Jade War

Well Damn. The reviews weren't kidding about this one being even better. It's not perfect, there are one or 2 things I would have moved around to clarify who a side character was/ how much time has passed. But those were honestly * super minor* complaints. The pacing improved from the second book as did the action scenes. All around a very good middle book. I liked how distinct the different settings were. And how there wasn't one person who was magically smarter than everyone. There were smart people in different factions and none of them won every single time. I'm not sure if there will be a time jump or more books in the universe (aside from legacy.) but I would pay money for a short story entirely about Niko learning his real back story. I refuse to believe that ends well.

could not stop listening to this book. I was absolutely enthralled from start to finish.

I had hoped that Andy would be a prominent role and was pleasantly surprised when we got a ton of time with him in Port Massey.

I already have Jade Legacy ready to go and will be starting it soon.

This book does a great job of taking what worked from the last book and just applying it to a larger scale, hence the name.

I can not WAIT to see the pay off for all of these domino's that I'm watching Fonda Lee set up in these last two books.

Also Bero has been my favorite since the first scene of book one!

Oh boy do i have a lot of thoughts. I really tried to like this book as i was reading. but i didn't. i couldn't.

The magic system while cool is still wildly inconsistent. The characters have some good moments but never feel like they are consistently the same person. The Pacing is crazy. months/seasons go by, then we experience a few days. then months.

CAWPILE SCORE
C-4
A-4
W-7
P-5
I-5
L-4
E-2
TOTAL-4.43/10



Lets talk spoilers
CharactersAnden: Anden's character moving out to Espenia felt good, his "rushed" relationship with Cory felt out of nowhere that he was gay. His introduction into the Kekonese on Espenia was well written. i just couldn't connect as much with him and his plot. Taking up the Jade again at the end to Save Wen was great, but i almost feel like Fonda Lee should have let them all die. show some consequences. Anden choosing to wear jade but just be a healer definitly won't have any negative effects in the future.Beru: ******* is still alive somehow. Gets some jade, practices relentlessly with the jade. is betrayed by Mudt who helped him steal the jade. is left to die. both from overinjection of SN1 and Jade withdrawl plus sleeping drug, what do you know. all 3 combined cancel each other out enough for him to be saved. his Plot armor is as strong as ever. Stealing from Lan's grave was an interesting way to get him jade. However at the end, he is joining a resistance, and is firmly Anti-Jade. ..... that part makes sense, but he was working with no peak at the end, and they helped him get a job and stuff. so.....Wen: still my favorite character. i wish she could have done more. got pregnant and had a kid. continues her spy work.... kinda. Literally is just a jade carrier to certain places. super exciting... more on that in magical inconsistenciesHilo: probably the most flip/floppy character. sometimes he makes good decisions and sometimes he makes bad decisions. his decision to break all the rules if Shae loses a clean duel??? go against everything for that.... No. Killed his Sister in Law and steals his nephew .... crazy. horrible .... gets kicked out a country completly.... but some scenes have some great leadership abilities from himShae: starts out fine. ends ... Fine.. Wasn't a huge fan of the love "triangle" between woon and Maro, but i liked her relationship with him, until she accidently got pregnant and decided to abort it without talking about it with him, or anybody. Wen=Best; wish she had shown more spying stuff. her challenge to Ayt was nice. and then killed Mercy killed Maro when he accidently helped an assassination attempt.Notable Scenes: Burying Mudt--- Buried alive with 3 of Hilo's Jade with a tube for air. very cool, but why not use some jade that didn't require you to pull out of your skin.Shae's fight with Ayt: cool, thought she would win, she doesn'tAyt killing the traitor: nice scenes as wellMagic System inconsistencies : Perception while it seems is the coolest is the most inconsistent. When Kehn is searching the import ships for Jade they have to manually search for everything. but apparently Wen has to hold the jade always because they can't notice it if she touches it. but why does she need to touch it, if you can't perceive it. Also when raids of Jade dens are going on, nobody can perceive that people are coming in, in enough time. Seemed like Strength was used in this book to increase speed instead of Strength, and Channelling can be deflected by Steel?? i thought steel was just hardening your body? and that chanelling bypassed that....I'm still rooting for the Mountain clan because i feel like they are actually the good guys, whereas the No Peak clan has always been reactionary and doesn't feel like a functional Mafia Family

With the characters, world, and magic system already established, this book hit the ground running and increased the complexity and reach of the ongoing clan war.

I rarely like a second book in a series better than the first, but Jade War is just excellent. It ups the ante and improves upon many of the elements that made Jade City so good. I can't wait to crack open the ARC of Jade Legacy currently sitting on my shelf.

See this review and others at The Speculative Shelf.

I needed a bit of time to think about my reason why I liked this book less than I did the first one.

The setting is still full of colour and atmosphere. The action is still fun and well-choreographed. There is still politics.

But the relationships are not fleshed out enough. Sure, the characters are great (mostly, I am looking at you, Anden), their voices are different and unique enough so their individual chapters feel different. Yet somehow we are being told about their connections more than we see them. This story, the history of Kekon is FULL of epic friendships, there are betrayals, there are romances and we see nothing.
Don't get me wrong, we see impactful moments between people, that are either pivotal or the climax of a long-standing thing. But they never have a proper buildup. We are told about Hilo and Wen's love. We are told about Papi having a crush on Shae. We are told about Shae and Wen being allies. And yet, it is always just certain moments. Nothing subtle in scenes where that isn't the main focus. Anden is especially guilty of that; can the boy actually have meaningful scene with someone who isn't either family or his crush?

What we don't get with the relationships, we do with the politics and world-building. I remember being like 11 and first reading Harry Potter 4 and realising the magical world is much bigger than I thought. This had the same moment, to a lesser extent.
We see people dealing with jade and the culture around jade in different countries, both Kekonese and foreign. It's well-defined from the start what we have on Kekon, how gangs work, the moral attitudes around owning jade, using it, how jade warriors handle conflicts both with each other and the jadeless. But what happens with this powerful tool in cultures where it doesn't have a cultural and religious significance?
I think Fonda Lee does this well; she handles times of change excellently.

The pacing can be just a bit jarring, there are timeskips that feel a bit too much like “yeah, I didn't feel like dealing with this”.
It brings up an interesting thought. Somehow I think I am more comfortable with longer urban fantasy series. It should on paper be easier to do build lore when it's based on more familiar things, but this is set in a fictional place. Plus, it has so many complex elements. So I am kind of assuming it would have profited from more books.
Not like I am trying to tell anyone to give themselves the responsibility of writing a gazillion books over the decades, but the pacing would have profited from a different format, maybe more, shorter books.

I still appreciate a lot of this, but this book was weaker, compared to the (surprise) excellence of the first one.

I absolutely loved this book. Fonda Lee is able to pull twists you'd never expect, drop foreshadowing that had be wary to turn the page and write chapters that make it very hard to put this book down and go to bed.

The character work here is excellent, pacing is almost perfect and I am in love with this world. I especially loved the new characters we meet in Espenia. Can't wait for the next book.

An excellent sequel! The world Fonda Lee built in JC continues to expand, the characters are put through...a lot, and the Green Bone action stays at a high level even as the story delves into new geopolitical depths. This book was a thrill to read, a spellbinding mixture of drama, political intrigue, and action.

TITLE Jade War
AUTHOR Fonda Lee
Genre Fantasy
—
Emotional Impact 8.5
Characters 9.25
Plot 8
Worldbuilding / Magic System 8
Dialogue / Prose 8.25
Official Rating 8.41
Goodreads Rating 4
Date Started 1/22/2024
Date Finished 1/25/2024
NOTES Improvement on the first, love that Fonda Lee expands the scope and we get to explore outside of Janloon but somehow the story cuts even deeper for our main characters

4.75 stars.

Brillant sequel. Does not suffer at all the “middle book syndrome” that some trilogies do.

Continues to build upon the fantastic world. Great character development, and a thrill ride from beginning to end–yet it still pauses enough to breath and let the characters shine through.

Looking forward to the final book!

Green Bone Saga is heating up!!

I loved Jade War. It is a much more ambitious book than Jade City, but the things it pulls off are very impressive. The tension is kept at a high simmer throughout the entire thing and the key events had me very invested! One of my favorite aspects of Jade War is how it deals with cultural assimilation and cultural identity and opens the world up more than we'd gotten previously. It also delves so much more into all our of main characters and they all feel very well developed and like real people. The sibling relationships continue to be a huge standout of this series.

I also appreciate that Fonda Lee uses action sequences with purpose. Nothing wrong with lots of action in a book, but Lee chooses her moment, and you always feel the stakes of every single action sequence, and understand exactly why they're happening. Fonda Lee is becoming one of my favorite authors already!

I gave Jade War a slightly lower rating than Jade City, although I think with time I may like it a bit more. There was a plot thread I thought was finished up too easily and that detracted a tad from my overall feelings.

9.5/10

I cannot wait to get to Jade Legacy this month.

Wow! This book was such a treat to read.

This follow up to “Jade City” sure did deliver. These books are so complex and have such rich world building. The city of Janloon feels so familiar, while still being this magical place where jade warriors live. Espenia, the Uwiwa Islands, and a few other countries are explored in more depth in this installment. The broadening of the world past Kekon was daunting at first, and I found myself confused a few times, but Lee does a great job of expanding the world without info dumping.

Following the Kaul family gets even more intense than the last book. I loved Anden's side story and always got excited for this chapters. Because of Wen's determination and ferocity, reading her chapters was also always a delight. All of the complex relationships between characters created so much interest and desire to see these characters' stories through.

The only downside I have with this book is all of the dense political plots. I completely understand that this is a political fantasy, and know that this is just a personal preference, so not an attack on Lee or this novel. There were points throughout that would be whole chapters of characters discussing politics or planning out their next political maneuvers. While important to the story, I was left confused and ready for some more action during these chapters.

Overall, this series is the future of the fantasy genre. Fonda Lee has created such a unique, savage world with morally grey characters and so much political intrigue that is completely new. I would recommend this to any fantasy reader.

son. of. a. bitch.

these words are obviously not enough to describe the rollercoaster of emotions I had to go through whilst reading but dear god. this was so so good, it hurt so good as well. my feelings have been a bit off about shae throughout but by the end i realized that they all have lost something, have sacrificed way more than they should have. its true shae's assumption of hilo being too haughty or always resorting to violence will piss me off but i also understand her as a human who wanted to be her own person. it's true that if she had joined the clan as soon as she came back, Lan could have been alive or better yet, things wouldnt have been so bad. i hate that hilo is so misunderstood, that no one appreciates his love and devotion to the family, to always protect them at what ever cost. but i love them all the same. though hilo is my favorite.

PS. fucking bero wont drop dead would he. like i dont want even ayt madashi to die as much as i want bero to do so

cant wait to see what happens next. but also terrified.

TITLE Jade War
AUTHOR Fonda Lee
Genre Fantasy
—
Emotional Impact 8.5
Characters 9.25
Plot 8
Worldbuilding / Magic System 8
Dialogue / Prose 8.25
Official Rating 8.41
Goodreads Rating 4
Date Started 1/22/2024
Date Finished 1/25/2024
NOTES Improvement on the first, love that Fonda Lee expands the scope and we get to explore outside of Janloon but somehow the story cuts even deeper for our main characters