Sunday, 20 April 2025 10:36 pm
Book Review: The Last Graduate
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deckardcanineI'm not going to summarize the premises of the Scholomance trilogy again, so click here if you want a refresher. Fortunately, the second volume fills in new readers nicely as it goes along.
It begins the second after A Deadly Education ends. In most ways, things are looking up for El Higgins. Her senior year just began, she finally has some friends, and she now knows herself to be probably the most powerful wizard at the school, even if Orion Lake has a unique knack for killing mals before they can kill anyone else. The one new minus is that her mom belatedly said to stay away from him. El has a few guesses why, but for all her intelligence, she's still a teen silly enough to disregard frantic parental warnings.
One potential reason that came to my mind and not El's is that Orion's heroism of questionable value is rubbing off on her. No longer content to look out only for herself, she starts protecting freshmen and even learning their names. She knows that this could spell disaster in the long run. And sure enough, the school starts channeling its challenges disproportionately toward her.
I spent a long time trying to determine whether the mind of the Scholomance was amoral, nuanced, or just pure evil. Sure, students have a slightly higher survival rate inside than out (25% vs. 5%), but maybe it holds back only because the alternative is no more enrollees to feed it. Considering how many mals were created with good intentions, could the school itself be the largest, smartest, and most effective of mals?
Regardless, El rarely worries about her own survival anymore. She hopes to save as many others as possible. Maybe even ALL the rest, tho she realizes that would take a lot of cooperation. It would certainly put a damper on the rumor that she's destined to doom many wizards.
In case you're wondering, yes, graduates do have something to look forward to. Once you make it out of the Scholomance, you're almost guaranteed to live to triple digits. Of course, you may have literal and figurative scars that no magic can heal. And if you want kids, you'd better brace yourself for their likely demise.
Don't get the idea that El has become a real softie. She's pretty much constantly enraged, even by developments that I thought she'd appreciate. Gratitude is a new concept for her, and joy has been a mere passing acquaintance. Her budding mutual feelings for Orion are complicated as she saves his life nearly as many times as he's saved hers.
As sour and sarcastic as the first-person narration (which involves more British phrasing than I remembered) sounds, I find Book 2 much more heartwarming than Book 1. Despite my prediction, the human body count isn't close. More importantly, students are working together more than ever before. They may not be enjoying themselves any more for it, but I always welcome stories where the solution depends on widespread teamwork, however central the protagonist.
Lest you think that TLG is a great stopping point, the last line is every bit as dramatic as before. I suspect that Book 3, The Golden Enclaves, also picks up a second later. I'm putting it on my wish list.
Up next is Dragon Pearl by Yoon Ha Lee. Looks like it blurs the line between fantasy and sci-fi.
It begins the second after A Deadly Education ends. In most ways, things are looking up for El Higgins. Her senior year just began, she finally has some friends, and she now knows herself to be probably the most powerful wizard at the school, even if Orion Lake has a unique knack for killing mals before they can kill anyone else. The one new minus is that her mom belatedly said to stay away from him. El has a few guesses why, but for all her intelligence, she's still a teen silly enough to disregard frantic parental warnings.
One potential reason that came to my mind and not El's is that Orion's heroism of questionable value is rubbing off on her. No longer content to look out only for herself, she starts protecting freshmen and even learning their names. She knows that this could spell disaster in the long run. And sure enough, the school starts channeling its challenges disproportionately toward her.
I spent a long time trying to determine whether the mind of the Scholomance was amoral, nuanced, or just pure evil. Sure, students have a slightly higher survival rate inside than out (25% vs. 5%), but maybe it holds back only because the alternative is no more enrollees to feed it. Considering how many mals were created with good intentions, could the school itself be the largest, smartest, and most effective of mals?
Regardless, El rarely worries about her own survival anymore. She hopes to save as many others as possible. Maybe even ALL the rest, tho she realizes that would take a lot of cooperation. It would certainly put a damper on the rumor that she's destined to doom many wizards.
In case you're wondering, yes, graduates do have something to look forward to. Once you make it out of the Scholomance, you're almost guaranteed to live to triple digits. Of course, you may have literal and figurative scars that no magic can heal. And if you want kids, you'd better brace yourself for their likely demise.
Don't get the idea that El has become a real softie. She's pretty much constantly enraged, even by developments that I thought she'd appreciate. Gratitude is a new concept for her, and joy has been a mere passing acquaintance. Her budding mutual feelings for Orion are complicated as she saves his life nearly as many times as he's saved hers.
As sour and sarcastic as the first-person narration (which involves more British phrasing than I remembered) sounds, I find Book 2 much more heartwarming than Book 1. Despite my prediction, the human body count isn't close. More importantly, students are working together more than ever before. They may not be enjoying themselves any more for it, but I always welcome stories where the solution depends on widespread teamwork, however central the protagonist.
Lest you think that TLG is a great stopping point, the last line is every bit as dramatic as before. I suspect that Book 3, The Golden Enclaves, also picks up a second later. I'm putting it on my wish list.
Up next is Dragon Pearl by Yoon Ha Lee. Looks like it blurs the line between fantasy and sci-fi.
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