Shae, the little sister of the family, is returning to Kekon after being disowned by her grandfather for her relationship with a foreign military officer and completing a business degree overseas. Hilo, the clan's main enforcer, is the middle child and a hothead, coupling a ferocious tendency towards violence with incredible empathy, personal charisma, and tolerance towards socially maligned groups. Lan is the current leader of the No Peak, and is the well-balanced, responsible elder son of the family-but he suffers from depression and struggles with his relationships. The books primarily follow the story of the Kaul family, the leaders of the No Peak and the grandchildren of Kaul Sen, one of the two prominent heroes of the independence conflict.
Jade is a mineral that's only found in Kekon, which when worn by members of an ethnic group primarily distributed in Kekon, grants the user prenatural speed, strength, perception, and the ability to channel energy either as blasts of force or disruptions to a body's internal organs. Two clans which had a prominent role in the independence conflict, the No Peak and the Mountain, vie for political and territorial control of the city, as well as its most valuable resource and the only fantasy element in the series: jade. The city where the first book takes place, Kekon, is roughly analogous to Hong Kong/Taiwan/Singapore-it's a culturally East Asian island-state that gained its independence from a brutal colonial power in the wake of a world war. The series is set in a fictional world that vaguely resembles our own.
Note: I've tried to write this review/promotion as spoiler-free, with general descriptions of themes, plot, and character arcs (no twists or major plot beats that you wouldn't find on a back cover) but if you're the sort of reader who wants to walk in totally blind, you should avoid going further and just read the books!
This series has the emotional stakes, world-building, plot, and pacing of the best of them, and I tore through both books in three days. I've been on a tear of reading fantasy/sci-fi series the last year-the Wheel of Time, the First Law, Broken Earth, Red Rising, the Locked Tomb, Red Rising, Worm, Temeraire, Shadows of the Apt, and a lot of other standalones. The series is up there as one of my favorite series that I've ever read, and I wanted to write a post encouraging other r/fantasy subscribers to read it. The Greenbone Saga by Fonda Lee, which currently consists of two books-Jade City and Jade War-with a third on the way this November (Jade Legacy).
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