Jade Legacy

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

I have finished Green Bone Saga. I am very sad it is over, but what a journey. The trilogy is beyond impressive. Each book is very different and I don't think anybody could predict where book 3 would be going from book 1. There is not one thing that happens in Jade Legacy that I would have guessed at the end of Jade War. The sheer scope, the imagination, the bold choices of where to focus and how to use the alloted page count, the themes it is dealing with, the expert characterizations. There is not one storyline that does not pay off, no matter how tangential. I think the series is better than the sum of its parts, but I think each part is fantastic itself. I am in love with all of it.

I'm unsure yet if JL hit the high heights of my all time favorites, but I was constantly impressed and along for the ride. The book made me cry 3 times, which is a lot. Everyone compares this series to the Godfather but I thought even starting with book 1 it was more like The Wire, and the thing Jade Legacy reminds me most of is the scope and ambition and themes of The Wire, even if they have different goals by the end.

The series is presented as action heavy with the kung-fu tag, but this can easily give people the wrong idea as it is much more a family and political drama. The restraint for when to employ fights is incredible; Fonda Lee makes every action sequence important.

There are books that come around that just shake things up, that take the genre in a different direction. I imagine the people who were reading Tolkien, Jordan or Hobb, who were reading La Guin, Martin or Rothfuss right when they first came out, knew that something special was in the making. Those are some hefty names, and we are never getting another Tolkien or Martin, but I really believe that in 5 years, 10 years, 20 years, people will be releasing incredible fantasy books and citing Fonda Lee as their biggest influence. I have read a classic in the making.

This is truly one of the most impressive books in one of the most impressive trilogies I've read.