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nicktommasini 's review for:
Jade War
by Fonda Lee
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
What I Liked: Again, the worldbuilding is really stellar here. Much like The Poppy War, it is very clearly moulded after our own world, with almost direct analogues for all of the major world powers and their associated background (i.e., Kekon = Japan, Ygutan = Russia, Shotar = China, Espenia = UK / US / broadly the West). Having this backdrop already pre-set up lets Lee focus on the more exciting and interesting twists her world introduces -- like the intricacies of clan life, what that power structure would look like, the hard magic of bioenergetic jade, etc. The broader geopolitical scope of this novel helped flesh out the world well, and I appreciated how much larger the story felt this time around.
I also found the characters to be just as strong in this book. Hilo in particular I found grew significantly over the course of the book in both positive and negative ways, and does some genuinely heinous things. Shae also feels very well realized as someone caught between two worlds, and I was glad to see both Anden and Wen get more PoV chapters and a larger stake in the story.
Finally, the last 100 pages or so are genuinely very riveting, much in the way that Jade City ramps up significantly in its final handful of pages. While the middle third of the book felt a bit like it was treading water (or rather, serving more as slice-of-life into these characters as they adapted to their new circumstances), it all tied together well by the end, and felt overall like there was enough tied up here for the story to be satisfying in its own right while also leaving the right amount for the final installment in the trilogy.
What I Didn't Like: Two primary complaints, though neither enough to significantly damage my enjoyment of the book.
First, I felt like the end of Jade City leaves off in a place where you expect full-on clan war to break-out, and so I imagined this to be much more action-packed and forward moving than it was. Instead, the status quo gets reset relatively quickly as new orthogonal threats (like Zapunyo and the Uwiwans, and the broader Espenia / Ygutan conflict) take center stage. While intricately plotted, it ultimately felt a bit like a retreat from the faster pace that was promised at the end of the prior book, as Lee takes her time to set up new threads instead. In the end, the status quo for the major clans is largely similar to where it was at the start of the prior book (in terms of relative standing; the overall geopolitical landscape of the world has shifted a bit).
Also, Lee's writing style can tend towards very info-dumpy and heavy-handed at times -- very cleanly and directly explaining both the world and the characters' motivations in a way that feels less deft than some of my absolute favorite authors like GRRM, Scott Lynch or Joe Abercrombie.
I also found the characters to be just as strong in this book. Hilo in particular I found grew significantly over the course of the book in both positive and negative ways, and does some genuinely heinous things. Shae also feels very well realized as someone caught between two worlds, and I was glad to see both Anden and Wen get more PoV chapters and a larger stake in the story.
Finally, the last 100 pages or so are genuinely very riveting, much in the way that Jade City ramps up significantly in its final handful of pages. While the middle third of the book felt a bit like it was treading water (or rather, serving more as slice-of-life into these characters as they adapted to their new circumstances), it all tied together well by the end, and felt overall like there was enough tied up here for the story to be satisfying in its own right while also leaving the right amount for the final installment in the trilogy.
What I Didn't Like: Two primary complaints, though neither enough to significantly damage my enjoyment of the book.
First, I felt like the end of Jade City leaves off in a place where you expect full-on clan war to break-out, and so I imagined this to be much more action-packed and forward moving than it was. Instead, the status quo gets reset relatively quickly as new orthogonal threats (like Zapunyo and the Uwiwans, and the broader Espenia / Ygutan conflict) take center stage. While intricately plotted, it ultimately felt a bit like a retreat from the faster pace that was promised at the end of the prior book, as Lee takes her time to set up new threads instead. In the end, the status quo for the major clans is largely similar to where it was at the start of the prior book (in terms of relative standing; the overall geopolitical landscape of the world has shifted a bit).
Also, Lee's writing style can tend towards very info-dumpy and heavy-handed at times -- very cleanly and directly explaining both the world and the characters' motivations in a way that feels less deft than some of my absolute favorite authors like GRRM, Scott Lynch or Joe Abercrombie.