The Steerswoman series (Rosemary Kirstein)

Recommended by Jess

This is a science fantasy series that takes culture seriously. Even the premise is focused on Steerswomen as custodians of knowledge. They must answer any question put to them to the best of their knowledge, but they may also ask any question and expect to get the truth. This makes it very, very dangerous for one Steerswoman to start asking questions that powerful people don't want her to answer.

One caveat: the series is still unfinished. If you know how much I hate reading unfinished series, you'll have a good sense of just how great these books are.

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jmd3mo ago

I found out about these because Randall Munroe has referenced it in xkcd and also mentioned once that they were up his alley and he’d been recommending them. It’s really best to go into them without knowing a whole lot, but the basic premise is that the main character in this world is a Steerswoman, part of an order of traveling gatherers and sharers of knowledge who must always answer all questions as truthfully as they can, but if a Steerswoman asks you a question and you either refuse to answ...

3 months ago

Comments

jmd

@jmduncanJun 11, 2026

Same on the unfinished-series thing, I'm super-glad I read these before I realized how long it had been since book four, because I might not have otherwise! (I was going to say that it was the long wait after book three of the Dark Tower series that made me mistrustful of them, but I just looked it up and...it was only six years between The Waste Lands and Wizard and Glass, and only another six until Wolves of the Calla? I read the first three when I was thirteen or fourteen and the wait after those felt like FOR-EV-ER at the time. If I hadn't looked it up I would have said it was at least 12 years after book three and another 12 after book four, even though that doesn’t even remotely line up with my ages when I read them.)

Jess

@kleenestarJun 29, 2026

I was about the same age and I agree with you on how long the wait seemed! I think a big part of it is that Wizard and Glass is primarily backstory, and it's hard to see how it serves as the pivot point of the series until you've read the whole thing. At the time I was deeply irritated that he wrote a whole book about some dumb romance when what I wanted was MOAR ADVENTURE - so the twelve years between the Waste Lands and Wolves felt like forever.

(Did you see that the Talisman series is concluding with a book that ties it into the Dark Tower mythos? I can't wait.)

jmd

@jmduncanJun 29, 2026

I had not! That’s gotta be in the running for most leisurely trilogy of all time (17 years to the sequel and then another 25 to the third!)

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