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Book Summary and Reviews of The Golden Enclaves by Naomi Novik

The Golden Enclaves by Naomi Novik

The Golden Enclaves

Scholomance Series #3

by Naomi Novik

  • Critics' Consensus:
  • Published:
  • Sep 2022, 416 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

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.

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.

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Reviews

Media Reviews

"Novik dazzles in her brilliant and compulsively readable final Scholomance fantasy, which picks up immediately after the events of The Last Graduate... Novik beautifully closes out El's and Orion's character arcs, paying off on groundwork laid in previous installments, and her focus on hope, resilience, and collective action makes this finale as moving as it is satisfying. This is a knockout." - Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Novik's third "Scholomance" book is a strong and satisfying finish to an exciting fantasy series." - Library Journal (starred review)

"This globe-trotting adventure quickly turns into a slog...as triumphs and tribulations flatten under the weight of exposition and poor pacing...A high-concept adventure that doesn't think its readers are clever enough to get it." - Kirkus Reviews

This information about The Golden Enclaves was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

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Author Information

Naomi Novik

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.

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