I’ve received an ARC of this book from Orbit, in exchange for my sanity a fair review. My thanks to Orbit & Nazia i’ll send you my therapy bills.
Well. Fuck.
I had no doubt that Jade Legacy would manage to thrill me (and let’s be real, traumatise me), just as Jade City and Jade War did. It’s a long book, or as experts call it, a Chonky Boi, and I feel like I had been holding my breath for the entire time I was reading it. I was on edge. I started biting my nails again. I cried so much. It was an amazing experience (sidenote: are we SFF readers okay?)
Jade Legacy is the culmination of the splendid and nerve-wracking arcs started and developed in the two previous books. We’re back with the One Peak clan, in its multidimensional chess game against the Mountain. In boardrooms, in the streets, in the public opinion, and even abroad, there is a war still raging for domination between the two clans, each of them looking for an edge in a world that is changing too fast, and where they might become obsolete.
The story often skips months, years ahead, which could be dizzying at times but we are anchored by the pains and joys of the Kauls, their losses and their victories. We also go from micro to macro, zooming in and out from the minutae of the characters’ lives to the fate of nations. Both narrative tools allow us to take things from a broader perspective; and rather paradoxically, allow us to better understand what the characters go through: there is an incommensurable loss but time blunts the edges of grief, there is a senseless personal tragedy but the world keeps on going. It is, in a word, masterful.
Another Signature Fonda Lee Talent is the character development, which is again a thing of beauty in Jade Legacy. The characters are still very much themselves but you can see what experience did to them, you can see the ghosts of mistakes past in their new decisions. Their growth is absolutely thrilling to follow – Anden’s, in particular (in particular because I freely admit he is my favourite and I was full-on “you’re doing amazing sweetie”-ing him in this book). Anden’s character arc from a lost teenager with too much jade power and too little faith in his ability to control it, to the magnificient wholeass adult he became, was incredible. Even Hilo learned some stuff from the absolute trainwreck he often made of things in the past! Which means he now creates different trainwrecks, but… You Know What That Is? Growth dot gif.
And just as the characters grow, so does the world they evolve in. It had already started in Jade War but we see more technological progress. Suddenly phones are mobile. Suddenly Internet is a thing. But the world also changes in a more subtle way; how people see the clans and their role in society, how jade is perceived…it creates threats and opportunities for our protagonists, strange alliances and new foes.
Jade Legacy is often about characters finding their place in the world at large, and in the clan more specifically. And it goes double for the new generation, which is growing in a world with different rules. These new characters are doing things their own way, shaping their sphere of influence and wielding power differently.
The plot plays with different textures of tension, the diffuse kind from political lobbying, geopolitical manoeuverings, and business deals, and the explosive one (I wish I could say no pun intended) from high-action, high-adrenaline scenes. It’s an exhilarating balance that will keep you on your toes at all times.
This trilogy is perfect. Simply perfect. And Jade Legacy was one hell of a final, devastating ride. I am sad it is over, but I’m sure Fonda Lee will find new ways to torture us. Yay? Yay.
Jade Legacy will be released on November 30th in the US and Canada, and December 2nd in the rest of the world.
