Customer Reviews

Colman

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Wise Child and Juniper are two of my all-time favorite books, and I was surprised and delighted to discover Colman, the completion of the trilogy! Overall, it's an amazing and wonderful book, as is to be expected of Monica Furlong, but it does not live up to Wise Child and Juniper.

The story begins immediately where Wise Child left off, and the events of Wise Child and Juniper are explained in a very cursory way. I would not recommend reading Colman unless you have read Wise Child and Juniper, otherwise the story will not make much sense and will not be as fulfilling! Both Wise Child and Juniper could be read as stand-alones, but Colman could not.

Colman includes all of the familiar characters - Wise Child, Juniper, Cormac, Meroot, Euny, etc., but the difference is that this book is narrated by Colman, Wise Child's best friend/cousin. However, I would hesitate to say he's the main character - it's still Wise Child and Juniper's story, as it should be. I just wish it had been narrated by one of them!

Colman joins Juniper and Wise Child as they flee their home to escape persecution as witches. They sail to Juniper's homeland, where Juniper's father was once king. But now Juniper's evil aunt Meroot has taken over the land and rules it with her black magick. She and her partner have killed many of Juniper's family and friends, control the remaining people through violence and taxation, and by holding Juniper's brother hostage in Meroot's castle. It is up to Wise Child and Juniper, with the help of Colman, Finbar, Cormac, and Juniper's childhood teacher, to save the land from Meroot's evil and free Juniper's brother to reign as king. Wise Child and Colman voluntarily enter Meroot's castle, posing as traveling children seeking work as servants, in hopes that being inside the castle will allow them to discover a weakness in Meroot that they can exploit, as well as give them a chance to find Juniper's brother and help him. Their plan requires great courage, courage that is to be tested many times...

It seems to me that Wise Child was a book that was character-driven, while Colman is plot-driven. The greatest strength of Wise Child was its focus on the deep and loving relationship between Wise Child and Juniper - Juniper was simultaneously a mother, mentor, and friend to Wise Child. Although Wise Child contained exciting and suspenseful scenes, for me, the "meat" of the story took place during Wise Child and Juniper's "mundane," daily life - while they worked, talked, ate, and slept together and their bond grew. When Wise Child experiences something exciting then becomes bored with the return to normal life, Juniper tells her that she feels that the "dull bits" of life are usually the best, and that excitement is only necessary here and there to feed off of.
I agree, which was why it was a bit frustrating that Colman had virtually no "dull bits" at all! Wise Child, Juniper and friends are in mortal danger nearly from start to finish, which makes for an exciting, suspenseful story, yes...but that's not what drew me to Wise Child and Juniper, and it's not what I expected/hoped for from Colman.

Nonetheless, I will be reading Colman again, and I still enjoy my "least favorite" of Furlong's books lots more than I enjoy most books! :) It's technically a Young Adult book, but I'm 25 and still enjoyed it! I would recommend the Wise Child trilogy to anyone, child, teen, or adult, to be read in the following order:
-Wise Child
-Juniper
-Colman

I was very saddened to learn of Furlong's death (Jan. 03), but am immensely grateful that she gave us this final book.

After reading "Juniper" and "Wise Child", I was excited to hear that Monica Furlong had written another book involving similar characters. Colman was not the main focus of the other books, but he takes center stage in this endearing story. Juniper, Colman, Wise Child, with the help of Finbar, return to Cornwall. To their horror, it has been ransacked, and the inhabitants are now at the mercy of the Gray Knight and Meroot. Juniper's brother, the prince, has been kidnapped and taken to Caerleon. Determined to help the citizens, Colman and Wise Child go to Caerleon in hopes to save the prince. What follows is an exciting story!
I enjoyed this book a great deal. It was a very good end to the series. I would suggest reading "Wise Child" and "Juniper" prior to reading this book.

I find it very hard to believe that Monica Furlong wrote Coleman- none of the characters is in character, so to speak, the "magic" is less than weak, and the pleasant outlook on life in the present is entirely missing.

The sequel to Wise Child and Juniper, Colman follows the lives of these three characters as they flee from Wise Child's childhood home to Juniper's childhood home of Cornwall, only to find Juniper's aunt has murdered her parents, the king and queen, and taken her brother, the prince, as a prisoner. Wise Child and Colman, with the help of the leper Cormac, must infiltrate the enemy stronghold, discover the prince's affiliation, and find a way to rescue the prince and the kingdom by defeating Meroot and the Gray Knight once and for all. As a sequel, Colman draws together and completes the overarching plot set up in the first two books, but it focuses on action and lacks the sense of magic and the strong female protagonist that makes the other two books so memorable. As this book does draw the story arc to a close, I recommend this book to fans of the series, but it is not a strong or outstanding book in it's own right.

Colman is a decided change of pace in this series of books: the male protagonist and the action-centered plot move it away from the wise woman stories of the other two books. Colman is a young boy but, concurrent with the strong woman theme in the other books, he uses the strength of his gender to protect the female Wise Child and to further her in her goals. Magic likewise still plays a role, fulfilling essential plot points, but it is not directly connected to character growth: in fact, Colman does not want to use magic, but he is willing to use it for Wise Child and Juniper's sakes. As such, this book exists within the wise woman philosophy of the others in the series, but with a male narrator it is less character-driven and lacks the fundamental draw and mystique of the previous books.

This final text was also a posthumous release, and the lack of editing shows: the text feels longer and has a slower, somewhat chunkier pace than the other novels. It is not, however, poorly written. It may not be as good as the other books, but it is surprisingly complete and well-edited for a posthumous work. While not outstanding, it is still an accessible, readable book that builds up to a fine conclusion.

I recommend this book to fans of the series that have read and loved Wise Child and Juniper. Although not as satisfying and in many ways very different, this final text draws together the plot line into a solid conclusion, bringing a sense of satisfied finality to the text. I doubt that the book will be so fulfilling to those that have no read the other books, and I recommend that they pick up Wise Child and Juniper (in that order) first.

I as well, have a hard time believing Monica Furlong wrote this book. The characters are not the same... Euny didn't have moments of cheerfulness and affection before this book. She's suppose to be tough and ornery which is what made her such a great character. Juniper didn't act helpless and confused and feel sorry for herself about things. In the last pages of Wise Child, it says that's the first time Wise Child truly knew she'd become a doran, but in "Colman" she doubts herself all over again. It's like no one even read the first two books before writing this.

*** SPOILER ALERT ***

And they way the fixed Cormac's face within the last paragraph of the book was just a joke. If it was that easy, why didn't they help him years before. I really felt it was a rushed "Everyone lives happily ever after" ending.


It just doesn't have the same feel as the first two books and doesn't keep true to the story. I hate to say it, but I wish they would've just left Juniper and Wise Child to stand on their own and not have tried to complete the series with this book.

This book did not nearly rise to the quality of 'Juniper' and 'Wisechild'. It seems to lack knowledge of the context, which is very unlike the prior books. It almost seems to have been written in a different voice. Ahem. In my opinion.

I did enjoy this book a bit, simply because it was the sequel to Wise Child. I've been hunting for this book for so long, and am so pleased i was able to find it.

That said, the magic of the previous two books seem to be missing from Colman. I don't know if it's because the narrator is a boy this time, or what.

Colman is Wise Child's cousin and best friend. After they flee the village where Juniper was on trial as a witch, Juniper and the children sail to Juniper's home, Castle Dore. But sadly, all is not well. Juniper's parents are dead, and her brother Brangwyn(heir to the kingdom) spirited away by Meroot and The Gray Knight. Meroot is Juniper's Aunt, and has coveted the throne for years.

Now they must find a way to save Brangwyn and restore him to Castle Dore.

I just didn't enjoy this one as much. I missed reading it from wise child's view. Dont get me wrong, the book was good for the most part. But after reading Juniper and Wise Child, it falls short. But i would recommend it to those who have been waiting for the sequel. It does end very well, and towards the end, starts to sound like a Monica Furlong book!

The cover is gorgeous, but the book was bland and boring. the characters were all the same; the dialogue was so wooden it drove me up the wall. the characters talked like a textbook. the kids used the same exact voice as the adults. the entire book is so over-simplified and over-explained that i felt like i was reading a paticularly boring school book for first-graders. here's a quotation (colman narrates): "I could not get away from the feeling that Wise Child was angry with me. This made me sad because i loved Wise Child and felt that she was not happy." (p. 20) if you find the above sentence brilliant and insightful, then you're welcome to Colman. I, 20 pages into the book, was already sick of the bland and boring writing style (or lack of style), so much so that i marked that quote. i struggled through the rest of the book, which was full of blah sentences like the one above.

the entire book is quite boring as far as plot goes. There are Bad Guys who have taken over Juniper's home, so the Good Guys have to save it in as unexciting a way as possible. while there are various parts where colman and wise child "clutch each other in terror," i did not feel any suspense, or much care about whether evil meroot catches them. one of those books you want to kill yourself over just to stop the awful plodding writing.