Jade City (The Green Bone Saga Book 1)

Jade City, the killer opener to the Green Bone Saga, throws you into Janloon, a vibrant city with Hong Kong roots, where streets are run with martial arts flair, the blend of cultures is what makes this world so beautiful and unique. The story follows the Kaul family, leaders of the No Peak Clan, as they clash with the rival Mountain Clan over magical jade that gives Green Bone warriors superhuman abilities. Tensions escalate with the rise of an illegal drug enabling non-jade users to wield its power, shaking up the city’s balance. Often compared to The Godfather, Jade City is more like a yakuza epic with a fantasy spin, as Lee crafts a world of family loyalty, betrayal, and power struggles that keeps you hooked from page one.The characters are Jade City’s heart, each with their own drive. Kaul Lan, the Pillar, stays calm under the weight of leadership, while Hilo, my favorite, is a fiery Horn with swagger and fierce loyalty, commanding No Peak’s fighters. Shae, the youngest Kaul, returns from abroad and wrestles with her clan role, her sharp smarts shining as the Weather Man. Anden Emery, a mixed-race teen, faces identity struggles, his courage and heart making him stand out. Ayt Mada, the Mountain Clan’s ruthless Pillar, fuels the war with cunning plans, backed by her fearsome Horn, Gont Asch, a brute who dominates the streets. The Maik siblings, Wen, Kehn, and Tar, add grit and depth, while Bero, a scrappy jade thief, stirs up the wild, messy side of Janloon’s streets. The mix of love, tension, and duty, set against Ayt Mada’s schemes, gives the clan conflict serious emotional punch.Lee’s writing is vivid and punchy, bringing Janloon’s culture to life without overwhelming you. She balances intense action with thoughtful moments, making street fights and family pressures feel real. The world-building is awesome, with details like Kekon’s gods, clan rules, and the stigma around stone-eyes and Abukei people adding layers to the jade-driven society. Mythology interludes offer a cool, poetic break from the story’s intensity, tying the conflict to a bigger picture.“Expectations are a funny thing,” Wen said. “When you’re born with them, you resent them, fight against them. When you’ve never been given any, you feel the lack of them your whole life.”As a martial arts film enthusiast, I couldn’t help but imagine a new Jade City screen adaptation, after Peacock decided to cancel their version before it could even happen. Woo Do-hwan, with his electric energy and fight skills from The King: Eternal Monarch, would nail Hilo, owning every scene. Jessica Henwick, blending brains and toughness from Iron Fist, is perfect for Shae, capturing her smarts and jade-fueled moves. Ludi Lin, with his grounded depth from Mortal Kombat, would shine as Lan, balancing leadership and doubts. Ryan Potter, tapping his Titans heart, would bring Anden’s mixed-race struggles and loyalty to life. Dallas Liu, with his scrappy edge from Shang-Chi, would kill it as Bero, stirring up Janloon’s messy streets. Gong Li, fierceness from Memoirs of a Geisha, would dominate as Ayt Mada, driving the Mountain Clan’s war, with Ma Dong-seok’s massive presence from The Roundup making Gont Asch a beast. This cast is rooted in East Asian heritage, which helps amplify the novel’s themes of family, loyalty, and power, bringing Janloon to the screen in style. You can thank me later for this perfect casting (takes a bow)While the Jade City excels in its pacing and tension, the audiobook narration by Andrew Kishino, though strong overall, struggles to differentiate female voices from male ones. This didn’t necessarily kill the immersion for me since he nailed the action and drama of the story, but it was a slight hiccup. I’m also not fan of sex scenes in books and generally find them unnecessary, though I understand why it’s there for the characters, it’s just one of those “skip to the next page” things for me. These minor quibbles didn’t take away from Lee’s storytelling, which kept me hooked with its seamless blend of action, intrigue, and emotional stakes.Jade City is a stellar urban fantasy, weaving crime drama and epic fantasy into a story you can’t put down. Lee’s take on power, family, and identity, against the Mountain Clan’s ruthless plans, hits deep, and I’m stoked to dive back into Janloon for the sequels. The audiobook’s voice mix-up and skippable sex scenes didn’t slow me down—the vivid world, gripping characters, and relentless action make this a must-read. I now understand why Petrik Leo loves this series so much, and I’m saddened I took so long to read it, so if you love tight family bonds or jade-charged battles, Jade City is going to win you over ten-fold.

Fonda Lee is the much-loved author of a number of fantastic novels, and it's no wonder that her SFF epic Jade City caught the eye of the Nebula award committee. Jade City is eye-catching indeed, with an exciting premise, a fresh new type of magic, gangsters, politics, family, betrayal, and ... mining? The back cover promises more than enough to have this book flying off the shelves - and boy does it deliver!Literally by page 3 I was already blown away by Lee's world building. You can read more about her take on world building in SFF in this interview over on the Barnes and Noble SFF blog, and you should - because she is a master. There were a couple of places where I found I was asking questions about "how things worked," only to find that she answered them 10-20 pages later. The world she's created for Jade City is wonderful, inspiring, and I'm truly glad it looks like we're all going to get at least two more books in which to explore it.No review of this book could get far without talking about the magic in this book, so that's where I'll start. Lee introduces readers to a modern world in which some people (natives of the fictitious island of Kekon) can access magical superhuman powers by wearing, or being very near, the gemstone jade. Of course, there's a whole culture around how, and by whom, jade is worn, and Lee uses this to great effect both overtly (in describing how characters feel about their jade and that of others) and subtly (as she teaches us as readers the meaning of jade early on, she empowers us to draw our own interpretations and conclusions later on in the narrative). The loving way she mentions jade - how it catches the light, how it swings on a chain, how it sits in the handle of a blade or the setting of a bracelet, how it glows against the skin - feels casual, beautiful, and insidious. In a word: magical.One of the more masterful things Lee has done in Jade City is marry old-world (fictitious) cultural tradition with modern globalism, politics, and business, in a way that feels absolutely real, relatable, and truly fascinating. This marriage isn't seamless, and Lee uses that friction to add depth to the world, to motivate her characters, and to help readers invest in the narrative on multiple levels at once. Yet somehow, though she uses Taiwanese, Japanese, and other east Asian imagery and cultural tropes (traditional and modern) as touchstones in her fictional nation of Kekon, they don't feel like tropes.When I picture the traditional architecture's sloping roofs I feel like I'm borrowing from my exposure to Japanese architecture to inform my understanding of Kekonese tradition. Similarly, when Lee describes her leather-clad street gangs' wild hairstyles, the fact that I'm picturing a Bosozoku pompadour feels coincidental - rather than as though she's borrowing too heavily from current cultures.Jade City's greatest strength, as far as I'm concerned, has nothing to do with all those wild and wonderful promises from its back cover (though have I stressed yet just how well Lee delivers on all those promises?). It's all about the main characters. They're all so epically, unbelievably, human. The main characters, Lan, Hilo, and Shae, are each in their own right some of the most fully realized and deeply individual characters I've ever encountered in speculative fiction. For the three of them to make up an ensemble cast is almost overwhelming. Their flaws don't feel like plot devices, their mistakes aren't convenient, and though they're all incredibly strong jade-wearers none of them feel like any kind of god-mode Gary Stu. And the way she illustrates so many rarely-explored facets of masculinity ... a whole article could be written on her characters' masculinity alone. She does what so many authors fail to do - writes fully-rounded characters who each own their own kinds of masculinity. I can honestly say I've never encountered another cast of characters like this, and I'm moved by it.This isn't to say that I have no bones to pick with this book. On the contrary, while I clearly think Lee has done a fantastic job in creating Jade City, I'm not an overly large fan of her writing. In general, her narrative voice is simpler than I prefer - offering many short, choppy sentences rather than indulging in more complex phrases. Where this stood out most to me was the way in which it hampered what could have been a much more poetic descriptive style. There were a few times where her poeticism came through for me, but for the most part it fell flat because of her narrative voice.Another quibble is one I've already alluded to. While she did get around to answering all my questions about the world and its workings, I was distracted again and again, was pulled out of the story because I was missing vital information about the background or setting. While this is normally not something I'd mention about a book, it ended up having a significant impact on my enjoyment of this book in particular. Especially in the first 100 pages or so, her use of undefined terms or references to unknown groups and affiliations became dense enough that whole paragraphs read like buzzword-salad. Stick with it, though, because the payoff is completely worth it.In the end, I'm very impressed by Fonda Lee's Jade City and am prepared to recommend it to just about everybody - and I'll happily wait until 2019 for my next visit to Kekon.

I’ve had my eye on Jade City for some time now and picked it up one day while browsing Twitter. There, I saw that Shealea from That Bookshelf Bitch has added it to a thread of books less than $2.99 on Kindle. With a deal like that, how can I resist? Well, as it turns out, it’s a good thing I didn’t because Jade City is one of the best books I’ve read all year.Jade City is one of the best books I’ve read this year. That’s not an exaggeration. I’ve never watched The Godfather or any mafia film really, but the book still managed to convey that feeling. I haven’t watched any Hong Kong action films either but this must be how it’s like with some magic added. How would I describe Jade City? Think of a mafia-style family drama and set in a fantasy version of Hong Kong. Now add magic Jade. You get Jade City.Jade City is set in the island of Kekon, specifically in its capital city of Janloon. Here, two clans fight for power and dominance after working together in a war to overthrow colonial rule. In this new, free Kekon, the Kekonese- the race of persons granted with the ability to use Jade- are organized into clans and are soon roped in into all-out clan war.As always, I’d like to start with the world and world-building. Jade City is set in a secondary world, in a world where colonial rule has left its mark on the island of Kekon, leaving the island and its people to distrust foreigners. Here, Jade rules the island. The island’s economy is basically controlled by the two clans, the Mountain clan and the No Peak clan, two clans whose relations have been tense for some time. In a sense, Jade rules the island. Jade enhances a person’s physical capabilities- strength, speed, even perception. Only the Kekonese could use it to that end, until the invention of a drug called Shine.The way the world presented was so vivid it felt like I was watching a movie in my mind. I could imagine every detail of the world and the events happening and I absolutely loved how Fonda Lee described everything. The world felt so lush and I was totally immersed while reading.I really enjoyed the magic system presented here. There’s something almost scientific about it- there’s only one race who could utilize jade naturally, the jade doesn’t exactly make one superhuman, and instead, it mostly enhances one’s existing capabilites. Furthermore, there can actually be a point wherein additional jade stops having any effect. It’s an interesting take on the old magic items giving special powers thing.Jade City is a very fast-paced book. There are no slow moments, no fluff, no padding. Each scene felt vital to the plot and there aren’t any scenes which felt out of place. I’ve seen the pacing described as “YA-style pacing” and it’s very accurate. It doesn’t take very long to read and once you get really into it, it can be hard to put down. I myself finished it at about two or three in the morning.At its heart however, Jade City is a family drama. It’s a story about the different generations of Kauls and how they impact their clan and the island they call home. It’s the story of Lan, Hilo, Shae, and Anden, siblings who are at the center of everything happening on the island. All of them had their parts to play in the story and it became clear that they would play their parts, whether they want to or not. I loved all of their arcs but Lan and Hilo’s arcs are major spoilers so I won’t talk about them here. However, theirs are the more mature and dark ones here.If I’m to be biased though, I’d say Shae had the best arc out of the siblings, with Anden a close second. At first, Shae is just the sister who comes back from another country and refuses to wear jade. She basically fights against the patriarchal structures in their society (somewhat like the antagonist even) and decided that she wants to be independent. Essentially, it’s like she fights against the ‘destiny’ they try to push onto her and prove that she can make it on her own. What I like best about her arc is how it’s basically “the one who left and returned”. She really did have a lot to prove because of her youth and gender, but she did. She pulled through and basically made it clear that she does know what she’s doing. I loved her character as a strong, independent woman with strong familial ties.Anden also had an incredibly strong arc. Anden is the adoptive cousin/brother of the Kauls and he also happened to come from a family with strong jade sensitivities. This made a lot of people- especially Hilo- place a lot of expectations on him. While reading from his point of view, I could really see how all of these expectations were starting to affect him, along with his sordid family history. Towards the end, I really understood why he did what he did and why he felt like it was necessary.Truly one of the best parts of Jade City is the family relationships. I don’t think one could really call it Asian-inspired without the complex family relationships. The filial piety you see here and the way the characters interact somehow reminds me of my own (without all the power plays and other messed up stuff, of course). The way their family unit always has to stick together despite their differences speaks to me. I think that in a way, Jade City fulfilled a need I didn’t know I had for more complex family relationships. I guess I’m just tired of absentee parents/siblings or protagonists with a shallow relationship with their family.I’m eagerly anticipating the release of the next book. When I finished Jade City, I regretted it immediately because I felt this need for the next one on my hands. Once a release date has been announced, you better believe I’ll be eagerly counting down the days to the next one. And who knows, maybe I’ll stay up until the wee hours of the morning again- not that I’ll be complaining.

4.5 This was a surprising read to me and I did enjoy this but it also wasn’t my typical style of story. I mainly read this because it praised so highly by the book community and I happened to have all three books from a Kindle deal. It seemed like a good time to finally give this series a try.It was a little hard to get into at first since I had no idea what was going on, who was who and what time period this took place. The best was to describe this book is that it is a modern, martial arts (with modern guns too) with a clan war setting/plot. And the two sides of the clan war (Mountain and No Peak) are filled with people called Green Bones and they are those who can possess Jade which can give them enhanced abilities. I still am not really clear on what exactly Jade does or what abilities it gives, but it seems to mainly provide enhanced abilities with some other abilities such as deflection.I was not a fan of this being a modern time setting and this is probably my main complaint.As I mentioned the story focuses on the clan war and this story focuses on No Peak. There are multiple point of views throughout the book, but the main focus is on the leader/Pillar of No Peak (Lan), the lead fighter/Horn of No Peak (Hilo) and their sister Shae. There are also some other side characters such as Anden and a Jade Thief, who is literally the worst person in the book.I will say this author does an amazing job with the characters and having their actions flow seamlessly with the plot. This book reads so smooth to where nothing feels unnecessary to the overall story and the plot is always moving forward.A part of me was tempted to not continue the series because as I mentioned this is not a typical type of fantasy that I enjoy, but I think I am too invested into the story to stop. I have dreamed about this book for a few nights and I honestly need to know how it all ends.I am glad I gave this series a try and I am invested into the characters and story now so I do see myself finishing the series.

Three siblings inherit the mantel of their recently retired grandfather. Overshadowed by the legacy of a martyr father who died for their clan's freedom, and by his grandfather, who successfully led their clan through a war and through numerous years of peace thereafter, Lan struggles to prove to his clan and his enemies that he's a ruler in his own right. Hilo was practically born to lead his clan's army, but perhaps their opposing clan is right in suggesting that he's too aggressive. Shae, the youngest of the three, left her family and clan far behind to study in a foreign university. Returning years later, she can see her clan from a foreigner's perspective: brutal and medieval, notable only for the magical jade it can provide.Jade City is a slow build fantasy novel with comprehensive world building and excellent well rounded characters. The general plot is about the No Peak clan being beset by their opposing Mountain clan, who are in a much stronger position, and have been planning their takeover long before Lan & his clan ever had any hint. Lan & Hilo are in over their heads, struggling politically and militarily to hold their clan's position.Aside from being a great fantasy with a fantastic mesh of modern-like politics and old world style mafia rulership, set in an Asian type culture, the story spends a lot of time on the characters themselves. The narrative swaps between several points of view - the three Kaul grandchildren and an adopted cousin of theirs. The POV swaps were done smoothly, spending a good amount of time on each character, so the reader gets to know and connect with each one in their own ways.While the story revolves around samurai like warriors with supernatural abilities running around killing each other and trying to survive a war, the deeper theme here was about family and loyalty. The clan expects a lot from its highest members, leaving them to grapple with the sacrifices the clan demands from them, especially and even more so during the war. Each character faces a sacrifice for the clan, and as they're pulled further and further along by the plot, they each need to ask themselves how much they're willing to sacrifice of themselves for their family, for their clan, and what happens when the sacrifice becomes too much.I enjoyed the magical abilities the warriors used. They required years of training to properly wield their jade, and they lived by a warrior's code. Most of all, I liked the thorough and comprehensive psychological journey each character faced. They each had to make some hard choices and constantly faced tests of loyalty to their family and clan. It was a very long book. It didn't have a lot of fast paced action scenes, but the pace moved along nicely.

Jade City is a work of modern, urban fantasy. For those who have not read it, think of it as a cross between Avatar: The Last Airbender anime series, with the novels The Godfather, and Dune. It has gang family strife with mixed martial arts, and magic! They have cars, TV, and regular telephony, but no internet or mobile devices. From our Earth technology perspective I feel like the story would take place sometime in the late 1970s through early 1990s. A world pre-internet and pre-mobile devices.Fantasy tropes evident in Jade City:Good versus Evil: We have two main gang families battling for supremacy. On the side of the protagonists we have the Kaul family. The antagonists are the Ayt family.Epic Battles: both gang families fight for control of magical jade and for control of their turf in Janloon the capital city of their small island nation of Kekon (which is roughly the size of Taiwan).Magic: It comes from magical jade stone, which only comes from Kekon island where the gang families fight for control. With training and appropriate genes, you can manipulate jade energy and learn powers from the following six disciplines (Lee p. 62): Strength, Steel, Perception, Lightness, Deflection and Channeling.Sword and Sorcery: As you would expect in martial arts, there are many hand-held weapons mentioned, along with lots of combat. This hand-to-hand combat is enhanced with jade stone. More jade gives you more power, assuming you have the training (and genes) to properly handle it.Star Wars fans will recognize the jade warriors as members of the Jedi or Sith factions, based on their strict hierarchy, training regimen, and reverence of jade energy which roughly translates to "the force" in Star Wars parlance.Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) fans will easily recognize the jade warriors as members of the Monk D&D character class due to their martial prowess and the intense mental and physical training regimen.Tensions are built and explode after the Kaul family discovers the Ayt family is embezzling magical jade from the national mines, selling it overseas, and profiting immensely from the smuggling operation. The assassination of the leader of the Kaul mafia family also starts a series of irreversible actions leading to open urban clan warfare.World building considerations:Geopolitics and nation-state metaphors: geopolitics is mentioned by way of what's happening outside the island nation of Kekon, between two larger continental powers that covet Kekon nation's magical jade stone: Espenia (which roughly equates to the US and/or the West), and Ygutan (which roughly equates to China). China is playing catch up with the West, technologically speaking. Jade City parallels this reality: "Tensions between Espenia and Ygutan grows day by day. The world is dividing into camps, and both sides covet the jade found only on this island. What kind of fortune did the Espenians spend to ... equip their elite soldiers with jade? The Ygutanians are playing catch-up, but they certainly want no less" (Lee p. 407).Resources and resource metaphors: The magical jade stone in Jade City plays a role similar to "spice" in Frank Herbert's Dune. Both jade stone and spice are unique to the local environments (no one else can produce them). In Dune, spice is a metaphor for petroleum. In Jade City, magical jade stone is a metaphor for semiconductors, which our modern world needs for everything from toys to appliances to nuclear command and control systems.Economics: The island nation of Kekon, where magical jade originates, is analogous to modern Taiwan (where today's most advanced semiconductors originate). Our world economy needs semiconductors to operate. The US doesn't want Taiwan to fall under control of China because that would inhibit the supply of advanced semiconductors to the US and the West. Jade City's people of Kekon island are aware of their version of geoeconomic reality regarding the nation states of Espenia and Ygutan respectively: "We're a small country with a precious resource. If we don't take the right actions, we'll find ourselves at the mercy of imperial powers again" (Lee p. 407).Jade City vs. The Godfather vs. Dune: In each book power corrupts, crime families exist, and powerful families strive against each other. Yet in some ways Jade City transcends Puzo's The Godfather precisely because of the aforementioned geopolitical elements and the economics of Lee's magical jade stone. In The Godfather, such an all powerful, unique resource, magical jade stone, doesn't exist nor is controlled by Don Corleone or the other mafia families. As for geopolitical elements, while they exist in The Godfather (between the US, Italy and Germany for example, and the mentioning several times of WWII), there isn't as much emphasis on the larger geopolitical milieu and nation state strife in The Godfather that we get in Jade City. Regarding critical resources that the world economy and military-industrial complex run on, Jade City is more akin to Herbert's Dune, than Puzo's The Godfather, because of the wider political, military and economic roles filled by Lee's magical jade stone and Herbert's "spice" respectively.In short, Jade City has a lot going for it. The fantasy world is rich with economic and political metaphors that model modern Earth. I had to read this book as part of an MFA Creative Writing course. I am happy I chose Jade City. It wasn't boring. It was a fun read that did NOT feel like forced reading homework. The author's imagined world was amazing, and I learned a lot about world building from it.Cheers!Works CitedAvatar: The Last Airbender. Written by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, Nickelodeon, 2005.Herbert, Frank. Dune. Chilton Books, 1965.Lee, Fonda. Jade City. Orbit (Hachette Book Group), 2017.Puzo, Mario. The Godfather: the 50th Anniversary Edition. Berkley, 2002.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (3.5 stars rounded up)This is a well-written, meticulously planned fantasy. Like any great series, the threads Fonda Lee weaves don’t fully reveal themselves until the final quarter of the book, and once they do, everything clicks into place.I’ll admit, this one took me a while to get into. It took me a full week to finish, which is slow for me. Looking back, I just needed to trust the author’s vision and let the story unfold on its own terms.I’m so glad I did.By the end, I was invested in both the Kaul family and the world they’d built. Book 1 lays the foundation for something much bigger, setting up countless storylines that have me genuinely excited to see where the series goes next.

I’m not a great fan of gang/mob type stories or movies but this book gives all the feels. I love the world setting, the characters are very intriguing and the story is particularly interesting. I saw a book review and had to give it a try and don’t regret it!

Hooks you right from the start! Fonda Lee is amazing writer and this is one of the best trilogies I’ve ever read.

Chyba najlepiej wygląda ze wszystkich książek, które kupiłam na Amazon. Rogi lekko pozaginane. Paczka źle spakowana.

Awesome book series, buy from cocoblu seller

Webs of intrigue and power cast over a city that feels real, but where you expected a seedy underbelly, you find a stone hard magical warriors.

Book was delivered in good condition