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A review by peregrine
The Steerswoman by Rosemary Kirstein
3.0
This was surprisingly compelling! At first it felt like a fairly generic 80s medieval fantasy of a kind that I've been unimpressed with in the past, but it became more and more interesting as it went on and I learned more about the world and the philosophies of the characters.
I can't describe my favorite thing about it without spoiling that thing, so I'll stay vague: I felt like I as a reader (especially as a spec fic reader) was a participant in the story in an unusual and very satisfying way. The careful, logical problem-solving employed by the protagonist to solve a mystery in her world mirrored my own logic as I tried to solve a different but related mystery, one inaccessible to the characters themselves but that I as a 21st century reader had the background to engage with. And while in another book this might have created more distance between me and the characters, here it did the opposite. Rowan and Bel are pleasant traveling companions, and I felt like I was right there with them, helping to untangle the mystery with the knowledge I could add to the mix.
At the end of the book, the mystery I'm intrigued by still hasn't been solved, but I'll definitely keep reading the series!
I can't describe my favorite thing about it without spoiling that thing, so I'll stay vague: I felt like I as a reader (especially as a spec fic reader) was a participant in the story in an unusual and very satisfying way. The careful, logical problem-solving employed by the protagonist to solve a mystery in her world mirrored my own logic as I tried to solve a different but related mystery, one inaccessible to the characters themselves but that I as a 21st century reader had the background to engage with. And while in another book this might have created more distance between me and the characters, here it did the opposite. Rowan and Bel are pleasant traveling companions, and I felt like I was right there with them, helping to untangle the mystery with the knowledge I could add to the mix.
At the end of the book, the mystery I'm intrigued by still hasn't been solved, but I'll definitely keep reading the series!