Description: Rosemary Kirstein's acclaimed epic continues, as a servant of truth journeys through a world where the powerful rule by lies.
The steerswomen were seekers, collectors of knowledge, and whatever they learned was free for the asking. The wizards also had knowledge- the knowledge to command nature itself-but they jealously guarded their dark wisdom. The two groups have been at odds for centuries:
They do not agree, they do not converse, they do not associate.
Now the steerswoman Rowan has uncovered evidence that the master wizard, Slado, is conjuring dangerous spells in shadow, devastating the distant lands called the Outskirts and changing the course of the world. Rowan has no choice: Slado must be stopped . . . if he can even be found.
Following a dubious clue, Rowan and her friend Bel, an Outskirter, have come to the city of Donner, seeking answers from the past for a danger in the present. But the secrets go deeper than Rowan had ever imagined, compelling her to wonder...

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Children's Literature Review: The Guidestar has fallen from the sky, and Outskirter tribes are being massacred. In pursuit of the truth that connects these events, the Steerswoman Rowan arrives in Donner, a town whose resident wizard, Jannik, previously tried to destroy her. On the trail of a possibly significant clue, she finds that Donner's previous wizard, Kieran, had taken an apprentice before he mysteriously died-none other than Slado, whose known intent to devastate humankind underlies the Guidestar's fall. Joining Rowan on her quest are Bel, a fierce-hearted Outskirter, and Willam, a former wizard's apprentice who has his own secrets. Some series can be read out of sequence, but not so with Rowan's tale. Lacking the epic drama and action of its predecessor, The Lost Steersman (Del Rey, 2003/VOYA February 2004), this sequel is a quieter book that might bore the uninitiated. It is potentially frustrating to the reader, who treasures Rowan's usual worldly wanderings, that the entire plot is devoted to one strai...

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