The Golden Enclaves

A Novel Scholomance #3

eBook, 407 pages

English language

Published July 8, 2022 by Random House Publishing Group.

ISBN:
978-0-593-15836-4
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4 stars (46 reviews)

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. …

1 edition

:)

5 stars

Aw, I just really like this series. Thoroughly recommend it. I keep expecting it to be less polished, because a lot of Temeraire feels less polished and more, like, thematically aimless to me, but it‘s very well-thought-out I think. I enjoy how the protagonist‘s perspective on the world changes, and we get to see some of this world‘s politics and the inequities thereof. There‘s also a very effective horror scene in this book. Mostly it‘s really nice to read a well-executed series that leads the reader inexorably toward the necessity of working with others to change the systems of global & institutional inequality, in ways that will be frustrating and incomplete but are worth doing - what this rekindled in me is a sense of powerful urgency & drive to join others in this work, which seems like a sign of a successful series to me. Themes of personal development …

A satisfying conclusion to the series

5 stars

This book was full of gorgeous symmetry and symbology and dramatic irony. Novik is a master at dropping just enough hints for you to start putting together the bigger picture just ahead of the protagonist, making the next twist feel justified or somehow expected even if you couldn't have written a full prediction.

I especially appreciate how Novik continued to explore the unjustness of the enclave system in her world and how the protagonist El was forced to reckon with the practicality of her mission conflicting with her moral revulsion at the existing system. It is very easy to draw a parallel to activists trying to upend existing oppressive structures (racism, sexism, capitalism, etc). This book will help activists articulate their morals and wrestle with the realities of working with or next to an existing system while working to create a more just world.

The only critique I have of …

a satisfying conclusion

5 stars

a great ending to the great Scholomance trilogy. had some twists i didn't see coming while still bringing everything to a satisfying close.

like the other books in this series, it manages to feel kinda cozy while super dark 😅

i think it's the lovable cast of characters, particularly the primary protagonist who i find quite relatable as an outcast determined not to be the evil the world wants her to be.

also the darkness is offset by the fact that there is hope throughout, even when things get pretty bleak (though often that hope is more stubbornness than anything 😅)

strongly recommended to anyone who loved the first two entries in the series.

The Magic We Need

5 stars

You would be forgiven for looking at a pithy summary of the Scholomance series and thinking this is yet another magical school wish fulfillment story. There’s a magical school, an extra-magical misfit main character who unexpectedly makes friends, a prophecy, monsters and sinister forces. Yet, for all that, this is a tale with a spirit firmly planted in reality that bends all the tropes.

What do you do when you are the best at defeating monsters when the real monster is deep systemic injustice?

Naomi Novik is producing some of the most interesting and creative fantasy stories of this generation. They are well worth your time.

Review of 'The Golden Enclaves' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

Not my favorite of the 3, but still a page turner. And anecdotally, it seems like really good source material to understand Gen Z point of view. Maybe it's just the recent midterm elections that make me see it through that lens but

Recent graduates (just the right age)
Magic (mana) as wealth that is zero-sum
Privileged enclaves of elites
A structural system designed to benefit the powerful at the expense of the weak

And so on. The characters interact with each other in that framework throughout, and it works.

Really strong conclusion to the series

4 stars

I think my biggest complaint about these three novels would be that the author does a lot more telling rather than showing, which I tend to dislike. There's no shortage of that in the beginning of this novel, but ultimately this might be my favorite book of the series. It finishes really strongly and I found myself more emotionally invested than I thought I would be. I can't say too much more without giving away some important plot elements, but defs recommend if you've read the first two books.

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