Blurb:

In this World Fantasy Award-winning novel of magic and kungfu, four siblings battle rival clans for honor and power in an Asia-inspired fantasy metropolis. 

*Named one of TIME's Top 100 Fantasy Books Of All Time
​* World Fantasy Award for Best Novel, winner

Jade is the lifeblood of the island of Kekon. It has been mined, traded, stolen, and killed for -- and for centuries, honorable Green Bone warriors like the Kaul family have used it to enhance their magical abilities and defend the island from foreign invasion.

Now, the war is over and a new generation of Kauls vies for control of Kekon's bustling capital city. They care about nothing but protecting their own, cornering the jade market, and defending the districts under their protection. Ancient tradition has little place in this rapidly changing nation.

When a powerful new drug emerges that lets anyone -- even foreigners -- wield jade, the simmering tension between the Kauls and the rival Ayt family erupts into open violence. The outcome of this clan war will determine the fate of all Green Bones -- and of Kekon itself.

Review:

I recently had the pleasure of reading the Green Bone Saga by Fonda Lee, and I thought it would be best to compile my thoughts for the series as trilogy, as opposed to writing a separate review for each, therefore, this spoiler free review will be about the entire saga. I would like to start by saying that I first attempted to read Jade City a few years back, and actually dnf it at about the 100 page mark. At the time, I wasn’t a fan of the writing style, and I just wasn’t drawn into the story. HOWEVER, due to numerous people I know and trust raving about the series, as well as a strange curiosity to experience this world with a fresh set of eyes, I decided to give Fonda Lee another go. And BOY am I glad I did.

This story takes place on an island called Kekon, and focuses around the No Peak clan, and in particular the Kaul family, who are basically one of the two major crime lord clans of the island, the other being the Mountain Clan. The world building in this series, I must say, is second to none. It has perhaps some of the most comprehensive world building inside of a novel that I have ever seen. The culture of Green Bones (who are people on the island who wear ‘Jade rocks’ and are granted certain powers from the stones) was really interesting. Fonda Lee thought of everything and spared no details. We see specific family dynamics at play and how each person has a role within the clan, may it be the Pillar (leader), the Horn (military leader), a Fist (basically a captain), a Finger (foot soldier) or a Lantern Man (supporters of the clan, eg. Local businessmen). This does not even begin to describe the world at large. The sheer amount of research that must have gone into creating the world is astounding. Outside of Kekon, there are several other countries that were exceptionally well fleshed out, particularly on the political and economical side of things. Throughout the story, we get to see the inner workings of businesses, the economic expansion of the Kaul family and the long term affects of these decisions and the dynamics of an ever changing world that quite frankly resembles our own in a frightening way.

Intricate world building not your thing? Prefer some awesome characters that you can really get behind? Not to worry, this series has that too. In fact, I’m in awe of the character work at play here. I spent a while trying to figure out what exactly made these characters so memorable to me, and I came to the conclusion that it’s because they just feel ‘real’. Every action, every emotion, they all behave in just a totally believable and relatable way. Every character had their own personality, and not once did I feel as though all of the voices blended together, as some tend to do in books. My favourite throughout the series was Hilo, simply because it’s hard to not love a hot headed main character who is half cold-blooded and half the ‘I just want to give him a hug’ type character. 

I would have to say, out of the three books, Jade City (book 1) was my favourite of the lot, simply because nothing beats Hilo going on a rampage around Janloon utilizing the full might of his jade powers. I would say that book 2 (Jade War) was my least favourite of the three. There was far less action, and more emphasis on the world building side of things, which wasn’t bad, but there was too many slow points for me to consider rating it higher than book 1 or 3. In fact, I would even care to say that the title ‘Jade War’ would be better suited for book 1, as there was more of a war for Jade in book 1, whereas book 2 tends to lean on the side of a cold war rather than anything active. Jade Legacy (minor spoiler ahead) is where we start to see major time skips, and where we almost (not quite) start to see a new generation of Jade warriors in the making. I was at first in two minds about this, because it meant that the story felt a little fractured. Instead of one, linear story, we experienced multiple sort of short (yet emotionally impactful) stories surrounding the lives of those in the Kaul family. The trilogy didn’t actually end quite how I was expecting. I won’t spoil anything, but I will say that despite it being different than what I would have thought, I was certainly left satisfied, and I could honestly read about this family for as many books as Fonda is willing to put out, that’s how compelling I find them. 

Anyway, if Asian culture and martial arts is your thing, and you’re looking for a story with rich world building and character that will make you weep, then I recommend giving this series a shot.