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ofbooksandechos's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Violence, and Gun violence
Moderate: Sexual content, Homophobia, and Abortion
Minor: Rape, Pedophilia, and Ableism
additional tw: racism and allusions to the massacre of indigenous peopletalonsontypewriters's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Drug use, Violence, Xenophobia, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Addiction, War, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Murder, Torture, Car accident, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, and Gun violence
Moderate: Alcohol, Colonisation, Misogyny, Abortion, Pregnancy, Sexual content, Ableism, Sexism, Suicide, and Kidnapping
Minor: Vomit, Cancer, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Excrement, Homophobia, Animal death, Alcoholism, Pedophilia, Infidelity, and Rape
rorikae's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
reflective
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
In 'Jade War,' Fonda Lee continues the saga of the Kaul family as we deal with fallout from what happened in 'Jade City' and see how the political machinations, family dynamics, and the future of the clans continue to weave together.
The middle books in a series tend to not be as strong as the first or final installments but that is not true with 'Jade War.' Lee elevates the pieces that she introduced us to in 'Jade City' and the more time we spend with these characters, the further we get pulled into their lives. I won't touch on any specifics since this is the second book but I will say that we continue to follow the Kaul family and those involved with the different clans. There are high points and even more devastating low points.
I think the two parts of this story that are the strongest are the complex characters and the political machinations. Each of the characters are deeply flawed but Lee portrays them as so deeply human that it's hard not to care for them. I especially find Hilo a fascinating character. He may be my favorite character in the series but his flaws come out at many points of this book. There is a decision that he makes in this book that I absolutely did not agree with but Lee made me understand it and it didn't harm my care for him.
The twists and turns of this story are more dynamic and emotional than in the first book. I can't even begin to imagine what will happen in 'Jade Legacy' but I am sure that it will be a rollercoaster. I both cannot wait to pick up the final book and also want to put it off so that I always have more of these characters to return to.
The middle books in a series tend to not be as strong as the first or final installments but that is not true with 'Jade War.' Lee elevates the pieces that she introduced us to in 'Jade City' and the more time we spend with these characters, the further we get pulled into their lives. I won't touch on any specifics since this is the second book but I will say that we continue to follow the Kaul family and those involved with the different clans. There are high points and even more devastating low points.
I think the two parts of this story that are the strongest are the complex characters and the political machinations. Each of the characters are deeply flawed but Lee portrays them as so deeply human that it's hard not to care for them. I especially find Hilo a fascinating character. He may be my favorite character in the series but his flaws come out at many points of this book. There is a decision that he makes in this book that I absolutely did not agree with but Lee made me understand it and it didn't harm my care for him.
The twists and turns of this story are more dynamic and emotional than in the first book. I can't even begin to imagine what will happen in 'Jade Legacy' but I am sure that it will be a rollercoaster. I both cannot wait to pick up the final book and also want to put it off so that I always have more of these characters to return to.
Content Warnings
Graphic: War, Addiction, Blood, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Torture, Violence, and Xenophobia
Moderate: Torture, Suicide, Sexual content, Pregnancy, Kidnapping, Homophobia, and Abortion
jnl00700's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Abortion, Addiction, Death, Homophobia, Misogyny, Murder, Racism, Sexual content, Violence, and Xenophobia
emma985's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence and Abortion
Moderate: Homophobia, Pregnancy, and Gore
whatevertheysay's review against another edition
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide
Moderate: Body horror, Death, Hate crime, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Murder, Racism, Sexism, Sexual content, and Xenophobia
Minor: Homophobia and Pedophilia
luckykosmos's review against another edition
dark
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
It took me a while to read this, purely because there was so much going on at every step, I had to take time to process the politics of it. Book 1 was already so many intricate pieces, taking it international only upped the tension at every turn. Seeing the Kekonese diaspora was an amazing choice here. I'm beyond excited to see what comes next.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence and Gun violence
Moderate: Xenophobia
Minor: Homophobia
booksthatburn's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
tense
fast-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
There was so much death in Jade City that I came into Jade War assuming this book would be a river of blood, but I was wrong in the best way. This is an excellent and moderately bloody sequel filled with the political and inter-personal fallout from Jade City (plus a lot of its own thing which sometimes does actually involve a lot of blood). Many of the moves made here are positioning and jockeying for the final stages of this conflict which I expect will happen in the conclusion to the trilogy, Jade Legacy. There are moments of (sometimes very intense) violence and a conclusion which had me on the edge of my seat; the tension and quiet between are managed really well across the nearly 600-page book. Jade City set me up to expect that anyone could die and that a lot of people would. This is the calm before the oncoming storm of violence and blood, featuring some damage, and a little death, but not nearly as much as Jade City. That also meant that I had time to really get to know and worry about all the characters, since if it had been a 600-page bloodbath I would have been numb to it halfway in. No, it's not like that; there's time to care, to rest, to mourn, to pick up the pieces and carry on before something goes horribly wrong all over again.
This is book two of a trilogy, so it's time for my normal book two check. This wraps up several things which were left hanging from the first book; The storylines are complicated enough that I expect the repercussions of how many things were wrapped up will have echoes in the third book, but many things feel either resolved or escalated to a more serious level where we have something legitimately bigger things to worry about and the small stuff is closed. There's a pretty major storyline which is introduced and resolved within this book. I'm thinking of a particular one, but there are several contenders depending on how narrowly you define "introduced and resolved" in this volume. There are, heh, so many things for the sequel to pick up. This is the saga of a family and a nation, every book spans years, and I'm very excited to find out what happens to them after this portion of the story. There's also some pretty major things that come to a head at the end of this book and I need to know the aftereffects. There are several returning POV characters from the Jade City, plus a few minor ones, and their narrative voices feel pretty distinct even though we don't get much time with the minor characters narrating. Sometimes those differences are accomplished through conveying their assumptions about what's going on, as different people have different levels of information, but the rotating cast of main point-of-view characters definitely have distinct voices from each other. And, finally, answering whether someone could start with this book and have things still make sense... I think so. Because the book has so many story threads and characters it's actually pretty good about grounding you in the importance and history of a character either the first time they show up in this book, or pretty soon after. It never felt like infodumping to me, but there were little descriptions or things the characters were mulling over which could either make someone remember their importance from the first book, or serve to establish them to someone who hadn't read Jade City but decided to read Jade War. I read Jade City a few months before reading this and the reminders were welcome without ever being annoying. Enough time is passing for the characters that those refrains are important even if you remember everything because it lets you know what the characters are still worrying about one, two, or even five years after it happened. That being said... don't read this by itself. Yeah, it'll probably make sense, but the resolutions that do happen here will be so much more meaningful and emotionally impactful if you've already spent a whole book getting to know the characters and the world first.
I appreciate the way that this series so far is really engaging with the way that this kind of bloody decade-long conflict would leave a lot of people with disabilities, both visible and invisible. There's a character who became disabled in Jade City who reappears in Jade War in a minor but important role, as well as discussions of how various characters are either ignoring or dealing with the emotional impact of all this stress. There's also a character whose entire arc in this book is built around how he recovers (or doesn't) from some pretty brutal trauma in the first book. I can't vouch for the realism of each individual depiction of disability, but as a whole it creates a feeling that author took the time to try and get it right on a variety of facets. It's good worldbuilding, great storytelling, and makes me feel cared for as a reader even as I worry which of my favorite characters will die next.
This is book two of a trilogy, so it's time for my normal book two check. This wraps up several things which were left hanging from the first book; The storylines are complicated enough that I expect the repercussions of how many things were wrapped up will have echoes in the third book, but many things feel either resolved or escalated to a more serious level where we have something legitimately bigger things to worry about and the small stuff is closed. There's a pretty major storyline which is introduced and resolved within this book. I'm thinking of a particular one, but there are several contenders depending on how narrowly you define "introduced and resolved" in this volume. There are, heh, so many things for the sequel to pick up. This is the saga of a family and a nation, every book spans years, and I'm very excited to find out what happens to them after this portion of the story. There's also some pretty major things that come to a head at the end of this book and I need to know the aftereffects. There are several returning POV characters from the Jade City, plus a few minor ones, and their narrative voices feel pretty distinct even though we don't get much time with the minor characters narrating. Sometimes those differences are accomplished through conveying their assumptions about what's going on, as different people have different levels of information, but the rotating cast of main point-of-view characters definitely have distinct voices from each other. And, finally, answering whether someone could start with this book and have things still make sense... I think so. Because the book has so many story threads and characters it's actually pretty good about grounding you in the importance and history of a character either the first time they show up in this book, or pretty soon after. It never felt like infodumping to me, but there were little descriptions or things the characters were mulling over which could either make someone remember their importance from the first book, or serve to establish them to someone who hadn't read Jade City but decided to read Jade War. I read Jade City a few months before reading this and the reminders were welcome without ever being annoying. Enough time is passing for the characters that those refrains are important even if you remember everything because it lets you know what the characters are still worrying about one, two, or even five years after it happened. That being said... don't read this by itself. Yeah, it'll probably make sense, but the resolutions that do happen here will be so much more meaningful and emotionally impactful if you've already spent a whole book getting to know the characters and the world first.
I appreciate the way that this series so far is really engaging with the way that this kind of bloody decade-long conflict would leave a lot of people with disabilities, both visible and invisible. There's a character who became disabled in Jade City who reappears in Jade War in a minor but important role, as well as discussions of how various characters are either ignoring or dealing with the emotional impact of all this stress. There's also a character whose entire arc in this book is built around how he recovers (or doesn't) from some pretty brutal trauma in the first book. I can't vouch for the realism of each individual depiction of disability, but as a whole it creates a feeling that author took the time to try and get it right on a variety of facets. It's good worldbuilding, great storytelling, and makes me feel cared for as a reader even as I worry which of my favorite characters will die next.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Death, Gun violence, and Violence
Moderate: Homophobia, Sexual content, and Suicidal thoughts
Minor: Ableism, Animal death, and Rape
CW for ableism (minor), animal death (not depicted), rape (not depicted), abortion (not depicted), sexual content, suicidal thoughts, homophobia, blood, gun violence, violence, parental death, major character death, death.
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