The Golden Enclaves
{4.5/5} “There’s not much democracy in enclaves; they’re run like a cross between a vicious international corporation and a village full of vexatious eccentrics. Most of the denizens don’t care what the council are doing as long as everything keeps running smoothly from their perspective, and the only people who gets a significant vote anyway are the people who’ve earned a council seat, either by doing something dramatic or because they’ve cleverly arranged to be descended from a founding member.”
The Golden Enclaves by Naomi Novik, published in 2022
When Galadriel exits the Scholomance she finds herself home, with her mom. She immediately tries to get Orion back, but he resists her. Eventually El shows her mom the Golden Stone Sutras, and her mom reveals that she and her dad cast a summoning spell for the sutras. Some of her fellow recent students show up to tell her there’s a maw-mouth threatening the London enclave, and they ask her to come and deal with it.
This is the sequel to The Last Graduate. It concludes the trilogy.
It’s about people who agree to one horrible thing if it lets them live the life they want. It’s about someone who’s very angry about the way things are and wants to change things.
I like how El’s fellow students are all willing to help her on the outside after what happened in the Scholomance.
It’s a splendid ending to the series, and every fantasy fan will want to read it.
I’ve read 3 books by Novik, and I will be on the lookout for more.