Jade Legacy

That was amazing. I will simply list things that were awesome
- The passage of time felt smooth and natural. I never felt confused.
- Acknowledging that interacting with your ex can be awkward without turning them into the enemy
-Holy crap Anden!
-The subtle plot threads that pay off chefs kiss
-I never felt like the pages were wasted. Lee fully justifies the book length.
-Family priorities shifting over time.
-Was that a Hamilton reference?
- I love Jaya, so much.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and the ending was truly terrific, making it one of the best series I've ever read. And to think that I came close to giving up on the series at the beginning of the second book... It's hard to fathom that I almost missed out on all of this. The emotional impact of the book hit me hard, and it felt like I experienced every conceivable emotion multiple times throughout the story. Interestingly, across the seven hundred pages of Jade Legacy and its numerous time jumps, I never once felt bored.

I'm way too overwhelmed by the scope of the series at the moment to write a coherent review. I must emphasize that the ending is incredibly satisfying and, dare I say, poetic. It ranks among the most gratifying conclusions I've ever read. I plan to revisit this series soon, appreciating it right from the start this time.

I can't say enough about this series. Fonda Lee has created some great characters and she always manages to keep the story a step ahead of the reader. As someone who can often guess where a story is headed I never felt like I knew what was coming with these books, and I enjoyed every minute of them.

Engrossing, unpredictable, and heart-wrenching through to the final page – Jade Legacy is a worthy capstone to an incredible trilogy. I can confidently say that Fonda Lee's Green Bone Saga is a modern fantasy classic and I feel lucky to have come across such a special series.

Lee's writing makes everything compelling, even down to the most esoteric matters of the clans' business empire. And although we're very familiar with the main players in the warring clans, Jade Legacy further plumbs the depths of these flawed, but captivating characters with an expanded story timeframe and frequent time jumps. This was a smart choice and made for a supremely satisfying concluding book.

There are new avenues Lee could explore in future stories set in this world, but for now I am happy to sit back and marvel at the brilliant trilogy she has crafted.

See this review and others at The Speculative Shelf.

My thanks to NetGalley and Orbit for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

This series has an amazing concept. A crime family and their survival in a world where certain people get superpower if they have jade on them. Cool, hm? And it was!
Though some of the choices made my the author weren't my favourite. First, about the good things.

The lore of this is insane. All the things that happen will somehow make perfect sense. There is a lot and none of it is just added for extra padding, it all connects incredibly neatly. If anything, this could have been expanded into infinity. Which is exactly why I'm surprised it's just a trilogy. Granted, especially this last one is very very long, but at the same time, urban fantasy seems to have mostly long series with many books in them.
Like the world, the characters are great. This is a story where having multiple points of view is not only well done (they all sound separate, they all have their proper motivations and world views), but it's necessary. The politics of the world are so complicated, you can't cover all of it with just one person. Especially with such strong characterisation. The people never felt like they were acting out of character, which, to me, was especially great with Hilo. To me he started out as a charismatic popular dude who was just incredibly cool. Yet he is petty, moody, not always the nicest person and often short-sighted, but so easy to like. One of the best things about this was the way he was written, honestly.
The city of Janloon is a character in itself as well, it's development through the decades of the story.

Which also brings up my biggest issue with it. So many time skips. For the politics, it was necessarily to see through many decades; it's perfectly logical that these things happen slowly. No Peak makes a decision to do something thing, like invest in business in a different country. The results aren't seen in months; they will obviously need years to play out.
But also, the actual humans doing these things don't live in a world where time doesn't pass for them. Many of the important character developments happen off screen and they are glossed over. Maybe we see a tiny sliver of them, but then we get told real quick what happened in a marriage in 5 years. Hell, he get a brief introduction of one character with one of the old timers, then skip, we get told this person is in a years long relationship with another. Excuse me?? Am I supposed to CARE?
This is why a lot of stressful scenes are only meaningful when the few main characters are involved; I got told this new character is important, but the things that make them so were skipped.
Which is sad, because some of the big scenes we saw were absolutely great, like when Niko returns to go to Ru's funeral.

All in all, I did like the series. I enjoyed the story, I enjoyed most of the characters. The action was really nicely done, just like the politics. But I wish it would have been given more space. Selling a long series is probably hard, not sure if a publisher is willing to buy it, so it was possibly a sacrifice made for marketability, to be possibly for this story to be told at all. I don't know. But there was enough substance here to let it properly breathe and run its course.
It's a great series and an imperfect one and that's fine. I just wonder if, after this, the author will write something that is given enough room for her grand concepts and complicated storytelling.

An excellent finale to an incredible trilogy. Lee's worldbuilding, characters and plot are all top tier. Honestly the only complaint I have about this book is that it's the last Green Bone Saga book.

As you may know the events in this book cover a very long period of time, which I do feel I would also have enjoyed if they were spread out across multiple books instead of all in this one with so many time jumps.

But still, there's nothing wrong with this book at all. It's like finishing a lovely meal and then finding out that the restaurant is closing for good and mourning the future meals you wanted to eat.

Read the Green Bone Saga, I'm sure you won't regret it.

Jade Legacy is a great end to the Green Bone Saga.

One of my favorite aspects of the series and most of all this book, is how it maps on to world history, how Lee has crafted a story about national independence, shattering the yoke of neo-colonialism, and outmaneuvering one's enemies through every avenue (street warfare, government/politics, business ventures, public sentiments).

Any similarities to modern history are merely intriguing backdrops to the real story, they sit behind the saga of the Kaul family's long struggle to wrestle control of the destiny of Kekon away from a fated rival clan. As each individual fights their own unique battles, some dancing along a tight-rope of independence and duty, others fully committed to the clan above all, times passes and the world changes demanding much from all who would keep control of their nations precious resources, or protect their clans interests abroad in hostile countries.

This book balances its addicting characters, the overarching plot, its historical analogues, and political themes so well. And the long span of time covered allows you to see characters pass through different stages of life, it is both superbly fulfilling and melancholy. Jade Legacy was a joy, and at times a very sad read, it is a credit to Fonda Lee's mastery of her craft that those moments struck so hard, I will miss reading the Green Bone Saga, the Kauls, and the winding rivalry between the No-Peak Clan and the Mountain Clan.

5 Stars.

Updated thoughts (14 Oct. 2023): I don't know why I felt the need to update my thoughts on this on the day of my birthday but here we go.

I think something's wrong with me. Everyone's out here gagging for Hilo till the very end, but I only feel bitterness and hatred for him.

I can't stand him. I've been looking through low-rating reviews for this book but barely any of them mention Hilo as a reason for their dislike for this book. I wish I understood why everyone liked Hilo, but I genuinely can't—though I wish I did.

From my memory, Hilo

can't

me

Initial thoughts (19 May 2022):

Things didn't pan out the way I think they should have, but I can't deny that this story is continuously lingering in my mind.

TITLE Jade Legacy
AUTHOR Fonda Lee
Genre Fantasy
—
Emotional Impact 8.25
Characters 9.5
Plot 8.75
Worldbuilding / Magic System 8.75
Dialogue / Prose 8.25
Official Rating 8.70
Goodreads Rating 5
Date Started 1/26/2024
Date Finished 2/2/2024
NOTES Pretty great ending to a great series, the scope is expanded even more than last book, and this time the timeframe of the series stretches across an entire lifespan which I loved, I thought it was so unique. The story is less about a single Kaul and more focused on the family and it's legacy

“The clan is my blood, and the Pillar is its master.”

I have finished Green Bone Saga. I am very sad it is over, but what a journey. The trilogy is beyond impressive. Each book is very different and I don't think anybody could predict where book 3 would be going from book 1. There is not one thing that happens in Jade Legacy that I would have guessed at the end of Jade War. The sheer scope, the imagination, the bold choices of where to focus and how to use the alloted page count, the themes it is dealing with, the expert characterizations. There is not one storyline that does not pay off, no matter how tangential. I think the series is better than the sum of its parts, but I think each part is fantastic itself. I am in love with all of it.

I'm unsure yet if JL hit the high heights of my all time favorites, but I was constantly impressed and along for the ride. The book made me cry 3 times, which is a lot. Everyone compares this series to the Godfather but I thought even starting with book 1 it was more like The Wire, and the thing Jade Legacy reminds me most of is the scope and ambition and themes of The Wire, even if they have different goals by the end.

The series is presented as action heavy with the kung-fu tag, but this can easily give people the wrong idea as it is much more a family and political drama. The restraint for when to employ fights is incredible; Fonda Lee makes every action sequence important.

There are books that come around that just shake things up, that take the genre in a different direction. I imagine the people who were reading Tolkien, Jordan or Hobb, who were reading La Guin, Martin or Rothfuss right when they first came out, knew that something special was in the making. Those are some hefty names, and we are never getting another Tolkien or Martin, but I really believe that in 5 years, 10 years, 20 years, people will be releasing incredible fantasy books and citing Fonda Lee as their biggest influence. I have read a classic in the making.

This is truly one of the most impressive books in one of the most impressive trilogies I've read.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is going to be a long review and this is the final book of a trilogy, so I won't get into the plot.

What Fonda Lee has done with this conclusion to this series is remarkable. For a little context, I wasn't blown away by the first 2. I definitely saw their merits and they were enjoyable, but I found them to be a little overhyped. I wasn't even sure I was going to pick this up. But I started to see reviews come in about how incredible it was and decided to give it a shot. I'm glad I did, because this is definitely one of the best endings to a series I have EVER read.

First off, the undertaking Lee took on by having this book span 20 years is admirable. The way she is able to continuously develop the relationships between the characters, the clans, and the countries while having pretty sizable time jumps is such an incredible feat that I have a hard time wrapping my head around. It seems daunting to go into it, but she makes the information, while complex, digestible in a way that made me feel like I always knew what was going on.

The best part of the book: the characters. I enjoyed the characters in previous books, but in this book, with the amount of time that passed, I really felt such an attachment to these characters that we've seen grow up from young adulthood. Hilo is one of the most well crafted characters I've ever read in a book series. Shae and Hilo's relationship is one of my favorite in the books. They go through so many ups and downs. One of the strongest themes throughout these books is the importance of family. While these people are surrounded by violence and impossible decisions, they always make sure their family is safe. Anden's entire arc is also masterfully created. His relationship to Hilo also felt so real and intense. Ayt Mada is one of the best antagonists in fiction. She is ruthless, but as the reader, you know that if you were reading from her POV, you would think this way about Hilo. No one in this book is “good”. But you still find yourself rooting for the Kaul family.

The plot was slow moving at first, which is fitting considering they were in a “slow war”. However, Lee doesn't let you get bored. There were still incredibly written fight scenes throughout, as well as enough tension between characters to keep you reading. By the end, I was crying so hard I couldn't breathe. I still am feeling emotionally drained and can't stop getting sad every time I think of it. Any author that can get me to feel so strongly for their characters is A+ in my book.

I would recommend this book to literally anyone. This is going on my list of top trilogies of all time.

“The clan is my blood and the Pillar is it's master.”

TW: ableism, alcohol, alcoholism, amputation, animal abuse, assault, attempted murder, blood, bones, branding, cheating, drugs, emotional abuse, fire, gore, gun violence, hospitalization, kidnapping, murder, physical abuse, profanity, prostitution, PTSD, sexism, sexually explicit scenes, sexual assault, suicide, terrorism, torture, violence, war