Jade (and vengeance, and honor, and pure bloody-mindedness) is why the No Peak and Mountain clans have been at war for so long. But Kekon Island is the only place in Lee's urban fantasy world where one can find the science-y/magical bioenergetic jade that powers both the economies of her world and the borderline superpowers that it imparts to those among the Kekonese clans born with the genetic ability to use it to punch through walls, deflect bullets, almost fly, nearly read minds and generally behave like a bunch of old-school wuxia badasses in designer suits and thousand-dollar sunglasses. Not wizards-in-pointy-hats-magic or avada kedavra magic. But they're also the recognized power that holds Kekon together and defends the island against its many, many enemies. They burn and murder and wage bloody war in the streets. They do crimes like it's going out of style.
They are the mafia with a sense of national duty, yakuza gone legit and multinational, with skyscrapers and schools and seats on charity garden club boards. It begins when Hilo is young - just an arrogant, powerful, Green Bone street soldier in his family's criminal empire on the imaginary island nation of Kekon - and follows him through triumph and tragedy (mostly tragedy), across a 20-year war with the family's rivals, the Mountain Clan. You pick them up and it's hard to put them down.įor the uninitiated, here are the basics: The three books in the series ( Jade City, Jade War and Jade Legacy, the newest) exist, essentially, to tell the tale of the Kaul family of No Peak Clan and, specifically, of Kaul Hilo, his sister Shae, and their extended families. They are terrible temptations, these books. Both more ordered and more chaotic at the same time.
Mostly you get hooked because Lee has created a world that feels as real and logical and lived-in as the one outside the covers.
You fall into these books like a love affair - all rough physicality and surprise - but stay (across thousands of pages) because there's so much more to it than that. Watermelon soda and sea air, delicate perfume and gunsmoke. Open the cover of a Fonda Lee Green Bone Saga book and you can smell the blood on the pages.Īutumn leaves, too.
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