Review – The Golden Enclaves (The Scholomance, Book 3) by Naomi Novik (4/5 stars)
Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Length: 411 pages
Publisher: Del Rey
Release Date: September 27, 2022
ASIN: B09MVM8R7T
Stand Alone or Series: 3rd book in the Scholomance series
Source: Borrowed eBook from Library
Rating: 4/5 stars
“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.”
Series Info/Source: This is the third (and final) book in The Scholomance series. I borrowed this on ebook from my library.
Thoughts: This was a well done conclusion to the series and I thought it was interesting how everything played out. This did feel very long to me when I read it and I had trouble staying interested in the story. El kind of runs back and forth from place to place and feels sorry for herself a lot. I expected her power to play out in a more epic way than it actually did.
This book starts out where the last left off. El and her classmates have escaped the Scholomance but Orion didn’t make it out. El starts off on a mission to get back into the Scholomance to help him but then the enclaves start to fall. El is called upon to use her immense power to save them but, in the process of helping them, discovers the horror of what the enclaves are built upon and starts a mission to restructure magic society worldwide.
I enjoy the magic system and world here. Novik has put a lot of thought into this world and I love reading about unique magic systems. Unfortunately, I never really liked any of the characters in this series much and this book didn’t change that for me. El makes some seriously questionable decisions that I just did not understand.
I also expected the plot to revolve a bit more around El’s hugely immense power since that was such a focus for the series. I found the whole concept of Orion’s birth confusing when you look at the rest of the magic system. I felt like there were some plot holes here for sure. I also wasn’t a huge fan of how much of this book was El jetting from place to place across the world, I was exhausted just reading about it.
The book ends well and ties everything up with a nice, tidy bow while giving us an interesting vision of the characters’ futures. This definitely wasn’t my favorite Novik book, honestly she’s been a bit hit or miss for me. I will be more careful and thoughtful about picking up books from her in the future.
My Summary (4/5): Overall this did an excellent job of wrapping up this series. I really loved the magic system here and enjoyed digging into the foundation of the enclaves. I am still not a huge fan of the characters, some of the plot points, and the way a lot of this is just El running back and forth. Novik has been a bit hit and miss for me. I loved “Uprooted” and the first couple “Temeraire” books but I am not a huge fan of other books she has written. I really loved the first book in this series but the second and third ones were just “good” not great. I would still recommend this series to those who enjoy YA fantasy with a heavy emphasis on creative magic systems.
