Book Review | Jade Legacy by Fonda Lee
Thus far in my reviews of the Green Bone Saga, I’ve been a little average toward it. I gave Jade City and Jade War three stars, though I liked Jade War a little bit more, in my reviews that were released over the last couple of weeks. Now, I’ve wrapped up reading the trilogy, having just finished Jade Legacy, and I’ve gotta say, this book really stepped it for me in several ways. In this spoiler-free review, I’m going to dive into those ways in which the conclusion to the trilogy impressed me and give you my final personal recommendation based on my feelings toward the trilogy as a whole.
My Past Complaints Addressed
My biggest complaint about the first two books is that it was slow. The pacing always felt off and the rise toward action often seemed excessively drawn out, then left with little to no reward. In addition to that, I had an issue with the minimal usage of jade in general. It’s the core magic system and a key element of the entire story, yet was almost never used in either of those books. The action sequences also felt a little eh to me, which was disappointing as that had been what I was most excited about going into the series, based on what I’d heard.
Well… Jade Legacy knocked it out of the park in these regards, I feel. It was a much more aggressive story. Yeah, there were slow parts, but even those moments felt tense and riveting. I don’t think that I can recall a single instance of boredom during my reading of this story. I was always nervous and tense. The stakes felt much higher than they had in previous stories and it always felt as though things could wrong at any moment.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s still a slow burn, but it’s a more artful slow burn than the previous two books. The pacing is masterful in the story of Jade Legacy and I always had a hard time putting it down. When we did get action scenes, they were excellently done and heart-pounding. We also got them frequently, so I didn’t feel starved for combat, particularly jade combat, as I have with other books.
I’d say that when it comes to my previous complaints, they don’t really carry into the third and final book of this trilogy. They were largely addressed by Jade Legacy and I feel like, having finished the book, I am satisfied and have gotten what I wanted out of this story.
Incredible Character Work
I have consistently praised Fonda Lee’s character work in each entry for this trilogy and I have to do that again, here. In fact, this is the absolute strongest character writing I have seen in the series, probably in any story that I’ve read in recent memory. It was unbelievable! She has achieved something incredible with the characters in this story. I was brought to tears multiple times during my reading of this book. That’s right, kids, it happened. I cried not once, not twice, but at least three times. And I’m not talking about character deaths, either; I’m talking about deeply emotional, riveting moments that were written so excellently and powerfully that I just couldn’t hold the tears back. Simply incredible.
It has been a while since I finished a story and felt that I would miss the characters. I will definitely be missing the characters of the Green Bone Saga dearly. I feel that we got a compelling, neatly-tied ending for them and I’m not saying that I want a fourth book—I believe that it ended perfectly—I’m just saying that these are characters I really connected with and am sad to see go. I’m not sure that I’ll find characters as well-written as these for a while, but I suppose we’ll see. Jade City and Jade War introduced me to some remarkably well-written characters, but Jade Legacy made me fall in love with them and feel for them deeply.
It’s hard to pick favorites, here. I think I still really like Anden, but he took a backseat for me. Astonishingly, I think that I’m going to have to say that Niko and Wen are tied for my favorite characters in the entire series, now that I have seen their complete arcs. Niko we don’t really get to connect with for a while, but I absolutely love the direction that his character took and his personality was so compelling once it began to develop for us as readers.
Masterful Ending
You may not know this, but endings are hard. I have probably experienced more bad endings to stories than good ones. I have probably written more bad endings to stories than good ones. It is really hard to end a story, even if you thought you had the ending planned out from the beginning and it was going to turn out excellently. If I ask you to think of some bad endings you’ve experienced, you can probably rattle off dozens of them. If I ask you to rattle off good endings, I’ll bet it’s going to be tougher to start listing them off. So when I read the final book in a series, I’m nervous that I’m going to get a bad, unsatisfactory ending…
Not so with Jade Legacy. The quality of this ending is simply incredible. I could not have asked for a better one. I believe that this entire story was wrapped in a compelling, masterful way that just blew me away and had me choked up by the time I closed the book and returned it to my shelf. Fonda Lee’s vision for this story is outstanding and it comes through in a beautiful, powerful way. I loved this ending. I loved it so much, in fact, that I bumped the star rating up by one star amidst my reading of the last three chapters. That’s so close to the end for my star rating to change like that, but it’s just an amazing and powerful ending. Seriously.
And I guess that’ll bring us to my star rating.
Overall Rating
Jade City and Jade War both got three stars from me. Even after having read the third and final book and really enjoying it, I still stand by those lower ratings for the first two books, but Jade Legacy is far superior to them both. I couldn’t have imagined a better ending and I feel so satisfied by this conclusion to the story. By about the midpoint of the book, I had settled on giving it a four-star rating. It still wasn’t quite what I was looking for, but it was definitely better than the prior two entries. But then…
Then I read the last three chapters and closed the book. During that brief time period, my overall rating shot to five stars. This is an incredibly impactful ending and is clearly the work of someone who has a strong vision for her story and her characters. It was an unexpectedly perfect way to wrap up the entire story of the Green Bone Saga. I loved it, and I believe Jade Legacy definitely worked hard for each one of its five stars.
Yet, while this is a five-star book, do I think I’d recommend this series? I’ve ruminated on this for a while and I think I’m going to keep my recommendation the same. If you’re someone who really likes a slow-burn, politically-minded story with minimal action, this is definitely the series for you and I think you’ll love each of the three books. If that isn’t the sort of thing that you enjoy, then you are devoting a lot of reading time toward two books just so that you can get to the third book that I loved.
It’s well-written and populated with a compelling cast of characters, but the time commitment is pretty significant, so I think it still has a very specific audience as a series.
Conclusion
Now that I’ve finished The Green Bone Saga, I need to sit down and rest with that experience. I won’t be resting long, though, because I’m starting on John Gwynne’s The Faithful and the Fallen series with Malice, soon! That’ll be my next book review, which I’m planning to release next week! I’ve had fun with Fonda Lee’s series overall (the end in particular), but I’m excited to get into another world and meet a new cast of characters!
Thanks so much for checking out this review, I hope you enjoyed it! If you’d like to make sure you see new content from me when it releases, the best way is to subscribe to my YouTube channel. You can also follow me on social media; I’m @TLBainter on most platforms, and I’m going to have links for all of those profiles (and my channel) down below!
Until next time, bye!