A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, there was an eleven-year-old named Stephanie who had just read Alanna: the First Adventure by Tamora Pierce, and was looking for other children’s fantasy. Unfortunately, the year was 1993 (or 4) and Harry Potter hadn’t hit yet. Publishers were loath to publish fantasy for children. Of course, she had the classics, but she wanted more. Then she found a couple books that had been published recently, by a woman named Monica Furlong: Juniper and Wise Child. She read those a few times and enjoyed them quite a bit. Fifteen (or fourteen) years later, she found out that they were books 1 and 2 of a trilogy, and the third one had been published in 2004, just after the author passed away. The realization that she was old enough for fourteen or fifteen years to pass in between reading books frightened her a bit, but she read Colman, the conclusion of the trilogy, and decided to review it.

Juniper is a doran, a witch; she’s also the daughter of King Mark of Cornwall. Wise Child is her apprentice. Colman is a friend of Wise Child’s; Finbar is Wise Child’s father, and Cormac is a leper who Juniper healed. Those are the main players in the story so far. A very bad woman took over Cornwall and killed the king and queen; Juniper (Ninnoc)’s brother is still alive, and the group wants to help him take the country back. Unfortunately, they have very little idea of where to start, since so many things are being controlled by the bad woman and her knight-husband. What do they do? Magic, of course.

The introduction to this novel was written by Karen Cushman, of Catherine, Called Birdy fame and at least one Newbery medal. In it, she tells us that Monica Furlong was a very devout Christian. When asked why she wrote books about witches/goddess-worshipers, she said that she disagreed with the church’s treatment of women, and that the majority of the witch-hunts were just to take down powerful women. It’s very interesting to know that she saw absolutely no conflict between her fantastic worlds (which are semi-historical) and her real-world religion.

I didn’t remember the first two books very well, but luckily, enough information was provided in the beginning to jog my memory. I don’t think I’d recommend reading this book without reading the other two, because it takes so many of the threads that run through the first two books and weaves them together into a finale. If what one primarily loved about the first two books was the teaching — how Juniper and Wise Child train to be dorans — then one may perhaps not prefer this novel, as there is little teaching and a good deal of action in the book. However, if one liked the characters and world-building, one will be happy to know that many characters from both novels 1 and 2 show up.

I enjoyed the book; the plot had a good deal of movement and many different locations. I can’t really compare it to previous volumes, as it’s been years (gulp!) since I read them, but as semi-historic children’s fantasy with Arthurian elements (King Mark as in the Tristan and Isolde story, etc.), it’s definitely good. It’s aimed at middle-grade readers, as were the previous volumes, and very solid. The plot is strong, the pacing is well-done, the characters are excellent, and loose ends are fairly well tied up, but there’s enough at the end left open to spark imaginations. I’m glad that Ms. Furlong got to finish this book before she passed away. 4.5/5 stars.