The Golden Enclaves
The Golden Enclaves (The Scholomance #3)
By: Naomi Novik
[Nominee for ‘Best Fantasy’ category of the 2022 Goodreads Choice Awards Reading Challenge]
[Fulfilled ‘Book with a school’ for Shelf Reflection’s 2023 Reading Challenge]
This is the final book in The Scholomance trilogy and also my least favorite.
I was excited about this series when I read the first book, A Deadly Education. But I felt disappointed by this last installment.
The first half was repetitive and annoying. Then we got more action and movement, a new conflict, but at times it was hard to follow and I’m not sure if I liked the ending. And I for sure didn’t like Galadriel.
Where Are We?
We leave book 2 (The Last Graduate) as the students are escaping the school. They’ve lured all the mals from around the world to the school and are going to send the school off into the void. But at the last minute Patience, the biggest maw-mouth ever, is right on El and Orion’s heels. They are the last ones to leave and Orion pushes El out the door. Cliff-hanger.
The Golden Enclaves begins with the reveal that Orion stayed behind at the school, inevitably devoured by the maw-mouth and now in eternal torment. El is beside herself in grief and anger. How could he have stayed behind?! They had done it! What was he thinking?!
Really the entire first third or half of the book is a constant reminder that Orion is “dead and screaming.” El is determined to figure out how to get back there and save him (by killing him and ending his misery). One long cycle of grief and anger and confusion.
And of course because she’s the brooding teen and tends to play the somewhat self-righteous victim, she’s a bit insufferable in this book with her- ‘I’m going to save him and no one can stop me or give me any logical or practical advice. I’m going to be reckless and moody but I’m a hero so you’ll love me for it’ vibe.
I liked her character in the first book. Her demeanor and attitude seemed to fit better when she was in the deadly school. But once she was out of the school I was hoping for a little more character change. Instead she got worse.
I liked when the conflict shifted from Orion-obsessed to El traveling to other enclaves to help them. Someone is attacking the enclaves one by one and they need El with her Golden Sutras to help re-establish their enclave foundations.
From London to New York to Dubai, El makes the rounds helping the very people she despises. She teams up with several different students from the Scholomance to help. The camaraderie they developed trying to destroy the school has carried over and acts as the buffer between the wizard elite and El’s rage. El is widely known as one of the most powerful wizards out there and is in high demand.
After all, she can kill a maw-mouth with a single phrase.
Oh and while she’s begrudgingly killing maw-mouths for the elite and pining for the chance to go kill Patience and end Orion’s torment (because he’s dead and screaming) she develops a weird lust for Liesel.
It seemed like Novik just wanted to add in another LGBTQ character so she threw in this odd temporary ‘relationship’ which isn’t really a relationship at all. They just have sex when they’re feeling big feelings (like stress and sadness and fear) and even though El loves Orion, it’s okay because “it made her feel good in her body.” And that’s all that sex is for.
Oh, AND, she had the opportunity to make it a threesome with Alfie too, but that’s a bit too long term for her and she doesn’t want to live in an enclave. Understandable.
Spoiler Alert
I feel like I have to mention a few things but they are definitely spoilers so keep scrolling to my Recommendation section if you don’t want to hear about it.
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Okay, so first— Orion. You didn’t actually think he was dead did you?! Of course he can’t be dead. So how does he survive being devoured by a maw-mouth?
Well somehow he now ‘absorbs’ or ‘eats’ mals when he kills them. So Patience is INSIDE him along with all the other beings Patience ate—dead and screaming. Not a great life.
When El finds him at the school, he wants her to kill him and end what he’s feeling. But she’s determined to fix it, so no, Orion. You can’t sacrifice yourself AGAIN. El is going to be a hero once more.
Wait, how is he a maw-mouth? I’m glad you asked. His evil maleficer mother fed his embryo to a maw-mouth (or the other way around?). He is like a half-breed of human and maw-mouth. That’s how he was able to kill mals so easily. His evil mother CREATED him for her own ends.
But don’t worry. Not only can El kill a maw-mouth with a single phrase (‘You’re already dead.’) She can apparently do it rather specifically. She kills the maw-mouth INSIDE Orion without killing him. I mean cool, Orion gets to live, but I’m not sure I understand how this was possible…
Second, who is attacking the enclaves? It’s Galadriel! Gasp! Every time El kills a maw-mouth an enclave foundation cracks and, depending on the strength of the enclave as a whole, falls into the void. To her horror, she doesn’t find this out until a lot of death and destruction has already happened.
Why does this work this way? Because the bad enclaves (non-Golden enclaves) are built on malia which is generated by the sacrifice of a strict-mana wizard who they basically bury alive and crush with enchanted rocks over a long period of time until the wizard becomes a maw-mouth and goes off into the world eating other wizards (mostly non-enclave wizards) and sending the malia back to the enclave. Pretty dark huh.
So let’s fast forward to the very end.
Now that El knows the truth her desire is for all of the rest of the world’s enclaves to stop building their homes on murder. Noble. She will help any enclave become a golden enclave if they put up the very large amount mana for it.
I suppose this is where the true nature of humanity becomes exposed because eliminating maw-mouths for good will only work if wizards completely stop using malia on any level. But they’re used to the convenience and luxuries it brings so it’s impossible to get to this point. There will always be selfish people who cheat.
Turns out they still need the Scholomance but it undergoes a renovation and will no longer be the deadly school it was before. Now, Orion will stay at the school as the protector he always has been and will kill any mals that try to come after the students, which I guess he can do now without eating or absorbing them? Again, I don’t understand how this works.
And what about El’s mom? We don’t really know.
SPOILERS OVER
Recommendation
I liked the twist that El killing maw-mouths had a direct and significant consequence that they had to deal with. That was a good plot point. I’m fine with the book having somewhat of an open-end because that’s the real world, all of humanity can’t really get to a kumbayah state.
I also liked the global travel and getting to see what the enclaves looked like in their cultural context. It’s pretty complex and I think it would make cool visuals in a movie. I think they could combine all three books into a pretty good movie, maybe two. Definitely not three.
But the unlikability of Galadriel’s character, some of the confusion on how the magic works, the random sexual encounters between El and Liesel, and the insufferable first third of the book made this book feel like a rather disappointing series ender.
If I had known what this third book would be like, I’m not sure I would have started the series. That feels like too strong of a statement. I did like the other Novik book I read (Spinning Silver) and I think her world building and use of magic is creative and interesting. I’ll definitely pick up more of her books.
She’s a good writer and I’m sure there will be a lot of people who really enjoy all three books, but it just didn’t quite hit the mark for what I was wanting for the third book.
In conclusion, I won’t tell you to not read this book. I won’t tell you to not read the series (though if you’re reading this review, you’ve probably already started). But I will just suggest you curb your expectations for the finale and then you either will not be disappointed or it will far exceed what you were expecting.
[Content Advisory: lots of f-words, a couple sexual scenes between Galadriel and Liesel that are short and not super descriptive]
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