The Steerswoman books: where I think we're at?

[lizbee]

Kirstein, like Megan Whalen Turner, likes to leave her reader to join the dots. Only there's science here, so I'm even more in the dark than on my first read-through of A Conspiracy of Kings. Setting out for my own benefit what I think we know.



- although this seems to be a pre-industrial -- possibly pre-medieval -- society, Rowan's world is in fact a lost human colony, in the manner of Barrayar or Pern.
- the Guidestars are satellites, and the blue jewels that start this whole series off are circuitry.
- the wizards are descended from the original colonists -- the ship's crew (Krue) -- and still have access to considerable technology and scientific knowledge. (It's unclear how great their understanding of that technology and science is, but I expect it varies from wizard to wizard.)
- the Outskirters were originally the terraformers -- the wizards used Routine Bioform Clearance to render the alien land basically habitable, and the terraformers followed in their wake, leaving -- eventually -- arable land behindl
- the Steerswomen's histories go back at least a thousand years, and none of this is known to them. This is a very old planet.
- the wizard Kieran, through his astronomical studies, deduced that the world was a colony, and may even have found humanity's original home, which I'm assuming is still Earth. This was the cause of his literal overnight personality change.
- Kieran was going to tell the Steerswomen, but first he told his apprentice, Slado, who murdered him.
- Slado's reasons for bringing down the third Guidestar are as yet unclear.
- there must be a fourth Guidestar, right?
- I can't remember what Farside is.
- Janus is the actual worst person ever.

What we don't know is whether the first-gen colonists knew then, or the wizards know now, that the demons are a sentient indigenous life-form. If they did, welp, we have a colonialist genocide on our hands. If not ... it's still terrible.

Am I on the right track? Have I missed anything? Is anyone else convinced, based on the technology in Jannick's office, that this colonial mission was funded by Stark Industries?

Comments

[therienne]

There were definitely four guidestars originally. Now, they're are only three.

I have been assuming that they put some kind of outpost on the other side of the planet, to monitor things, and called it Farside. It's just a theory, but it's clearly somewhere no one ever goes, not even the Wizards, so it's outside all of the terraformed lands. I'm guessing the only way there is by airship.

It seems like the wizards, despite their scientific knowledge, have forgotten a lot, which is really odd, since I would think that somewhere in all those computer banks it would *say* where they were from. Perhaps someone wiped the records?

[ellen_fremedon]

james_nicoll just did a reread of the series; there's some really good discussion in comments: http://james-nicoll.livejournal.com/tag/steerswoman

[opusculasedfera]

Sounds right to me! The very early circuit board semi-reveal is one of my favourite moments in SF because it's so perfectly in line with everything else, there's an entirely reasonable in-universe reason for Rowan and Bel to discuss these things and to describe them well enough that they're pretty obviously what they are, but we still have no idea why or how they're there, it's another mystery, not an answer.

I really love how even though it's unclear whether or not the genocide of the indigenous life forms was intentional or not (or quasi-intentional, let's-not-check-because-what-if-it-was-true?), it's still super clear that everyone fucked up and they're going to have to deal with it regardless.

[lizbee]

The worst bit is that everyone fucked up, and their limited-tech descendants SIXTY GENERATIONS LATER have to deal with the consequences.

[opusculasedfera]

Yes! It's just a completely awful situation in every way and incredibly difficult and they don't have the slightest idea of where to start, and I adore that Kirstein's response is that they have to deal with it anyway.