The Last Graduate

Last updated
The Last Graduate
TheLastGraduateCover.jpg
Author Naomi Novik
LanguageEnglish
SeriesThe Scholomance
Genre Fantasy novel
Publisher Del Rey
Publication date
September 28, 2021
Publication placeUnited States
Media typePrint (hardcover and paperback), audiobook, e-book
Pages400 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-0593128862
Preceded by A Deadly Education  
Followed by The Golden Enclaves  

The Last Graduate is a 2021 fantasy novel written by American author Naomi Novik following Galadriel "El" Higgins, a half-Welsh, half-Indian sorceress, who must survive to graduation while controlling her destructive abilities at the fabled school of black magic, the Scholomance. It was published by Del Rey on September 28, 2021 and is the second book of The Scholomance Trilogy . The first of the series, A Deadly Education , was released on September 29, 2020.

Contents

Although written for adults, The Last Graduate won the 2022 Lodestar Award, awarded by the World Science Fiction Convention for the best young adult science fiction or fantasy book of the past year. [1]

Plot

Following the events of A Deadly Education , El and her friends begin their senior year. The student body is troubled to learn from incoming freshmen that Bangkok enclave vanished mysteriously, along with everyone inside at the time. No one has taken responsibility, but the wizard community is on high alert, and a war between enclaves may be brewing.

Meanwhile, El is faintly outraged to discover that she has been assigned a punishingly difficult courseload and, strangely, put into a homeroom with eight freshmen. On her first day with them, they are attacked by a mal in the classroom. To her own surprise, El is unwilling to abandon the younger students and kills the mal with mana she had been saving for graduation. Over the weeks that follow, El and the eight freshmen are relentlessly targeted by mal attacks which El fights off.

El finds her supplies of mana dwindling and reluctantly asks for help from Chloe Rasmussen, a girl from the New York enclave. El believes Chloe will grant her access to the New Yorkers’ pool of shared mana because of El’s nebulous involvement with Orion, who is the son of a prominent New York sorceress. Chloe obliges, but also startles El by asking to join her alliance with Aadhya and Liu - a request which Chloe would only make if she genuinely believed it would help her survive graduation. As the end of term draws nearer, El becomes close with not only Chloe, but also members of other alliances as they exchange favours and cooperate to help one another. Meanwhile, El and Orion’s mutual attraction continues to develop. Orion invites her to join him and his friends in New York enclave, but El refuses, as she has other plans.

Modern enclaves require massive amounts of mana, not only to build, but to buy the spells from established enclaves. However, during her junior year, El stumbled across a spellbook, known as the Golden Stone Sutras, that was previously believed lost. The sutras provide instructions for creating smaller but still secure spaces that can be constructed by just one wizard for much less mana, as long as that wizard is sufficiently powerful. El intends to travel the world, setting up Golden Stone enclaves; Orion agrees to go with her, provided they survive graduation.

Typically during the latter half of the school year, seniors prepare for graduation in a series of obstacle courses, created weekly in the gymnasium by the school. This year, however, the gym runs rapidly become so difficult that only El, with her arsenal of destructive spells, and Orion, who takes mana from killing mals, can get through them. El realizes that just as she could not abandon “her” freshmen, she will not be able to let any members of her year die. However, even her and Orion’s powers will not be enough; all the seniors will have to cooperate. Her classmates are eventually won over to her cause, and they all begin training together.

Just as El is convinced of this plan, she has a chance encounter with Sudarat, a girl from her homeroom group. Sudarat does not believe that she herself will survive graduation and is resigned to dying without ever seeing the outside world again. El realizes that even if she saves everyone in her graduating class, the current underclassmen - and all subsequent generations of students - will still be at risk and go on dying. She rails at the school itself, whereupon a maintenance hatch pops open on the wall of her study room. She climbs down it to the graduation hall, where she discovers that the repairs to the cleansing machinery were effective and there are no mals left there. She then has the epiphany that the Scholomance has been leading her to all year. She was meant to learn to care for people other than herself - first her allies, then her year-mates, then everyone in the school - and save them. The Scholomance was built to shelter and protect the wizard children of the world. The current system was the best it could do - until El and Orion arrived, with their unique powers.

The students determine that it would not be feasible to repair the cleansing machinery every year, so another plan is needed. Liu suggests that they “send the mals to school” - rather than make the Scholomance safer by keeping more maleficaria out, the wizards should improve conditions in the outside world by devastating the creatures’ population in a single blow. On graduation day, all the students enter the hall together. El and her friends cast a powerful luring spell, causing mals to pour into the school through the portals that open to allow students to return home. Meanwhile, Orion and the other students protect one another as they queue for their exits. Once the Scholomance is full of mals and all the other pupils have departed, El is meant to jump out of her portal and trigger a spell of enormous destruction, severing the school’s link with reality. However, when the only two left are El and Orion, the pair are attacked by an enormous maw-mouth that they cannot fight off. Orion tells El he loves her, and pushes her out of the portal.

Reception

Tasha Robinson of the Polygon wrote about the books "All her novels are compelling and immersive, and they all reimagine existing history and folklore in strikingly new ways. The Scholomance books were partly inspired by a pair of Eastern European legends about a school of magic where Satan claims the soul of the last graduate to leave." [2]

The book received mostly positive reviews. Elizabeth Tabler of the Grimdark Magazine praised the book, calling it "mind-blowing and fantastic" and that she "went clamoring for more". [3] Lacy Baugher of the Culturess called it "one of the best fantasy series out there right now". [4]

On the other side, Kirkus Reviews pointed out that The Last Graduate doesn't recount what had happened in the first book of the series, and doesn't introduce the narrator (Galadriel, the main protagonist), and that some readers can be puzzled if they forgot it. [5]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Prom</span> Formal dance or gathering of students at the end of the high school academic year

A promenade dance or promenade, commonly called a prom, is a dance party for high school students. It may be offered in semi-formal black tie or informal suit for boys, and evening gowns for girls. This event is typically held at or near the end of the school year. There may be individual junior and senior proms or they may be combined.

The Scholomance was a fabled school of black magic in Romania, especially in the region of Transylvania. It was run by the Devil, according to folkloric accounts. The school enrolled about ten students to become the Solomonari. Courses taught included the speech of animals and magic spells. One of the graduates was chosen by the Devil to be the Weathermaker and tasked with riding a dragon to control the weather.

A homeroom, tutor group, form class, or form is a brief administrative period that occurs in a classroom assigned to a student in primary school and in secondary school. Within a homeroom period or classroom, administrative documents are distributed, attendance is marked, announcements are made, and students are given the opportunity to plan for the day. Such periods also act as a form of pastoral care, where teachers and administrators provide personal, social, or health advice. Homerooms differ in their nature, depending on the country and the specific school.

Seoul International School is a secular international private college preparatory school situated in Seongnam, South Korea, offering an American curriculum in an English-only setting.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Naomi Novik</span> American author (born 1973)

Naomi Novik is an American author of speculative fiction. She is known for the Temeraire series (2006–2016), an alternate history of the Napoleonic Wars involving dragons, and her Scholomance fantasy series (2020–2022). Her standalone fantasy novels Uprooted (2015) and Spinning Silver (2018) were inspired by Polish folklore and the Rumpelstiltskin fairy tale respectively. Novik has won many awards for her work, including the Alex, Audie, British Fantasy, Locus, Mythopoeic and Nebula Awards.

<i>Juvenile Orion</i> Trading card game and manga series

Juvenile Orion is a trading card game and shōjo manga series. As a spin-off of the Aquarian Age franchise, the story revolves around characters with supernatural powers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bellarmine Preparatory School</span> School in Tacoma, Pierce County, Washington, United States

Bellarmine Preparatory School is a private Catholic high school run by the USA West Province of the Society of Jesus in Tacoma, Washington. It is located in the Archdiocese of Seattle. Today, it serves just over 900 students from the Greater Tacoma area, including Olympia, Gig Harbor, Federal Way, and Puyallup. It was founded in 1928 by the Jesuits.

Maryvale Preparatory School is a Catholic, independent school for girls in grades six through 12. Affiliated with the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, Maryvale is located in Lutherville, Maryland. It is also affiliated with the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Baltimore.

Magical × Miracle is a Japanese josei manga series created by Yuzu Mizutani. It was serialized in Ichijinsha's Monthly Comic Zero Sum manga magazine between May 2002 and March 2006, and was collected into six bound volumes. The English version is available in North America from Tokyopop.

<i>Tokimeki Memorial Girls Side: 2nd Kiss</i> 2006 video game

Tokimeki Memorial Girl's Side: 2nd Kiss is the 2006 sequel to Tokimeki Memorial Girl's Side and the fifth main game in Konami's Tokimeki Memorial dating sim series. An enhanced port to the Nintendo DS featuring additional content and titled Tokimeki Memorial Girl's Side: 2nd Season was released in 2008. A remaster of the Nintendo DS version was released in 2024 to the Nintendo Switch eShop.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Althoff Catholic High School</span> Private school in Belleville, Illinois, United States

Althoff Catholic High School is a private Catholic institution in Belleville, Illinois, part of the Diocese of Belleville.

Ravnica is a Magic: The Gathering block that consists of three expert-level expansion sets: Ravnica: City of Guilds, Guildpact, and Dissension. Following in the tradition of other Magic blocks, Ravnica takes place in a plane of the multiverse that was previously unexplored in the game's backstory. The world of Ravnica is an ecumenopolis, a vast city that covers the entire surface of its planet, and is home to a diverse assortment of sentient races. Much power in Ravnica is held by the ten "guilds", political factions that each represent a combination of two of Magic's five colors. The mythology of Ravnica is loosely derived from Slavic folklore, and the character names reflect this. This plane was revisited in the Return to Ravnica block, and the Guilds of Ravnica,Ravnica Allegiance, War of the Spark, and Murders at Karlov Manor sets.

<i>Dragon Zakura</i> (TV series) 2005 Japanese TV series or program

Dragon Zakura, also known as Dragon-Zakura, is a Japanese live action television series based on the manga of the same name.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Skyler Samuels</span> American actress

Skyler Samuels is an American actress, known for her roles in the television series Wizards of Waverly Place, The Gates, The Nine Lives of Chloe King, Scream Queens and The Gifted.

Galadriel Stineman is an American actress and model. She is best known for her roles as Gwen Tennyson in Ben 10: Alien Swarm and as Cassidy Finch in The Middle. In 2015, Stineman was cast as one of eight playable characters, Ashley Brown, in an interactive drama horror game, Until Dawn, developed by Supermassive Games.

<i>Uprooted</i> (novel) Novel by Naomi Novik

Uprooted is a 2015 high fantasy novel by Naomi Novik, based on Polish folklore. The story tells of a village girl, Agnieszka, who is selected by the local wizard for her unseen magical powers. Together they battle the Wood, a nearby forest, as it seeks to take over the land. The book has been warmly welcomed by critics and other fantasy authors, who have praised the portrayals of both Agnieszka and the Wood. It won the 2015 Nebula Award for Best Novel, the 2016 Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel, and the 2016 Mythopoeic Award in the category Adult Literature. It was a finalist for the 2016 Hugo Award for Best Novel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chloe Fineman</span> American actress and comedian (born 1988)

Chloe Rose Fineman is an American actress and comedian. She became a featured player on the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live starting in its 45th season in September 2019, and was promoted to repertory status in 2021 at the beginning of season 47.

<i>A Deadly Education</i> 2020 fantasy novel by Naomi Novik

A Deadly Education is a 2020 fantasy novel written by American author Naomi Novik following Galadriel "El" Higgins, a half-Welsh, half-Indian sorceress, who must survive to graduation while controlling her destructive abilities at a school of magic very loosely inspired by the legend of the Scholomance. It was published by Del Rey on September 29, 2020 and is the first book of The Scholomance Trilogy. Its sequel, The Last Graduate, was released on September 28, 2021, and the final volume in the trilogy, The Golden Enclaves, was published in September 2022.

The Golden Enclaves is a 2022 fantasy novel written by American author Naomi Novik following Galadriel "El" Higgins, a half-Welsh, half-Indian sorceress, who must survive to graduation while controlling her destructive abilities at the fabled school of black magic, named for the legendary Scholomance. It was published by Del Rey on September 27, 2022 and is the third book of The Scholomance Trilogy.

The Scholomance Trilogy is a series of three YA fantasy novels written by American author Naomi Novik. The books follow the adventures of Galadriel ("El") Higgins during and after attending a dangerous and magical boarding school for wizards named for the legendary Scholomance. In 2020, Universal Studios bought film rights to the three books of the series, putting the first book into development with Mandeville Films.

References

  1. ↑ "2022 Hugo Awards". The Hugo Awards. 2022-04-07. Retrieved 2022-09-05.
  2. ↑ "The Last Graduate fills the Harry Potter void, and so much more". Polygon.
  3. ↑ Tabler, Elizabeth (6 October 2021). "REVIEW: The Last Graduate by Naomi Novik". Grimdark Magazine. Retrieved 13 November 2021.
  4. ↑ "The Last Graduate takes Naomi Novik's Scholomance series to the next level". Culturess. 28 September 2021. Retrieved 13 November 2021.
  5. ↑ "THE LAST GRADUATE | Kirkus Reviews" . Retrieved 13 November 2021.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.