Daniel Darabos reviewed The Golden Enclaves by Naomi Novik
What a conclusion!
5 stars
The first two books described the century-old setting of the Scholomance. Our protagonists are children. The expectation is that the status quo will be preserved at the end. The ending of book 2 made it clear that this was not how this story goes. But how much will be changed?
The first two books already had some head-spinning moments, where our perspective shifted as we learned something about the world. E.g. finding out how New Yorkers felt about Orion. There's more of that in the last book! I love the way it's done, because the clues were there from way earlier. When did you realize?
Leaving the Scholomance is a huge change. The school gave the first two books so much charm. I was worried leaving it behind. But it works out fine. I still miss the school, but the interactions with the mundane world and the adult wizards make …
The first two books described the century-old setting of the Scholomance. Our protagonists are children. The expectation is that the status quo will be preserved at the end. The ending of book 2 made it clear that this was not how this story goes. But how much will be changed?
The first two books already had some head-spinning moments, where our perspective shifted as we learned something about the world. E.g. finding out how New Yorkers felt about Orion. There's more of that in the last book! I love the way it's done, because the clues were there from way earlier. When did you realize?
Leaving the Scholomance is a huge change. The school gave the first two books so much charm. I was worried leaving it behind. But it works out fine. I still miss the school, but the interactions with the mundane world and the adult wizards make up for it.
So the plot is fantastic, the mystery is perfect, the ending is satisfying. Great. But it's the characters that deserve the most praise. Yeah, there's an evil sorcerer going around destroying the oldest strongholds of magic. I don't care! I only care about saving Orion! We've got to save Orion! I can't focus on the plot until I know Orion is safe!
Superb work!