Review: If you ask, she must wri-- no, no ... (confound it!)

[nebroadwe]

So, good news and bad news on the SF publishing front.

The Good News ...

is that Rosemary Kirstein, author of the stellar Steerswoman novels -- The Steerswoman (1989), The Outskirter's Secret (1992), The Lost Steersman (2003), and The Language of Power (2004) -- is still alive and still writing the next volume in the series. Huzzah! I heartily recommend these books to anyone who enjoys smart SF with engaging characters and puzzle-plotting that never disappoints. Kirstein and Arakawa Hiromu remind me of each other in that respect: every question answered raises two more; every glimpse of the big picture is calculated to whet your appetite for the next and reassures you that the author knows where the story is headed and is not about to disappoint you with an "Is that all there is?" climax. That said ...

The Bad News ...

Kirstein is even slower than Megan Whalen Turner at producing the next installment of her story. While I don't grudge either woman the time to polish the gems they publish, I do begin to clutch my head in despair when I read, in a reliable report from this past summer's ReaderCon, that Kirstein has decided she needs another book between The Language of Power and the previously-projected next volume, The City in the Crags. Evidently she had enough of said new next novel written to give a reading, but oy. I can wait another seven years to find out what all the revelations at the end of The Language of Power add up to, I suppose, but I'd really rather not. More sequels wants -- now!

Haven't read Kirstein yet? Go and find The Steerswoman's Road, the omnibus edition of the first two novels and prepare to be hooked ...