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.

Aside from the fact that this writer does not understand too much detail, I have to say I don't like the choices made. Spoilers: It was messy, with sudden revelations, and I'm not going to lie it felt like many plotpoints were unimportant. Like saving Orion from Scholomance, or this constant search arc, rather than developing their relationship. I feel like we should have moved on from Scholomance and maybe entered the political divide more on how El was going to hide Orion. The characters didn't develop, Maw-Mews are not as interesting or clever of as a weapon as the author thinks, and I think it would be more interesting if we left behind some of the side characters from the plot as it got boring. In a school they are more important than in the physical outside environment.

This book is a captivating continuation of the Scholomance series. Novik's world-building is unparalleled, and the character development is phenomenal. The climactic battle was everything I hoped for and more. I would highly recommend this book to any fan of fantasy

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.