1992 fantasy/SF, second of its series. Rowan the Steerswoman and Bel
the barbarian travel into the Outskirts to try to find the source of
the mysterious blue jewels…
The first volume was a quest, with some consideration of the
society of the Inner Lands. This one's much more explicitly a look at
the society of the Outskirters, and their customs, and their
divisions, while Rowan and Bel travel with them. These are no generic
primitives, "in tune with the land" and so on: they know the land is
their enemy, and everything about their marginal existence is guided
by that principle, from grazing patterns to funeral customs. Why?
Well, that's another question.
There's less divergence from the primary thrust of the story, though:
do those jewels really come from a fallen Guidestar? What are those
fixed lights in the sky for, anyway? If it fell, was it deliberate
or an accident? Why would someone want it to fall?
Most of these questions aren't answered. This is not any sort of
conclusion. (It was more than ten years before the next two volumes
came out, and Kirstein is still working on book 5. This is
frustrating.) Really there's just one big puzzle that's solved here,
why the Outskirters live the way they do, and while it's lovely to
work through the solution I'd have liked more.
But it's still very good stuff, with wonderfully evocative writing –
particular the description of a near-miss by a tornado, as perceived
by people who have never met freight trains and so have no basis for
comparison.
(This book and the earlier The Steerswoman are now more easily found
in the 2003 combined edition The Steerswoman's Road.)
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