sandstone78: Like The Steerswoman, Jane Fletcher's Celaeno series is set in a fantasy world that is not quite what it seems, with truths that are gradually revealed. However, the Celaeno series is less rigorously scientific, including more science fantasy tropes like psychic powers, and the discovery is not the main point of the plot. Temple at Landfall centers around Lynn, who is isolated from the world by the priestesshood because of her particular rare powers, and what happens when she leaves the Temple and encounters a group of heretics who claim they know the truth about her world.… (meer)

sandstone78: Both of these stories deal with a seemingly fantasy setting that turns out to be something else, and the tension between a small group that knows the secrets, a majority that doesn't, and a person from that majority that questions the order. In The Steerswoman, the protagonist is a traveling scholar/scientist whose investigations draw the interest of the wizards who rule the known world; in Children of the Star, the protagonist questions the traditional religion and the priveleged class of scholars and technicians in society. Rowan's investigations are for her own curiosity and to record the truth for her Order, while Noren's story ends up on the other side of the divide, exploring the rationale, justifications, and rightness of the many keeping things from the few. The Steerswoman series is ongoing, with the overall story unresolved and individual volumes reaching their own conclusions, but Children of the Star is a completed trilogy.… (meer)

superant: Both have scholar heroes. Both have heroes and heroines traveling the land confronting villains.