Set in the fictional city of Kekon, the No Peak and the Mountain clans have fought each other to a standstill. The other world powers eye their jade, mystical stones that grant the holder martial abilities, and covet it for themselves. In the midst of internal and external pressures, Pillar Hilo Kaul and Weather Man Shae Kaul fight to keep their family and clan safe and strong in these troubled times.

Let's start with the great and good:

Fonda Lee has pushed herself to new heights with this book. Writing a satisfying conclusion to a beloved epic can't be easy but to incorporate such a vast period of time (roughly 20 years) with so many moving pieces and characters... is a brave creative choice that mostly works well. As always, the characters feel realistic with relatable flaws and imperfections and Fonda Lee has a way of making you fall in love with them, even at their lowest moments. I also loved all the political intrigue and the Kauls having to adapt to this changing landscape around them by sometimes compromising their ideals to survive. The whole story feels like a prolonged 4-D chess match between Hilo and Shae on the one side and Ayt Madashi on the other. Each trying to checkmate the other side but, failing that, they constantly maneuver to get themselves in position to make a coup de grace. Brilliant!

Another point for this book is that Fonda Lee doesn't let herself get too attached to our characters. Without giving too much away, she's not afraid to put them through hell and back again in a way that feels reminiscent of GRRM (in the best way possible). There was a constant sense of danger and I couldn't tell whether Hilo or Shae would make it out alive sometimes.

And now we get to the not so great which can be summarized as two issues:

1) Some of the decisions taken by the characters are kind of inconsistent with the way they've been written. There's one major decision that I can't and still don't understand but there were also some smaller ones where people ignored "green turning black" until something catastrophic happens. These kind of jolted me from the immersion when I felt like the characters sometimes didn't make sense.

2) The ending was somewhat anti-climactic for me. Although it's a beautifully bittersweet ending, I felt like we were denied a show-stopping climax that the series seemed to be building up to. One of the big draws of this book is the epic martial arts dueling and this book was kind of a let down from that perspective.

All in all, Jade Legacy is a worthy conclusion to the Green Bone Saga. Even my minor gripes with it don't take away from the brilliance and bravery of the author and if you haven't started this series then what are you waiting for!?

When I heard online reviews pouring in about this finale I did not think I would ever be prepared enough to dive in and I was 100% correct. Jade Legacy is a book that lives up to its name, it truly solidifies the legacy of Fonda Lee's series as one of the most iconic and powerful fantasy series out there. There is non-stop action that leaves you absolutely frozen in shock and after finishing this book I just want to go back and re-live it all over again. This is a fantastic conclusion and I could not be more in awe of the characters and everything they do.

first thank you so much to Orbit Books for an early copy! I want to personally kiss every single one of you.

I wish I could put into words what this series means to me. I read jade legacy over 3 weeks ago, and immediately re-read the first two, because I cannot accept a reality that this is the end of the green-bone saga.

That's. not me saying Ms. Fonda didn't deliver, because she delivered and THEN SOME! This book follows the Kaul Family over the course of twenty years, TWENTY YEARS AND I WASN'T BORED ONCE!. There are multi-generational POV's, plot twists, hostile takeovers, and the perfect amount of romance considering the climate they are in.

Also, I cried at all the parallels to the first book, how she tied up the endings to ALL the characters, this book series is perfection, and I cannot wait for whatever Jane Fonda releases next.

I'm honestly at a lost for words right now. The smart thing to do would be to give myself a few days to emotionally recover from Jade Legacy.. but well, I'm not that smart so please prepare yourself for some emotional babbling.

I've been recommended Jade City so many times and I'm really mad at myself for not picking it up sooner. This trilogy just got better and better. Jade Legacy was perfection and emotional turmoil. I cried quite a few times... the last being the hardest. I found myself wondering how on earth this story was going to end in a satisfying manner and Fonda Lee did not disappoint.

I'm truly sad that its over.. I miss Janloon and No Peak already. Thank you Netgalley and Orbit books for the e-Arc and the push to finally read this wonderful trilogy.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comments/r61bu9/review_for_jade_legacy_by_fonda_lee/?
https://timothyrueth.com/2021/11/30/review-for-jade-legacy-by-fonda-lee/

Jade Legacy by Fonda Lee is a novel par excellence, and draws the Green Bone Saga to an heartrending and heartwarming conclusion. As with the rest of the series, the Kaul family sits at the core, though Lee masterfully crosses continents and decades to tell the story. Like the best of books, I snuck in every opportunity to read a page or two, and several developments kept the book glued to my hands—I had to keep reading.

Jade Legacy picks up shortly after the end of Jade War, but if you’re a first-time reader (go back and read the first two!), Lee does a good job at subtly providing waypoints to the world and characters. The narrative continues No Peak and the Kauls’ slow war against the Mountain and Ayt Mada, and the Kaul family’s internal struggles with parenthood, sibling rivalries, and finding one’s place. In this book, the Kauls continue to jet around the world, and Lee weaves the ongoing geopolitical threads back into the family’s lives in masterful ways, setting up threads hundreds of pages before you realize how she knots it all together. And that, to me, is one of the most masterful parts of Jade Legacy—it feels like a family drama unfolding. Her use of different perspectives to build different threads for the reader without “telling” a single character too much is impressive.

And the characters! They make you root for them, question your impulse to root for them when they do some frankly vile things, and return to rooting for them to undermine the Mountain. Over the course of the book, each of the characters grow and mature in a way that feels so natural, even as the years pass. Helo has always been my personal favorite, and his aging and maturing in Legacy was the highlight of the book for me. And that’s all I can say without getting into spoilers!

Perhaps one of the most interesting through lines in the book is the mirror Lee holds up to the Green Bones through the Espenians, Stone eyes, and everyone’s favorite lowlife, Bero. Lee’s subversion and questioning of the Green Bone culture of honor and way of life contemplates on what a world without Green Bones might look like, developing ideas from Jade War in a satisfying and introspective way.

And, Green Bone or no, family remains at the core of Jade Legacy. Her series, and Jade Legacy in particular is a wonderful meditation on all aspects of family, and I find the close to be ultimately hopeful. The Kaul family fights, yes, they can be insensitive and brutal, yes, but they carry each other when they are weak, they family learn from their collective mistakes, and they cross the world for each other. And for all the tragedy and loss that comes from leading No Peak, their ability to adapt and soldier on paints a hopeful picture for the reader to frame with their own family… though hopefully their family’s suffer significantly less loss and violence.

Jade Legacy is incredible. I laughed out loud, I gasped, I cried. Fonda Lee ties up the Green Bone Saga perfectly. It is certainly my favorite book of the year, and catapulted itself into my all-time favorites. Read this book!

Jade Legacy is the gripping and sometimes heart stopping conclusion to The Green Bone Saga . It is a tale told over 20 years and shows how once enemies can become allies and one time alliances might turn into enemies. The characters in this Asian gangster mafia-esk story have become a living breathing creations to me and it was so hard to come to the end of this book and know I would be leaving them all behind. You know it was an end to a great series when you get to it and you are ready to pick up the first book and start all over again.

The No-Peak clan and its rivalry with the Mountain has been at the forefront of most of the series. But the world is bigger now and their adversaries are greater. At some point, they will need to figure out how to put some of the old grievances behind and at a minimum cooperate with one another against some common enemies.

The start of Jade Legacy was a little hard. There were some really big repercussions after Jade War. Hilo is not in a good place with his wife, Wen or sister, Shae. Their deception. while necessary, has had so many consequences to the family and it takes a while to hash those out. Wen is as strong as ever, dealing with her injuries and figuring how to fix a marriage on the brink of collapse. I did love that Wen was finally able to show Hilo what an asset she is to him and how she is able to see the needs of people in the clan better than he can.

Shae has never been good at getting what she wants. She has made some poor choices in friends, men and hiding things from her brother. But all that has ended, there are no more lies in the clan and she will tell Hilo everything good or bad so they can deal with it as a family. I love that she is again a strong and imperfect person just trying her best and sometimes the decisions she makes seem right while other times they come back to bite the family in the ass.

I would say the Jade Legacy is really a book presented in four parts and each one had its own climax. They are all intense and every one of them made me hold my breath. In a book spanning twenty years, we get to see even what the next generation had to bring to the clan and it solidified that stone-eyes can be more useful than anyone might have thought. Everyone had moments to shine and bring something to this epic tale. I will say I had a rollercoaster of emotions throughout this story and some of the moments had such a strong emotional impact on me I had to set the book down for a little while. This is a testament to how real all of the members of the No-Peak clan are to me.

Jade again was at the center of politics and power in Jade Legacy; it is the driving force for so many of the decisions made. I like the significance of Jade in the story since it is such a large part of Asian culture, so it seemed fitting it would lend to some kind of mystic power that so many were trying to attain, control or destroy.

If you like character driven stories, enjoyed The Sopranos or Goodfellows I could see this being a must have for you. I enjoyed so much about this series, but I'm also glad I read them all back to back because of how many players are in the story and I feel like I would have forgotten so many of the little details had I read them as released and waited between books. It added so much more to my enjoyment of the entire series.

I wish I had more stars to give.

I barely made a dent in the first book, Jade City, when I knew that it would be one of my favorites. I don't know how Fonda Lee does it, but she's somehow managed to make each already perfect book even more perfect and mind-blowing than the last.

This was the perfect conclusion to a perfect series, and I couldn't have asked for more.

thank you to netgalley for providing me with an arc! i read this all in one sitting which probably wasn't the best idea but this was a stunning conclusion. the one issue i had was with the pacing (and, by extension, the filler chapters), which took me a while to get used to, but otherwise this book was a masterpiece. it was amazing to see all of the characters from the first two books grow but still hold true to the values they originally had, while also getting to know a whole cast of new, younger characters. every time i thought things were going alright, there was a new twist, and all of them culminated into a truly fantastic finale.
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after thinking about this book for a little longer, i'm realizing i was more disappointed by it than i originally realized. a lot of (female) characters' arcs fell flat, namely shae's, wen's, and jaya's. shae was stripped of her jade despite fighting so hard to prove herself worthy of carrying it; while she was promoted to pillarman, wen didn't experience much logical development and i disliked how she was such a terrible mother to her children (especially niko); and jaya, the child who was most similar to hilo, had just one scene for herself despite there being so much room for exploration. all in all, i think that the premise of the novel was solid, but after two stunning books, i was expecting more from lee in a finale. it didn't make sense to have 20 years worth of setup for a single grand reveal at the end, and i feel like the book would have been much stronger if it just focused on the next generation of kauls.

[Thank you Orbit Books and NetGalley for the digital ARC of Jade Legacy in exchange for an honest review.]

The end is here! Fonda Lee’s Jade Legacy comes out in a matter of hours and if you were unsure, I’m here to emphasize for you — you need to read this book immediately, and there is absolutely no way you’re prepared.

It’s crazy to think that I began this series simply one month ago, on some faithful day in October. Now, I am so honored and happy to have received an early copy of Jade Legacy and to have the opportunity to tell you why you should be excited too.

This will be a no-spoiler review but will include details about Jade War.

The final installment in The Green Bone Saga spans over 20 years, and the stakes have never been higher. Jade War ended with Wen barely escaping Espenia with her life and Anden making the decision to pursue a Green Bone future in medicine. Hilo, rocked by the revelation that those closest to him conducted a dangerous mission against his wishes, is more isolated than ever when No Peak needs internal strength the most. The world of jade is only widening, with more countries, more industries, and more families getting intertwined. With a new generation of warriors on the rise as well, the need for more than clan survival is of the utmost importance.

*All his power as Pillar of a great Green Bone clan could not guarantee him anything in this moment other than the promise of vengeance, and that was far less comfort to him than it had once been.*

Lee presents a masterclass in making the epic feel personal, and the intimate details feel grand. In what could’ve been an overbearing novel that more than doubled the number of relevant characters and pulled together more than a handful of completely new plotlines, we are instead met with a tightly paced adventure that includes some of the most intense action sequences yet while also leaving breathing room for tough emotional beats.

At its heart, the Green Bone Saga is a family tale, and the Kaul family is the spine of the story. We’ve followed them through death and life, success and failure, all with the goal of reaching eminence over the Mountain. Each member of the family faces setbacks and takes on new roles, some of them earned and some of them reviled.

*Was this what it truly meant to hold power, […] passing on the worst consequences of your failure to others, whether you wanted to or not?*

Jade Legacy very quickly had a grip on my heart. The story (and tears shed) are very fresh to me as I literally finished it less than an hour ago. To me, the most impressive accomplishment of this installment is Lee’s ability to fit full story arcs between each time jump. Unlike the first two books, we skip many moments in time and full years during the Interludes so that the full scope of the journey can be included. Instead of detracting from emotional attachment, however, readers are instead treated to four climaxes and four emotional denouements. Each section finishes on a staggering conclusion for our characters, with some threads tied up and more than enough left to continue onward. Beyond that already remarkable feat, character and plot decisions made early on are perfectly set up to become important later on in ways that don’t feel forced.

The expectations on this series’ conclusion are sky high, as Jade City and Jade War are wildly considered some of the best modern fantasy novels. Jade Legacy more than lives up to its forbearers. The worldbuilding expands in unimaginable ways, sending us into new industries and creating numerous new pieces of technology. All of a sudden, jade warriors are just as adept with Strength and Steel as they are with covert microphones and hidden cameras. And with the bioenergetic jade medicine field growing, movie studios and Green Bone stars gaining prominence, and crowd-pleasing jadesports taking center stage, there are more moving pieces than ever. The character work, which I widely expounded on in my character study and thematic analysis posts, is in a league of its own in the finale. I was terrified to start this book, but there’s nothing to be scared of in terms of it meeting expectations — just in terms of having your heart broken.

*We all make mistakes. Sometimes terrible mistakes we can barely live with. But we learn from them. And maybe… Maybe we can forgive each other.*

If you’re already a part of the Green Bone family, I know as well as you do that you want Jade Legacy in your hands ASAP. If you’re like the me of one month ago, before I met these characters and learned about this world, I don’t know what else to say to convince you to pick up this saga. All that to say — see you on the other side!

Fonda Lee ended the Green Bone saga with the same tenacity as she started it. The development of the characters and the passage of time flow like water across her effortless writing style. From start to finish, this series delivers the ups and downs of life against a backdrop of violence that is at times both repulsive and alluring. The Kaul family continues to work to preserve their heritage on Kekon while fighting tooth and nail as the world modernizes around them, and criticizes the Green Bone clan-centric way of life. The Kauls battle old foes and new, whose attempts could fully control the clans under one organization, or destroy the clan way of life altogether. I am blown away by this series. Jade Legacy does not disappoint and delivers a heart-wrenching, full circle, cathartic finale.

The Green Bone Saga is a trilogy of books by World Fantasy Award-winning author Fonda Lee. It is a hefty fantasy series based in a fictional world so grounded in history, politics, and culture that readers can imagine walking the streets of Kekon’s capital city, Janloon. The setting is vivid and realistic, the characters are perfectly flawed, and the storylines are rich and engaging. The entire series spans over eighteen-hundred pages, making it one massive, legendary adventure. Fans have been waiting for the conclusion to this series for more than two years, and it was worth the wait.

Lee gives her Green Bone warriors superb martial arts skills bolstered by magical jade, a combination that not only saved Kekon from foreign invasion, but also created a class of soldiers that are respected around the world. Their strict educations and close ties to family make Green Bones an elite force that other countries try to emulate. Only Green Bones can wear jade safely, but that doesn’t stop others from trying. Black market jade creates a seedy underworld of smuggling and crime. Combine that with foreign countries eager to arm their militaries with similar jade abilities, and Lee gives us so many overarching storylines threaded among the smaller conflicts of family life among the Kaul family dynasty. For while the series is based around Kekon and it’s jade, it’s really the epic story of one man, Kaul Hiloshundon.

Jade Legacy, the third book, weighs in at over seven-hundred pages covering twenty-one years. The Kaul family and No Peak clan of Green Bone warriors are fighting a slow war with the Mountain clan for control of Kekon and the bioenergetic jade that gives Green Bones their magical abilities. While the first two books, Jade City and Jade War, mainly covered a war in the streets of Janloon, with Green Bones from the two major clans trying to decimate one another in combat, Jade Legacy is a long-term battle of politics and expansion, with No Peak and the Mountain clans fighting for public opinion. They have a joint enemy now, though - a movement across Kekon to rid the country of Green Bones and their control over jade. Their motto is “The Future in Clanless.”

Jade Legacy is a monumental achievement in terms of scope. Spanning more than twenty years, it encompasses the changing world of the Green Bones of Kekon while still keeping readers engaged with events both big and small, grounding readers in the lives of the Kaul family as it grows, ages, and adapts. It is a very thin tight-rope, but Lee manages to make it seem effortless.

I listened to the first two books on audiobook via Audible, and look forward to listening to this final installment, as well. Andrew Kishino is a fantastic narrator, bringing Lee’s characters to life.

an excellent conclusion to the series. it's an incredibly immersive and detailed story that i have not stopped thinking about in the entire month that has passed since i finished it.

i have lots of thoughts but I'm going to simplify and just say what has probably been said a thousand times: fonda lee is an INCREDIBLE worldbuilder. it's amazing how a story with such a wide scope can be crafted so carefully, giving you tons of information about the intricacies of the world, without overwhelming you and while still keeping you connected to the main characters and their struggles.

Right now feels like a very good time to remind people that 2 stars means that I thought a book was "okay," not bad.

If you absolutely loved the first two books, this book is not going to be a two for you. If you didn't care for the first book, then you'll hate this. And if you were on the fence/middle of the road on the previous books, like I was, then you'll probably also end up at the 2/3 star mark.

Lee is a good writer, but her insistence that the reader know every tiny detail about literally everything and everyone is exhausting when you are more than 1000 pages into her series. Did I really need to know that so-and-so's cousin's sister's friend's boyfriend had [x] backstory when he is in the book for a page and a half? Did I really need the history of the financial district and the Kekon Jade Alliance for the 7th time? For a series that spans more than 30 years, Lee doesn't seem to expect the reader to be able to keep up with very much.

This bog of details just really destroyed the pace of the novel. It's a slow series to being with, but this book barely ever gets above a crawl. They call it the "slow war" but the stalemate war seems a lot more accurate. The clans honestly don't feel like they are anywhere different then they were at the end of book one until the very, very end of this book - which has over 1000 pages and 25 years between the two points.

The pacing of the novel, combined with more predictable choices than :Lee usually makes, sucked any urgency or tension right out of the book, so that when things DID happen it was about as exciting as reading a recipe card.

The end itself was not anything I would even being to call bad, it was fairly fitting in fact, but it just felt like too little too late after so much meandering background. I've still got my fingers crossed that this series is going to be picked up as a show, because I would watch the absolutely hell out of it, but as a book I was simply bored by the end.

It honestly comes down to how invested you are, personally, in these characters. If you are "ride or die" for them, then my god is this book going to be a trip for you. But if you're not? Then you're much more likely to fall on the "this was frustrating and tedious" side of things.

What a fantastic conclusion to the trilogy. It wraps up plots, sets up questions about what happens next, and fully satisfies.

An epic finale, excellent world building, urban fantasy featuring rival clans. Action, edge of your seat, page turner. A fast paced read. This novel features complex characters and overlapping narratives in a way that keeps the reader engaged.

Thank you NetGalley for giving me an arc! I’m in so much pain. I laughed, I cried, I screamed. This book was such an emotional rollercoaster and I loved every second of it. Fonda Lee's writing was amazing and captivating as always. All the twists completely destroyed me and the plot was so intricate without being too confusing. I really enjoyed seeing all the characters I loved from book one and two grow while also getting to know the new generation of characters. I already miss them all so much, they’ll forever have a special place in my heart. It was so satisfying to see everything come together in this stunning finale. The ending was so perfect but I'll be sending all my therapy bills to Fonda Lee.

Major thank you to Orbit Books and Netgalley for this ARC, in exchange for an honest review. Unfortunately, I found Jade Legacy to be a weak finale, for such a promising and strong trilogy. I loved reading about this new generation, but wanted more from them — I was charmed by the new generation, but felt like there wasn't enough time spent on them for me to be fully attached. And for a book that is over 700 pages long, that's saying something. I also wish that the timelines were more clear, which is something I've thought since reading Jade City — there are often timeskips, which makes it hard for the reader to mentally understand how long it's been since each event. I'm still struggling to place my disappointment with Jade Legacy, because I really did enjoy the book, but found it to be underwhelming in comparison to Jade City and Jade War.

This is a really hard book to review without talking about what happens in it. So, I'll stick mostly to my reading experience and general impressions because I don't want to spoil how everything turns out for anyone. First and foremost, I was an emotional mess throughout reading this book. Fonda puts the characters through so much awful stuff, as usual, and it was all absolutely heartbreaking. I cried a lot while reading it, and there were a couple instances of actual sobbing. I mean full on ugly crying. It was that devastating. My reaction really is a credit to the fantastic character-building in these novels. It was truly some of the best characterization I've ever read, and it made me rejoice and weep alongside the characters as events happened in their lives.

My first general impression of this book is that it was probably one of the most epic finales, or honestly books in general, I've ever seen. The plot and writing were exquisite, and the complexity of all the different story-lines coming together the way they did was nothing short of masterful. I thought things were intricate and expansive in Jade War, but this book took it to a whole other level. There were three main plot threads in this book that were each massive in their own right: the conflict between the two clans, the overseas relationships and growth, and the brewing civil war at home between the clans and the clanless. Each conflict played an important role in the story, and its resolution, and the author managed to keep it all from getting confusing. In addition, there were plenty of callbacks to things that happened in previous books and how they influenced the outcome of the saga, which I enjoyed and appreciated. The expansiveness of the many plot threads, coupled with the devastating events, fantastic characters, and phenomenally written action scenes, made this book an epic read.

The second general impression I had after finishing the book was a feeling of wanting more. This story covers a lot of time, approximately 15-20 years I think, in a very expeditious manner. This was done really well, and it made sense for the story to progress in that way. I loved that it gave the opportunity to see how decades of age and experience changed (and didn't change) the characters, while also showing them deal with the limitations often set by the body growing older. However, the fast pace left me wanting more time with the newer characters. It felt like we barely got a glimpse of some of them because of the massive number of characters in the book and the pace it set. It made the book feel a little less intimate than the earlier installments, but despite that, I still loved the new characters. I know I'm getting repetitive, but it is a testament to how great Fonda is at creating characters that I felt like I knew them without getting a ton of the story from their perspectives. She just needs to write some spin-off books now to give us more of the newer generation, especially Jaya. Please, Fonda!

Needless to say, I will now forever be a fan of this series and this author. Fonda stuck the landing here in the most epic, satisfying, and emotionally devastating way possible. I cannot recommend this book, or this series, enough, and I predict there will be countless re-reads in my future. Therefore, I rate this book 5 out of 5 stars.

Thank you Netgalley for this arc in exchange for an honest review. Jade Legacy is the conclusion to the Green Bone Saga series and it unfortunately was a weak finale for such a strong series.

Jade Legacy spans over twenty years which on its own was a lot to take in but the lack of dates and ages made it difficult to understand exactly where in the timeline we were in. Overall this is something that happens in the entire series but because this book spanned over two decades it really stood out and made it difficult to connect to. I spent a lot of the time trying to understand what had happened over the different time jumps and how those had impacted the storyline and characters so they’d behave the way that they do now in comparison to before the jump, too much telling and no showing. The constant summarizing of what had happened during a year especially when it’s similar to what had happened in previous years just really weakened the entire book. Doing a few big skips and explanations of what happened would have been preferable and made it a far more enjoyable book.

I definitely had issues with this book but I did really enjoy and was invested in the Kaul family, there were a lot of new characters that just weren't properly expanded on and made it very difficult to care about. Seeing Niko, Ru, and Jaya grow throughout the series from toddlers and children to grown adults was really heartwarming and probably one of my favorite parts of the book. I think Jade Legacy could have been much better if it had been about them, the next generation of the Kaul family instead of the same plot being done over and over again in different fonts. I really like Jade City because we got to see into the Kaul siblings’ minds and how they think but because we got so little of the next generation we were robbed of that opportunity.

The whole world of the Green Bone Saga is filled with scheming amongst the different clans and outsiders which I found to be very entertaining but the repetitiveness was overdone in Jade Legacy and I wish Fonda had included other plots. What really bothered me was how throughout this series Fonda shows an overall disregard for her female characters while having well written male characters. I had liked Wen and Shae in Jade City but by the time I had finished Jade Legacy, I either didn’t care, disliked, or felt pity for them because of how they were written.

I did enjoy the characters but the writing and plot was a mess for me which made it difficult to truly care about the book.

I have been following the progress of the Kaul family since Hilo and his Fists first appeared on the page some years ago in "Jade City", and I have cheered their progress after each setback. So I and opened this hefty book with some trepidation. Not because I was afraid Fonda Lee's Green Bone family saga would let me down. Rather, I wasn't ready to say goodbye to these characters that I have grown to love.
Unlike the other books, this book covers many years in the ongoing "Slow War" between No Peak and Mountain Clans, as well as tensions rising in the countries these clans do business in.
At every turn, No Peak's Weather Man, Shae attempts to outwit Ayt Mada's foreign pursuits. The problem is, the Mountain Clan has deeper pockets, and despite some truly great moves by Hilo's Weather Man and Pillarman, Ayt Mada keeps outspending and outthinking No Peak. It's a somewhat dispiriting situation because not only does No Peak have Mountain against it, but the clanless opposition movement is picking up steam, and there are problems in Espenia, and I just loved how complicated and difficult the many problems Fonda Lee created and managed.
Also, we get to see the next generation of Kauls and Mountain Fists and potential Ayt Mada successors, and it's interesting to see how these young people interpret Green Bone values against the foreign influences both of the warring Clans are contending with and against.
Difficult as the path was for the characters to the end of this trilogy, I’m so glad I opened “Jade City” years ago. The tale of jade-bearing gangster families building their ranks, holdings and influence, but centred on the difficult and frequently volatile family dynamics of one of these clans brought me to a world I’d frankly be a little scared to live in, as Fists and Horns dispensed clan justice and favour, Weather Men expanded the clans’ financial foundations, and Pillars made sweeping and final judgements for countless people, which excited and terrified me equally. I fell hard for this world and its Kekonese Green Bone clans, in particular the frequently at loggerheads Kaul siblings Shae and Hilo, and their adopted cousin Anden, and the brilliant Wen. I cannot express how much I loved this family and their struggles.
Much of the book concerns No Peak's efforts to expand their finances, and their political difficulties across the ocean, and how all this affects the Kauls, and how Hilo's desire for revenge for Lan plays out in the younger generation of the family, all of it brilliantly handled.
But there's one moment in particular, however, when I had to put the book down and walk away because I was so upset by the fate of one of the characters, which is a testament to the power of Lee's storytelling and just how invested I've become in the fate of the No Peak Clan. In fact, the last third of the book left me an emotional mess and saying, “No! No!”, while also being so thankful Fonda Lee delivered the kind of ending the brutal, warring clans (and I) needed after their many divisive, treacherous years of war. And the final scene was a perfect bookend to the very opening of this fantastic, heart wrenching, marvellous series.

Thank you to Netgalley and to Orbit Books for this ARC in exchange for my review.