Draft:The Outskirter's Secret

The Outskirter's Secret is a 1992 science fantasy novel by American writer Rosemary Kirstein. It was originally published by Del Rey Books. It is the sequel to The Steerswoman (1989) and is followed by The Lost Steersman (2003), and The Language of Power (2004).

The novel continues the journey of Rowan, a Steerswoman, in an age that is just beginning to gain technology and advancement. After the events of the prior novel, Rowan and Bel, an Outskirter she has befriended, go into the Outskirts. The Outskirts are a vast plain of grasses, upon which tribes of people and goats live as nomads. Rowan is searching for further information about mysterious blue crystals, and their source.

Plot
After surviving the attempts on her life in the first book, Rowan continues her investigation of the mystery of the blue gems. After learning they are fragments of a fallen Guidestar, she embarks on a journey to the location where it is believed to have fallen. This journey takes her through the Outskirts, a region with different biology, human culture and environmental conditions from the Inner Lands, where Rowan is from. Rowan and Bel cross the Inner Lands into the Outskirts, and meet multiple tribes of Outskirters, eventually agreeing to travel north with a group. Through their travels, encounters with other tribes, and wizard's minions, the stakes are increasingly raised. After the wizards send a devastating attack that nearly kills the entire tribe, and wipes out multiple others, both Rowan and the Outskirters are forced to reckon with new concepts and future disaster, and begin preparations to join forces.

Reception
Jo Walton said of the series "It’s a very difficult trick to have revelations within a story that mean different things to the reader and the characters, but Kirstein dances over this constant abyss with delicate grace." Richard Marcus reviewed the series for Blog Critics and said "Ms. Kirstein has created marvellous characters that make the themes she is addressing all the more real."