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4.14 AVERAGE
4.14 AVERAGE
dark
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
A perfect conclusion to the trilogy. In fact, if Novik decided she wanted to write more( a 4th book, a spin-off series, etc) I would consume it within seconds of release. Kovik is one of the most talented fantasy writers of modern times.
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
El is finally out of the Scholomance… but the wizard school from hell isn’t done with her yet.
The first book is driven largely by getting to know the school, the students, and El herself. The second is driven by the characters’ almost single-minded focus on graduation. By the time we get here, you might think – as El does – that you have an idea of what she and her friends will go out and do now that they’re back in the outside world.
But if you’ve read The Last Graduate, you know the last pages turn those plans upside down.
So of course the first thing El has to do is wrestle – magically, emotionally, socially – with those events. And in the midst of the well-deserved wallowing she would like to do, she gets called up to do some monster-hunting that she really doesn’t want to do. Gradually, that leads to a new set of revelations that sharpen her understanding of her entire world, and what she can contribute to it.
That's about all I can say without spilling some beans, so we’re going to hop under the spoiler tags now.
That’s true on the macro, enclave-level scale, and also on the smaller Orion-level scale. It takes a long time to get him back, and even longer to get him back to something resembling the boy we knew. My favorite detail of his mother’s machinations is that his name clearly isn’t a coincidence – she knew she was creating a hunter, so she pulled an appropriate name straight out of Greek mythology. Novik restrains herself from even pointing it out.
But the side character we see the most of is actually Liesl, who grew from a bit player in the first half of Last Graduate to a core ally by the end of the book. As though Liesl herself stood up and insisted to her own author that she play a bigger role, she’s the one to show up in Wales and drag El back into the plot. She becomes the Hermione Granger of the piece – a brilliant character who could conceivably know or have reasoned through anything, who always has a plan – and she proves to be singularly effective at keeping El pointed in the right direction. El flouts her advice just often enough to keep from feeling like Liesl’s puppet.
Watching El marvel at having friends and being welcomed (not everywhere, but multiple times) doesn’t get old for me, and we have some lovely examples here. One of the best is the reunion with her father’s family in which we get to meet the great-grandmother whose prophecy has shadowed most of El's life. It becomes clear that despite her great powers, Deepthi gets no easy answers, either.
Through the whole trilogy, I've really enjoyed watching Novik play with conventions and expectations cemented by hero's journey stories like Star Wars and Harry Potter. We don't get the simplicity of a struggle between good and evil, and there is no final battle to defeat an evil overlord. The worst monsters are created by desperate people with good intentions, and only by slow, incremental efforts can El try to change her world for the better. It's the only way any of us can.
But she and her friends are going to try.
The first book is driven largely by getting to know the school, the students, and El herself. The second is driven by the characters’ almost single-minded focus on graduation. By the time we get here, you might think – as El does – that you have an idea of what she and her friends will go out and do now that they’re back in the outside world.
But if you’ve read The Last Graduate, you know the last pages turn those plans upside down.
So of course the first thing El has to do is wrestle – magically, emotionally, socially – with those events. And in the midst of the well-deserved wallowing she would like to do, she gets called up to do some monster-hunting that she really doesn’t want to do. Gradually, that leads to a new set of revelations that sharpen her understanding of her entire world, and what she can contribute to it.
That's about all I can say without spilling some beans, so we’re going to hop under the spoiler tags now.
Spoiler
AHHHHH THE REVELATION ABOUT WHERE MAWMOUTHS COME FROM. It’s grotesque and horrifying, and also completely of a piece with how Novik has characterized this world and the bargains that people are willing to make. The pacing of clues through this book – and leading up to it through the other books – is so well done. All the pieces are there for you to put together, and each time you get close to something, she gives the knife an extra twist. Despite all her power, El gets no easy answers.That’s true on the macro, enclave-level scale, and also on the smaller Orion-level scale. It takes a long time to get him back, and even longer to get him back to something resembling the boy we knew. My favorite detail of his mother’s machinations is that his name clearly isn’t a coincidence – she knew she was creating a hunter, so she pulled an appropriate name straight out of Greek mythology. Novik restrains herself from even pointing it out.
But the side character we see the most of is actually Liesl, who grew from a bit player in the first half of Last Graduate to a core ally by the end of the book. As though Liesl herself stood up and insisted to her own author that she play a bigger role, she’s the one to show up in Wales and drag El back into the plot. She becomes the Hermione Granger of the piece – a brilliant character who could conceivably know or have reasoned through anything, who always has a plan – and she proves to be singularly effective at keeping El pointed in the right direction. El flouts her advice just often enough to keep from feeling like Liesl’s puppet.
Watching El marvel at having friends and being welcomed (not everywhere, but multiple times) doesn’t get old for me, and we have some lovely examples here. One of the best is the reunion with her father’s family in which we get to meet the great-grandmother whose prophecy has shadowed most of El's life. It becomes clear that despite her great powers, Deepthi gets no easy answers, either.
Through the whole trilogy, I've really enjoyed watching Novik play with conventions and expectations cemented by hero's journey stories like Star Wars and Harry Potter. We don't get the simplicity of a struggle between good and evil, and there is no final battle to defeat an evil overlord. The worst monsters are created by desperate people with good intentions, and only by slow, incremental efforts can El try to change her world for the better. It's the only way any of us can.
But she and her friends are going to try.
The Golden Enclaves by Naomi Novik is hard for me to rate.
I did enjoy it, but I didn't love it nearly as much as I did the two previous books.
I really enjoyed the darker bits, the way no one came out of the Scholomance unscarred. However El and her reactions to the enclaves felt a bit out of character.
The plot was also a bit disjointed, or at least felt that way to me. We jump around from place to place, and I didn't feel like there was as much resolution as I'd have liked plot wise.
Some things just felt a bit too convenient as well, so while I enjoyed the characters and the world, it was more the story itself that didn't work as well for me.
All in all a quick read, not bad at all, just not up to my expectations.
I did enjoy it, but I didn't love it nearly as much as I did the two previous books.
I really enjoyed the darker bits, the way no one came out of the Scholomance unscarred. However El and her reactions to the enclaves felt a bit out of character.
The plot was also a bit disjointed, or at least felt that way to me. We jump around from place to place, and I didn't feel like there was as much resolution as I'd have liked plot wise.
Some things just felt a bit too convenient as well, so while I enjoyed the characters and the world, it was more the story itself that didn't work as well for me.
All in all a quick read, not bad at all, just not up to my expectations.
This was a glorious read, I went through it at a frantic pace over a weekend and all I wanted was to know what happened next. And now I’m back out in the real world glad that El found some kind of peace.
All in all a good book, and the story fits the end of the series really well, but the ending kinda let me down
--spoilers--
The fact that Orion survives and just goes back to normal felt kinda forced and cheap. He was by far my favorite character, don't get me wrong, but the rather edgy and down-to-earth vibe of the books didn't mesh with the perfect happy ending we got.
Had El actually had to kill him, the book could have shown her properly grieving, finally getting closure, and moving on, but this polished everything-is-perfect-now ending just felt completely out of place.
--spoilers--
The fact that Orion survives and just goes back to normal felt kinda forced and cheap. He was by far my favorite character, don't get me wrong, but the rather edgy and down-to-earth vibe of the books didn't mesh with the perfect happy ending we got.
Had El actually had to kill him, the book could have shown her properly grieving, finally getting closure, and moving on, but this polished everything-is-perfect-now ending just felt completely out of place.
adventurous
inspiring
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes