Paperback, 388 pages
Published Dec. 5, 2017 by Rosemary Kirstein.
Determined to learn the truth about the Guidestars--two points of light that hang motionless in the sky--Rowan sets out into the Outskirts, where barbarian tribes and the land itself could destroy her.
Focus shifts from town fantasy conflict to a stranger inhospitable environment and the diffuse intense culture of survival. Some beautiful didactic bits of other ways of organizing kin and relationships, and measured plot revealing a deeper backstory.
It’s hard to review these without giving away the premise and the ways what you think it is shifts as you read it. Environment is huge is this one! The ways we think about it even huger! I’m just going to start making up more words soon, so I’ll stop.
