The Golden Enclaves: A Novel

Naomi Novik

Sep 2022 · The Scholomance Book 3 · Sold by Del Rey

About this ebook

#1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER • Saving the world is a test no school of magic can prepare you for in the triumphant conclusion to the New York Times bestselling trilogy that began with A Deadly Education and The Last Graduate.

FINALIST FOR THE HUGO AWARD • ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: Paste, Publishers Weekly

The one thing you never talk about while you’re in the Scholomance is what you’ll do when you get out. Not even the richest enclaver would tempt fate that way. But it’s all we dream about: the hideously slim chance we’ll survive to make it out the gates and improbably find ourselves with a life ahead of us, a life outside the Scholomance halls.

And now the impossible dream has come true. I’m out, we’re all out—and I didn’t even have to turn into a monstrous dark witch to make it happen. So much for my great-grandmother’s prophecy of doom and destruction. I didn’t kill enclavers, I saved them. Me and Orion and our allies. Our graduation plan worked to perfection: We saved everyone and made the world safe for all wizards and brought peace and harmony to all the enclaves everywhere.

Ha, only joking! Actually, it’s gone all wrong. Someone else has picked up the project of destroying enclaves in my stead, and probably everyone we saved is about to get killed in the brewing enclave war. And the first thing I’ve got to do now, having miraculously gotten out of the Scholomance, is turn straight around and find a way back in.

Ratings and reviews

Not enough Orion. If you're reading this book series because you like Orion, you're going to be overwhelmingly disappointed by this book. Novik said that this book was an allegory for climate change, and it's clear she can't make a cohesive plot around that even with a super magical powerhouse like Galadriel driving the story. There were a couple clever twists, including a daring rescue with time literally stopping, and a prophecy being fulfilled. These were reminiscent of the first two books. But the rest of the book just felt like being preached at in a very strange indirect way without a clear solution other than "Uber magic." The Golden Enclaves were hardly recognizable as a Scholomance book compared to the first two. If the book was a lesson about climate change then it is clear that the only solution is some new super pollution scrubbing technology that doesn't exist yet which can just suck up all the pollution without any downside. The book gives closure, but that's all.

A very good series with a good and satisfying ending. i really enjoyed the witty style and saw many (sad) similarities between her created world and ours. i don't presume to know what the author has put into her work but to me it reads like a many layered story that can be read as a cool fantasy story as well as a critique of our societies today. a gentle critique that is both confronfing and realistic and somehow forgiving about human nature. Very well done. I am looking forward to your next books Naomi Novik!

A great end to the story. However, the evolution of the plot does drastically change the style of storytelling. The first two books are heavily character driven with some worldbuilding. Unfortunately, the magnitude of descriptive writing necessary for this final book is a bit jarring.

About the author

Naomi Novik is the New York Times bestselling author of A Deadly Education and The Last Graduate, the award-winning novels Uprooted and Spinning Silver, and the Temeraire series. She is a founder of the Organization for Transformative Works and the Archive of Our Own. She lives in New York City with her family and six computers.