God, this was good. What an accomplishment this series is for Fonda Lee, and Jade Legacy finishes it all off perfectly. The world-building is as sprawling and ambitious as ever, the action sequences remain as brutal, and the primary characters continue to be both the heart and anchor of the story. The length of the book originally scared me, but in a clever twist, Jade Legacy zooms out the lens in more of a series of vignettes that expand over decades, allowing us to see the futures of all of the characters that we've grown attached to over the saga. The balance between expanding the story while still keeping focus on our core characters was masterfully done, giving us complete arcs for the characters, extending the already incredibly complex world even further, but still keeping things from feeling bloated at its large page count.

I'll miss this series dearly, but eagerly await the upcoming novella set in the same world, and can't wait to see what this author does next.

(Many thanks to Netgalley and Little, Brown Book Group UK for the eARC.)

An outstanding conclusion to one of the most complex, richly diverse and unique fantasy stories I've ever read.

Jade Legacy continues the story of the Kaul family about a year after the conclusion of Jade War. After the expansion of the clans into neighbouring countries, jade is no longer considered a Kekonese exclusive commodity. With further developments into the drug shine, it's never been safer for jade to be work by foreigners and this has created a vacuum of power with the two warring clans of No Peak and the Mountain. With both eager to capitalise on the slow war between Ygutan and Shotar, there can only be one dominant clan in Kekon, and No Peak will use every arsenal in their books to achieve it. However, rising civil unrest and greedy mercenaries may be their undoing.

I don't think I could gush enough about this series. It's so intelligent in its development of the Kaul family, giving each divisionary head a platform to shine and come into their own, while still shining a torch on secondary characters who not only enhance our main family but shape them. Hilo, our pillar, is a man finally settled in his role as leader. A family man, quick to temper, he's a people person with a vindictive streak who never wanted to step into the level of responsibility he's been given. Over the course of the series we've seen him go from this very rash, decisive young kid into a competent, intelligent leader who listens to advice and shows mercy. He's not perfect by any means, he would do anything to see No Peak gain advantage over the Mountain, but he's matured and grown into his own.

The same can be said of Shae, who I think has had the biggest character development over the course of the series. She's similar to Hilo in that she has a temper, but she has the cool logical mind to stay her hand until ready to strike the decisive blow. She's a competent Weatherman, who uses her own experiences to grow the business side of the clan, while making sacrifices along the way. Both of them are intensely complicated heads of the family, a family that has grown and changed so much since Jade City and these two Kaul figureheads now must face the challenges of dealing with changing opinions about jade in a rapidly developing world, surrounded by family who might not necessarily agree with their decisions. I loved each of the Kauls, and felt every victory and every devestating blow alongside them.

I also thought the pacing of this was fantastic. It's not a short book, but at no point did it feel laboured or drawn out. Not a single word is wasted and there's a great mix of action mingled with world building and conversation. Just as the reader feels lulled into a false sense of security, a character is thrust into danger or a chain event is set off. It's edge of the seat stuff. It was also really nice to see events which have been set up subtlety in book one come into play, or have consequences, in this book. A lot of the Green Bone Saga plays into this idea that revenge is a long game, and everything involving success and victory can take years to set up and have chess pieces fall into place. To have the writing mirror this idea was just memorising to read. The character of Bero, and his arc involving every participation in every major No Peak event and the realisation that it's because he's nothing, a no one, as opposed to luck, was absolutely genius.

Easily one of the best fantasy series I've ever read. Sophisticated, intelligent and richly complex and interesting characters, I'm sad to see the Green Bone Saga end, but it's legacy will stay with me for a long time.

The Green Bone Saga is one of my favorite series of all time, and I can say with no hesitation that it's one of the best fantasies out there. I adore Fonda Lee's ability to bring the stakes higher and higher, keeping me on my toes during the entire book. This was about 700 pages long and yet I was never bored. Politics, family drama, so much scheming, martial arts, plots twits, this really has it all. I cannot express enough how much this world is vibrant, complex and so wonderfully crafted.

This final book of the series completely blew my mind. I gave 5 stars to every single book of the trilogy, but this might just be my favorites. The author did NOT hold back and I had to fight tears very often (I was reading this in buses and trains a lot) and take breaks to fully absorb what had just happened. Really, this is even more explosive and incredible than the other two books. Highly recommend for fantasy fans!

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

One of the best finales that I have read!

This book put me through an emotional roller coaster and I feel like I have lived a lifetime of happiness, loss, grief and tragedy through these characters. I had at least two very "oh shit" "nononono" moments throughout the book, I laughed, I cried and I literally broke down while reading the last few chapters.

Where do I start? With each book this series has gotten more complex and layered. It has one of the best geopolitical mechanisations that I have read and a world which is steeped in culture and traditions. But, the best part of the series is its characters.

These are the characters who are deeply flawed and whose actions are highly questionable at the best of times. Their story which spans over decades and generations shows the tremendous amount of development that these characters go through as they they adapt to the changes that happens around them. All the while keeping intact that which is most important to them - family, loyalty, clan and Jade.

There are so many characters that I love from this book and I loved the addition of the new generation and the unique perspective that they brought to the story but my favourite at the end turned out to be Kaul Hilo. I wasn't very keen on him in the first book but then Jade War happened and just the way he took over the leadership of this war torn clan had me in awe. In this book we get to see so many shades of him, we see him make mistakes and learn from it, we see him being humbled by his loss and we see him being ruthless in his convictions. We literally see him grow old and more confident in his role as the pillar while also retaining just the bit of recklessness which I found very admirable.

I loved how the Fonda Lee dealth with the consequences of the ending of Jade War. Relationships among family can be such a fragile thing and after the events of the last book the relationship between the various members of the Kaul family was at the weekest. The sense of mistrust, betrayal and anger that they held for each other broke my heart. But, the gradual acceptance of mistakes made, reconciliation and forgiveness was done so well. In fact, the various relationship dynamic whether that between siblings or spouses or parent and child was done so realistically. They aren't perfect but they love each other in their own imperfect way. Family is the heart of this story and each relationship is unique and complex in its own way. I loved that.

Overall, this was truly a multilayered and complex saga with some of the most heart breaking, heartpounding and devastating moments. An epic conclusion which I will highly recommend!

Fantastic book one of the best series I’ve ever read and a thrilling and satisfying conclusion. Review to come

I'm not a fan of very long review (always skip them) so I will be concise and to the point: this is a great series and this is the great final book in one of the best series I read in this century.
Great storytelling, world building and character development.
An epic conclusion, a huge book that kept me reading and turning pages.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

An epic conclusion to an epic series, I haven't long read the first book Jade City, which I did initially find a slog to get through, but only because there was a lot of world-building. But once I got into it it was great.

Jade Legacy continues this and adds so much more. If you haven't started the series pick it up, but be prepared (I wasn't!), there is a lot of world-building.

Jade Legacy is the epic final instalment of an astonishing urban fantasy gangster family saga. It picks up a year after the events that took place at the end of Jade War and covers the span of almost 30 years. We see the main characters introduced in Jade City being shaped by the decisions they have made throughout the entire trilogy and the legacy they want to leave to the next generation of the No Peak Clan. That also means that characters we met as children in the previous book become adults and relevant characters in this third volume, especially Niko and Ru. They portray an era without the continuous internal war between clans that Hilo, Shae, Anden and Wen experienced at their same age. It shows a very interesting contrast among both generations.

The incredibly long period of time this book encompasses involves numerous time jumps throughout the book. This is a considerable difference from the first two books but, far from feeling disjointed, Fonda Lee has managed to make the narrative feel organic throughout. The story consists of four main plot arcs, divided by interludes in which different historical events of Kekon are narrated. Each of these parts is narrated in a way that shows the evolution of the characters and the different dynamics between them.

Although there are multiples elements in this trilogy that I love and that make it one of the best series I’ve ever read, my favourite aspect is the complexity of the relationships between the members of the Kaul family. This has never been a saga of heroes, it rather is a saga about a family that lives in a time and society that leads them to make terrible decisions. The way in which Fonda Lee showcases even the worst acts of these characters in such a humanized way is simply spectacular.

Jade War delved into the culture and politics of other countries, while this third book puts a special emphasis on the international relations between them and Kekon, and how these affect both clans and, above all, the culture of the Green Bones. The tumultuous enmity between No Peak and the Mountain Clan remains one of the central plotlines of the trilogy, with both sides trying to expand their businesses internationally and even coming to an understanding when circumstances call for it.

As I previously mentioned, Jade Legacy has four story arcs and all of them have their respective plot twists. There are three key moments where I almost forgot to breath, with two of them even making me cry. It was difficult to force myself to go to sleep every night without reading another chapter, because the plot and the tensions between the characters had me completely glued to the pages of this book. But, at the same time, I’m glad that I spent several days reading this final volume to give myself time to enjoy of every single storyline. And doing so was worth it because this has become what is probably my favourite final volume in a series.

All in all, reading this trilogy has been an extremely satisfying—and sometimes terribly heartbreaking—ride. I can’t stress enough how overwhelmingly rich and powerful this story is. Being able to follow these characters on their personal journeys and their growth over the years has been a gift as a reader. Hopefully, Fonda Lee will write a spin-off about the next generation in the future. Although regardless of what she writes next, I’ll definitely read everything she publishes from now on. And of course, I plan to revisit this world and these characters because the clan is my blood, and the Pillar is its master.

This concluding sequel has been a great finale to the Green Bone Saga. After reading Jade City and then Jade War I was excited about the third book and I was so happy to read this book which kept me reading until the end where I was pleasantly satisfied with the ending. The book gives you many thrills and spills and I like Fonda Lee's writing style. I hope she continues to write and gives us another trilogy soon. I really enjoyed this book and will be re reading the Saga again soon.

Disclaimer: I got a review copy thanks to Netgalley and Orbit.

Let me start by saying that The Green Bone Saga has been one of my favorite series since book one, Jade City. So I was scared with the ending of the series but damn... I was so wrong, but also right.

Fonda Lee has so many strong points, but the main three for me are plot, characters and world building.

Let's start with the worldbuilding in the Green Bone Saga. I've never seen such a causal yet profund ability to inform the reader of the world they are in like Lee does it. Even though it started as something more condensed, after Jade War we are introduced to a bigger and bigger world, that just gets larger in Jade Legacy. Not only do we learn about all the politics and maquinations in Kekon but also about the other countries that form this world. But not just that, by the time you reach half of Jade Legacy you don't only know about politics but about culture, education, medical care,.... SO MANY THINGS COME TO PLAY IN THIS BOOK. ITS LITERALLY INSANE.
Not to mention the constant exploration of immigration, and how to live as a foreigner and with a culture that you don't feel identified in.

Should we talk about the plot? The trilogy takes place during almost 30 years, and Jade Legacy is one of the books with more time jumps, but they always feel justified. AND IT DOES NOT HURT THE PLOT IN THE SLIGHLESS. In fact is usually because some elements of the plot need a lot time to feel believable and to resolve, that we may jump 2 or 3 years into the future, never missing anything and always placing you, so you don't get lost in the timeline. Eventhough we can sumarized the plot with "The feuds between two clans" it goes so beyond that. You will be so invested in this fight (that literally lasts generations) and with so many twists and turns, that sometimes your heart might not be able to cope with it. But still a new plan will be explain a few pages later and you are invested once again.

At last lets take a quick look at the chracters. I would literally kill for the Kaul family. This is one of the few series that makes me both tear up in joy and agony in the same book. Anden and Shae are still the same awesome characters that were in Jade War. So many arcs come to full closure, but Hilo's especially was so filled with emotion for someone whose personallity used to be "being a brute with zero neurons". Lee has a way to make you FEEL and CARE for these characters so deeply that it literally hurts. And what could I say about the new generation? This is literally called Jade Legacy, and couldn't represent it better than the ending of the book.


As a final thought, I can only say that you should stop reading this review and just jump into Jade Legacy. It's been such a long time since I've read a conclusion to a trilogy this satisfying and near perfection.

Jade City: 5 stars
Jade War: 5 stars
Jade Legacy; 5 stars.

Just read The Green Bone Saga,

Best book of the year!

Writing this review almost killed me. How do you write a review for a near-perfect book? Please, everyone, pick up this book! While I loved Jade City and Jade War and gave both of them 5/5 stars, Jade Legacy is in a category of its own. Can you give a book an S-rating? So what made this book so good?

Jade Legacy truly lives up to its title. This book is not a story about one character or plotline, Jade Legacy tells the story of a generation of Green Bone warriors and spans over two decades. The story is split into multiple smaller plotlines, which all have a satisfying beginning, build-up and conclusion. The Clan warfare between No Peak and the Mountain is not a simple story about good versus evil; it is a story with hundreds of layers, which makes the story feel so intense! Fonda Lee is a master of creating tension. Almost every single chapter had my heart racing!

We also need to add Fonda Lee to the list of ‘best at writing characters’ list. The character work is truly astounding. Lee’s ability to flesh out the main characters and the minor characters is truly remarkable. All the characters are complex and have a distinct voice. I am going to miss hanging out with The Green Bone cast. Finishing this series left me with feelings of joy, melancholy and appreciation. The book hangover is very REAL!

There is so much more to say, but I don’t feel like a comprehensive review will be that beneficial. I want everyone to experience this book themselves! The Green Bone Saga is a thrilling, tragic, epic and ambitious story that everyone needs to read! The Green Bone Saga is one of the best series I have read, and Jade Legacy is one of the best conclusion’s I have read.

I have read over 70 books this year, and Jade Legacy is my favourite!
Thank you, Fonda Lee, for writing this series!

5 / 5 stars

Jade City introduced us to a story of two Jade Bone Clans in Kekon at war with each other. Jade War brought us a new angle, with growing foreign influencing and a whole lot of sneaky plays to solidify the clans’ positions. Jade Legacy expands on this again, building the world larger and larger but in the end, reminding us that everything comes down to two clans on a small island and the legacy they will leave. It’s a recipe that has created one of my favourite book series of all time.

At the end of Jade War, the world’s reaction to jade varies across countries. No Peak and The Mountain would rather foreign allies than join together, but the foreigners have other ideas. I mean, what’s a clan against a nation, right? Times are changing. Set in a period after the invention of cars but before widespread mobile phones and internet, Jade Legacy takes us through the years where technology is advancing and the clans are adapting. This is a book of the old guard and the new guard, Hilo leading as Pillar, Shae as Weatherman, but with the baby Kaul’s growing up, No Peak is in for some big surprises. And the biggest surprise? The whole series covers a 30 year period. Insane.

It’s hard to write a review of a book that blew my mind without spoiling but I’m going to try. Let me tell you, Fonda Lee is a complete mastermind. Every character has some significance and you never know when they’re going to pop up and surprise you. Everything is deliberate. The clans have grown arsenals where they can pull social, political and economic levers – it’s no longer just duels and jade. It all has consequences- they’re connecting with nations, with criminals, with business people (usually corrupt, lol). There are military contractors, terrorist organisations and all the decisions each character makes. It ties together beautifully even with such a huge scope.

It’s got all the detail of a respected political thriller combined with characters you can’t help but feel for. Hilo, who has to learn his children may not be the same as he is. Wen, recovering from severe injury. Shae, masterminding all of No Peak’s overseas interests. Anden, back in the clan but being his own person. Every central character has a journey even if they move in and out of the plot over the years the book takes place. I honestly can’t explain how Fonda pulled this off in a way that could appeal to such a wide range of audiences. Not many series execute a balance of love, heartbreak, brutality and really subtle real-world like plot points that all have a purpose.

It’s always scary reading the final book of a trilogy, but let me tell you, I was sobbing for the last 100 pages of both sadness and happiness. Nothing else I have read has matched Jade Legacy. Some of my highlights were Ayt and Shae’s strange fate-like connection, the Kaul children’s journeys and how unexpected they were to their parents, the surprise character appearances, and the parallels to reality. And you’re all wondering what I thought of the ending, right? Perfection. Couldn’t have called it, couldn’t have imagined anything that fit better.

It would be an understatement to call Jade Legacy a masterpiece – it’s the perfect end to a fantastic series.

Jade Legacy is an ambitious finale that follows our beloved characters through thirty years. Kekon is the only place where a powerful form of Jade that gives people superhuman abilities is found. Everyone wants access to the rare resource: governments, criminals, mercenaries, even doctors and movie studios. The Kaul family make up one of the leading clans on the island, No Peak. Their past is laden with tragedy and war, but their difficulties aren’t over yet. As a new generation rises, the clan’s power is in constant threat.

This book is one of those reads where it’s difficult to talk about; it’s just so brilliant you can’t even attempt to put it into words. Jade Legacy is a masterful piece of writing, of character, of plot development, of narrative voice. It’s a finale that will stay with you forever. It’s bittersweet and heartbreaking; it’s a book you can’t put down despite its hefty length. The way every detail, every event, every promise came back around was a pure delight. When I try to talk about Jade Legacy, my brain defaults to ‘ahhhhhhhh omgggg aahhhhhhhhhhh’ so that’s what I’ll leave you with.

I fully acknowledge that I will be somewhat of an outlier with this review – if you want a gushing 5-star review, there are plenty of them available. And I’d almost be tempted to agree with all of those, because there is no doubt in my mind that Fonda Lee is an author to be reckoned with; I’m struggling to think of another epic fantasy series like the Green Bone saga, with its vibrancy and daring. But it also took me a week and a half to read this book, as some sections really dragged, and it didn’t always hit the emotional notes I had hoped for.

Jade Legacy spans about two decades of Kaul family drama, covering the lives of both the original characters readers have grown to love – and hate – since the first series, as well as the lives of many of their children, while also giving closure in various forms to many of the series’ antagonists. Lee’s best work comes in the form of character development, by which I mean character depth. All of the main characters are complex and multi-faceted, and it’s hard not to root for them even as they behave recklessly and demonstrate an abundance of pridefulness and spitefulness.

Lee also pulls no punches, as readers of the series will know – she’s not afraid to (literally) throw her characters under a bus, car or other heavy object if it’s what the story demands. Even three books in, I found myself shocked by some of the directions the story took, and found myself intermittently saying I can’t believe she went there – but I also totally can. The moments after these big, earth-shattering twists were my favourites, as Lee uses unexpected crises and tragedies to show what breaks her characters, and what makes them.

Unfortunately, I found the bits between these moments to be less thrilling. The long time skips meant we often skipped many of the emotional moments I wanted to see. It was particularly disappointing to me that this often happened in relation to my two-favourite characters, Anden and Shae, whose personal relationships outside the family were often glossed over, and there was less time dedicated to their personal triumphs than those of other characters. Others who have different favourite characters to me are probably unlikely to have this problem. (And I am very satisfied with Anden’s overall character arc in particular, when I reflect on the series as a whole, even if the journey was occasionally bumpy).

There was also often a lot of info-dumping about what happened in the years immediately preceding a time-skip, and at these points I felt like I was reading a fictional history with a lot of political mumbo-jumbo, rather than a story about the Kaul family. Other scenes felt like they were inserted because they were needed to advance the plot, but weren’t neatly sequenced with the scenes immediately before and after, which undercut them emotionally. There were parts of this book where I was just not feeling it at all, and had to keep pushing through. Ultimately, I wish this had been a four book series, with each of the last two books covering a similar time period to those before them, which would have allowed for a more intimate scope, and helped alleviate some of the emotional disconnect I felt.

All that said, I am in awe of the sheer ambition of this series and I hope we see more like it. I am personally not a fan of ‘grimdark’ books that seek darkness for darkness’ sake, but the Green Bone Saga is an excellent example of a morally complex fantasy series, where the characters’ suffering and torment (but also their triumphs) come from them having a variety of personality traits and flaws that play out in sometimes devastating ways – the Kaul family are jade-powered warriors, but they are also emotionally complex and ultimately fallible people.

Note: I received an ARC from Orbit.

I received this book as arc in exchange for an honest review.


'𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐥𝐚𝐧 𝐢𝐬 𝐦𝐲 𝐛𝐥𝐨𝐨𝐝 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐚𝐫 𝐢𝐬 𝐢𝐭𝐬 𝐦𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫.'


Honestly, this is another series that has completely blown me away. It is so thrilling and captivating, the characters astonishingly moving and enchanting. I am violently in love with these saga.

Whilst I had wished I had reread both Jade City and Jade War before embarking on this journey, I was not too caught up in the time jumps present in these book. Set a few months after Jade War, Jade Legacy follows a time span of a couple of decades with multiple time skips in between, and whilst wildly unconventional, the time elements were well balanced and perfectly constructed that it was not overly ambitious.

The layout of the book comes in four parts, all equally as astounding and mesmerising as the next, full of action and drama and intrigue that I've come to expect from Lee's writing. It's so full of trauma and life and heartache, something I aim for in an urban fantasy series such as this. I was not disappointed and felt my heart breaking all over again. Honestly, I think I held my breath for so long I didn't think I'd loose it.


Kaul Hilo will forever be imprinted on my mind and has captured all of my attention, I swear. I'm fact, through the 10 perspectives we get in this book, I'm not sure I dislike any of them. They're all equally balanced and distinctive and their voices are memorable, and sometimes you'll find in multiple pov books, some of the characters lag and you find yourself skimming chapters because you find the character extremely vexing, but not here, not with these characters. I am utterly enthralled by them all. I loved how flawed they are, how their characterisations are dense and gritty and full of that anguish and grief and love and loss you'd expect; they are forgivable and well nourished with emotion and personality. I honestly loved this book so much!

I implore you to give it a go. I promise on my honour, my life, and my jade, you won't be disappointed. It's face paced, and full of drama, and with breathtaking moments and worldbuilding.

It's a masterpiece and I thank Fonda Lee wholeheartedly for writing it.

I am in awe of this series. The family drama plus the superb magic system makes this series worth every penny and time to read.

I really enjoyed this book. I always hear really good things about this book and wasn't disappointed. Would recommend.

I treated myself to a reread of the first two books in the series before picking up the conclusion and with every page turn, every gasp as I remembered everything that had happened I became more and more nervous...how on earth could this finale live up to such a strong book one and two?
I should never have doubted, if anything Jade Legacy may be my favourite of all three books, bringing together all of the things that made the first two books exceptional.
I've been pondering the structure of this series, the fact that - at least while reading them - it doesn't seem as though each book has a clear three act structure, it feels more like reading slice of life fantasy except the lives which are being depicted are incredibly high stakes! It means the trilogy as a whole reads like a unified narrative - which is especially impressive given each book in turn still feels finished.
Fans of the series will doubtless go through the same emotional turmoil I did, I think I cried at least four times? Maybe more. What I appreciated was that the more...emotionally devastating portions of the story always felt like they made sense, there is never the feeling that pain is being caused for the sake of it. We've seen 'ooh I am the big bad author hurting your faves' fall flat in other series and in contrast the Green Bone Saga builds tragedy into the story from the beginning and never hurts you without reason...oh but it does hurt you.
This is definitely a book you need to dedicate a fair bit of attention to - particularly if you aren't planning a reread - there are as many if not more characters to keep track of and various alliances you need to remember. I would suggest clearing the decks and giving yourself the space to really just sink into the story - you won't regret it.
Two last things to finish off:
Firstly I would say that if you didn't get on with book one and two this is very similar (which is a win if you loved the first two!
Secondly, I'll be very interested to hear some opinions from disabled reviewers as to the representation in the book. I can only speak as an able bodied reviewer and say that I was pleased with the way Jade-assisted medicine was brought into the story while also avoiding the 'magical cure' trope. But I will be looking out for some own voices reviews on that topic and urge other readers to do the same.
Overall, Fonda Lee utterly knocks it out of the park, I feel like I've been dragged through an emotional family narrative like no other and I already want to reread this entire series and spot all the things I missed!
I received a free review copy of this book from the publisher - all opinions are my own!

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

I had already bought the first two books and was waiting for book 3 to start reading them. When the opportunity to review Jade legacy came out, I read all three books back to back.

You need to read the first two books before reading legacy. Each book builds upon the character development and worldbuilding of previous books. To me, these books remind me so much of the Godfather trilogy.
Just as the Godfather trilogy showed us an expanding world over time, with the cast growing over generations, beginning, ending and living their lives, so too do the cast of the green bone saga.

The worldbuilding increases with visits to more countries as the impact of previous actions, the lives and deaths and decisions in the earlier books continue to play out. Relationships grow and evolve as the consequence of earlier generations changes the world around them. As in the Godfather, the Codes of conduct, business practises, the old ways fade as a new reality arises. The ramifications of Jade wars ending emerge and develop. We see the fruits of seeds planted in the earlier books come to life.

I usually prefer faster, action-packed books. The Green Bone Saga is slower, and I still enjoyed them all. I kept finding myself reading until the early morning hours by accident. Plotlines flowed around my mind as I drifted off to sleep, and I would wake, looking forwards to reading a bit more before work and in lunch. There are still action scenes and still long, quieter parts as the story develops. Legacy ties up the last two books saga perfectly. Fonda Lee has achieved something many find difficult, a satisfying end. Highly recommended.

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<p>It's hard to know where to start to unpack this book. I guess I'll start by telling you this is one of the best books I've ever read. The sheer quality that is within its pages is absolute. It <em>really</em> is that good.</p>
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<p>When I first started reading the Green Bone Saga I picked it up because it was an urban fantasy kind of story and I have a soft spot for those. I loved it and told everyone I knew that read books to pick it up. I picked up Jade War immediately, however, Jade War sat on my shelf for over a year before I opened it because I was worried that it wouldn't be as good a story as Jade City had provided. I was worried the storytelling, twists and turns, and the action wouldn't maintain the same level of quality I had come to expect after my first entry into Fonda's storytelling. I was wrong and luckily didn't have any time to wait to continue the story as I was given an arc for Jade Legacy by Orbit via Netgalley for an honest and unbiased review.</p>
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<p class="has-text-align-center"><strong><em>"sometimes the most obvious solution required only the willingness to take the most unreasonable of actions."</em></strong></p>
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<p>It's hard to summarise this story through the internet without conveying the emotions that it generates within you when you speak about it. Jade Legacy really surpasses anything I could have expected to read. I don't honestly think that I could have predicted that this would be as good as it is and Fonda has raised the bar that much higher for fantasy writers everywhere; maybe she is now also a prisoner to the quality of her own writing but that's a nice problem to have and not one to dwell on here.</p>
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<p class="has-text-align-center"><em><strong>"Marry the devil, get the devil's mother."</strong></em></p>
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<p>Jade Legacy and the Green Bone Saga is up there with epic fantasy of the same scope. Series like A Song of Ice and Fire by George RR Martin and The Stormlight Archive by Brandon Sanderson should find themselves joined on 'best of' lists by Fonda's trilogy, she really has absolutely smashed it with these books.</p>
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<p class="has-text-align-center"><strong><em>"Whatever's going to happen will happen, so the most important thing is that we appreciate what we have and the people we care about."</em></strong></p>
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<p>This story starts a few months after Jade War ends and actually spans over a quarter of a century. Now when I first realised what was happening I wasn't sure I was going to enjoy it. Each chapter might skip a year or more and I wanted to stay with the current characters on their current plight but when you get through the years you see why Fonda had to do it. The story where it was couldn't have possibly worked if it hadn't been through these time jumps allowing the characters to get older and grow.</p>
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<p class="has-text-align-center"><em><strong>The big clans were getting bigger. We're still two tigers, Shae thought grimly, eating all we can before we have to face each other again.</strong></em></p>
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<p>The action in this book is as good as it gets. Fight scenes have been carefully choreographed to provide the best visual image for the reader while also delivering impactful moments and story-altering after effects. The clash of every blade, the zip of every bullet whizzing past and the crunch of every fist or kick landed resonates in your mind as well as any well delivered speech from the mouth of its owner. There are of course lots of fights, deaths and brutal scenes within these pages, it's a story at its heart about two clans fighting for control of the powerful jade. If you enjoyed the action from either of the previous books you will find your thirst quenched here.</p>
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<p class="has-text-align-center"><strong><em>Jade warriors are young, and then they are ancient.</em></strong></p>
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<p>I really, really liked the worldbuilding in this book and think it is the biggest expansion yet as Fonda gives us access to new areas bringing in new dynamics, visuals and characters. Some locations have banned jade and so characters have to adapt to their surroundings, either hiding their jade or removing it altogether thus providing a new obstacle to navigate through. Letting us into more of the world brings with it new faces, not all of which are friendly, which brings me onto characters. </p>
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<p>The characters in this story are the pure, unrivaled driving force behind everything that happens and as I've mentioned before in previous reviews, the depth, progression and realness of these characters is unparalleled. They read like real people, talk like real people, have meaningful goals and broken parts. In fact I'm finding it hard to believe that Fonda isn't a Weatherman of some clan in her area and she has based this story off of real clan members - the characters in this book must be real people and not products of her mind's creation.</p>
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<p class="has-text-align-center"><em><strong>“Good men are remembered with love by their friends… Great warriors are remembered with awe by their enemies.”</strong></em></p>
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<p>The way they interact with each other draws constant attention from the reader and tension spews out of the pages. It could be two family members talking about dinner, two lovers sharing deep thoughts or two enemies negotiating and they will all carry the same energy within their conversations. The words have all been carefully chosen, each sentence carefully placed as if it were a part of a drawing using permanent marker. It's just brilliant. I especially loved any interaction between enemies as these proved to be some of the most tense, sneaky and exciting conversations to eavesdrop onto. At times it felt possible that one of the characters might turn around and talk to me directly.</p>
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<p class="has-text-align-center"><em><strong>“When something has to be done, there’s always a way to do it.”</strong></em></p>
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<p>There are plenty of new characters to acquaint yourself with to. People from every location in the book get their time in the limelight, showcasing what they can do, what they want and how far they will go to protect what they love. It means that everyone gets a shot at your attention and not a single character is wasted or used as a filler.</p>
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<p class="has-text-align-center"><em><strong>“The mind cannot adjust quickly to a fundamental change in reality without breaking. If the moon vanished from the sky, people would not believe it; they would think it was a trick of light or clouds.”</strong></em></p>
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<p>I loved No Peak clan's members from the lowliest finger to the members of the leadership in the Kaul house. My personal favourite Bero had a great arc in this story and his story is probably my favourite of all of them. Showcasing what can happen to someone across 3 books and 1,902 pages is incredible. How he starts the story and how it ends feels like the genuine beginning and ending of someone's actual story. Bero was my favourite but they all felt like they played a part and all had their own threads of destiny to see out which brings me onto my next point.</p>
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<p>How Fonda has managed to tie up all of their stories into one nice bundle is beyond me. If you've ever tried writing a multiple point-of-view story as an aspiring author you will know how confusing and stressful it can get as you try to build genuine reasons to connect characters and have them pop up with others so that readers will see them and say something like "Oh that's him from before with X!". It's not an easy task, I've tried it myself but when you add in three books with multiple characters, rules, countries, loyalties and so much more stuff in, it gets so much harder and yet Fonda has managed to absolutely nail it. Everything has its place, everything is connected perfectly and there are so many moments where people show up in each others stories.</p>
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<p class="has-text-align-center"><em><strong>“When something has to be done, there’s always a way to do it.”</strong></em></p>
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<p>This is full of emotion too. For me it stayed under the surface slowly boiling like a pot of ramen before I got to a certain point in the story and, surprisingly to myself, was crying because I felt so connected to the characters and how real they felt. The emotion had been conveyed from Fonda's home and her mind into my own and my heart. It's just pure brilliance that she has managed to do this, almost like she was channeling into me personally from the moment she started this journey. The best part is everyone has the ability to feel this with this last entry in this trilogy.</p>
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<p class="has-text-align-center"><em><strong>“We don’t handle this world. We make it handle us.”</strong></em></p>
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<p>Tying the arcs in this story up can't have been easy for Fonda. No chapter is wasted and every single thing you read has its place in this world. Every little conversation, every fight, every betrayal all builds up to the ending. As I said, there are so many moving parts but somehow she has managed to close off every loose end with a realistic, believable and sufficient knot that ensures that this story is completed and no-one is left out. It's really riveting stuff.</p>
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<p><strong>Rating S/5 -</strong> Yes! S rank! This book is only the fourth book I have ever given a coveted S rank too. It's a book that is perfect in every way and surpasses the standard 5 star system. Every word has been placed down with thought as if there was a word limit and not single consonant or vowel could be wasted. Fonda has written something utterly brilliant here that everyone needs to experience. She has taken an idea about clan warfare and turned this into an epic fantasy trilogy that has shot her up to the top of so many reader's lists. Jade Legacy is how you tie off a trilogy. It's fun, exciting, tense and heartbreaking all at the same time. Real people living in a story that feels so real that it is only limited by the pages it lives on. This <em>is</em> fantasy and if you don't read this trilogy you are missing out on one of the best pieces of fantasy writing I have ever absorbed. Well done Fonda, well done.</p>
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