizards are doing, her excitement as she learns something new, her pleasure in recounting a story to a willing audience, and her wonder at the mysteries of the world. Through her relationship with Bel, both Rowan and the reader discover how two cultures can utilize their differences to compliment each other. We see her piece this bit of information together with what she's learning about the wizards and watch her try to gain an understanding of what it all means.
Rowan the Steerswoman not only maps the physical geography of the world, but is trying to map out a sociological blueprint for people to follow. Tomorrow in part two of this overview of The Steerswomen books by Rosemary Kirstein I'll look at how the third and fourth books The Lost Steersman and The Language of Power continue the story of Rowan and Bel and their attempts to understand the world around them.
Article comments
1 - Anna
Great review! I heard about these books from some folks over at sf-books.com earlier this year. I've only read these first two, but I look forward to the rest. Kirstein has a knack for storytelling with compelling characters and sufficiently obscured mysteries. Both of these books end with almost as many new questions raised as those that have been answered.