Reviews

Jade Legacy by Fonda Lee

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benjamin0617's review against another edition

medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

Jade Legacy is considered by many the strongest entry into the Green Bone Saga. And I can see why: it is undoubtedly the most ambitious and complex novel of the three, spanning more than two decades and several continents and having the largest cast. However, I've noticed that there is also a group of readers that considers Jade Legacy their least favorite Green Bone book. And unfortunately, that is the case for me, too.

I think the main reason is that I actually preferred the story when it felt smaller and more intimate. My favorite aspect of the first two novels was the conflict between No Peak and the Mountain Clan itself (or to be more precise between the Kaul family and

Ayt Mada

). In Jade Legacy, this conflict had become so huge and there were many more—international—players involved which led to it feeling more removed from the original focus for me. The novel did return to this conflict towards the end—hence why I spoiler-marked a character name—but for several hundred pages, I simply didn’t care about some of the storylines or a few of the new POV characters (though I did like both Niko and Ru). In the previous two books, I additionally felt like I knew the main characters really well and had detailed insights into their personal lives. Because of the huge amount of plot that book 3 had to cover, the characters' private lives were less of a focal point which is why my connection to the main characters didn't reach the heights it did in Jade City and especially in Jade War. These books were real page turners for me; Jade Legacy was only that at times. For large parts of it, I ultimately wasn't as interested or invested.

Despite my criticisms, I still decided to go with an above-average rating as I liked the general story of the Green Bone Saga a lot and the book has several great plot moments that got me very emotional, too. Furthermore, I do think that Jade Legacy works as a conclusion to the trilogy; the characters' endings were mostly fitting to me, albeit not always entirely satisfying.