Overall series rating: 3.5 stars
Jade City: 4.25 stars
Jade War: 4 stars
Jade Legacy: 2.75 stars
I had heard such great things about the Green Bone Saga, and after my best friend read and loved it, I knew I had to get to it as soon as possible. I love Asian-inspired settings, gang wars, drugs, and morally gray characters; it all sounded like it would be a safe win for me.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I did enjoy the series, and I’m glad I read it. But it definitely served as a reminder not to hype books by new-to-me authors up into the sky because I definitely my high expectations were part of the reason why I was a bit disappointed. I genuinely expected Jade Legacy to become my favorite book of 2024, and I suppose maybe that was the wrong attitude to have for an author I have never read.
What I liked about the Green Bone Saga
- The moral grayness of the characters: I love fantasy series where basically everyone is morally gray, some with better motives than others, but all do some messed up shit occasionally. Obviously, a series about rivaling gangs needs to have that, and I think it was done really well. Some of the actions of the characters were awful, but they stayed true to their personalities.
- The characters overall: I loved Hilo as a character. He is a villainous anti-hero, and he did some things that I found unforgivable, but he was very well-written. He had a very executed corruption arc despite being ‘evil’ from the beginning, but the more he gained power, the more despicable he became.
Shae and Wen were also amazing. I loved their growth in books 1 and 2, and they were by far my two favorite characters. However, I felt like they were pushed into the background in book 3, which I found a bit disappointing.
I didn’t care too much about either of the other main characters, but I despised Bero, and to be honest, I don’t think I liked him as a villain. He just annoyed the shit out of me, much like Joffrey in Game of Thrones. Ayt Madashi was way better, and I really enjoyed her as a villain.
- The politics: The heavy focus on politics was for sure my favorite part of the series. It was all really well done, and there was so much depth to everything. I wish there had been more action in between the politics, but I flew through the books because they flowed so nicely, and it was genuinely very enjoyable to read about all the different key players and their ambitions and plans.
What I felt neutral / torn about
- The setting/worldbuilding: I liked the setting, both Janloon/Kekon, and the international territories, I just wish the world had been a bit richer. I didn’t feel super immersed in the setting, and I would have wanted more depth to it all. It was decent worldbuilding, but it could have been better in my opinion. I also think the magic system could have been explained more, it was understandable but up until the end, I didn’t fully know what everything was.
- The character development: Jade City and Jade War had excellent character development. I loved how everyone grew into their powers and positions of power. But then we got to Jade Legacy, and it felt like almost everyone made steps backward. I think partially their development made sense because power corrupts, but considering that this book was stretched out over 20 years, I felt like there wasn’t enough. They all felt pretty much the same at the end of the book as they did at the beginning. Granted they had a few more battle scars, and there was some growth for sure, but I just felt a bit disappointed.
- The writing: The writing was decent but a bit straightforward, and it occasionally did a lot of telling vs. showing. It was okay; I neither liked nor disliked it.
What I didn’t like about the series
- The pacing: This was my biggest issue with the series overall. Maybe there was some disconnect here between me and the books, but I felt like they were all so slow. It might have also been my expectations because I expected way more action, but for the most part, I was invested in the story but slightly bored. Book 1 was the most engaging to me, book 2 was fine, and book 3 had me bored for quite some time.
- The time jumps in book 3: Part of the reason why book 3 was more of a struggle for me was the time jumps. The book spans 20 years, and there are several jumps in it. To be honest, they ruined it for me. We had a scene of action and then suddenly it was a couple of years later and we didn’t really get to see the aftermath of the action. It took me out of the story, it made me lose interest in the characters, it made me incredibly frustrated and I just didn’t have a good time.
There were also some more emotional moments that just happened ‘off-screen’ that I would have loved to witness alongside the characters.
I know it sounds dramatic to say that the time jumps ruined the book for me, but by the end, I didn’t care about any of the characters anymore. There were some supposedly emotional scenes, but truly, all I wanted was to be done with the book.
Again, I suppose this is a me-issue because I know my friends felt very different, and they were incredibly invested and cried a lot, but personally, it just lost me.
- The storytelling: I also didn’t vibe with the storytelling overall. I generally love multiple POVs, but I wasn’t the biggest fan of how it was done in this series. Book 1 was fine; in book 2, I was a bit annoyed by the timing of the POV jumps and it disrupted my reading flow a bit, and I didn’t like them in book 3. There were multiple new ones and to be honest I just didn’t care for any of them.
I know this is an unpopular opinion, but I did not care for Anden the entire series, and by Jade War, I was only skimming his chapters because I could not be bothered.
I know this sounds so negative, but I swear I liked the series. There was just a lot there that didn’t work for me personally. The books have great averages, so I’m sure they deserve all the hype they get, and I guess that many of you will love them. Personally, I just had different expectations, and I didn’t enjoy the execution of the series as much as what I had thought it would be in my head.
I was thinking of doing individual reviews for all three books, but it’s so hard to review sequels spoiler-free; plus I think I already made my feelings clear.
Here is a one-sentence summary of my feelings about each of the books:
I really enjoyed Jade City; the focus on the gang war was great, definitely my favorite in the series.
I also liked Jade War, a bit less than the first, but it was still engaging; I liked the new main villain, and I thought it was all done really well.
Jade Legacy had many good moments and I think it’s a good book overall, I just personally didn’t like it very much for the aforementioned reasons.
Still, as I said, the Green Bone Saga is worth checking out, but definitely look up trigger warnings. I can certainly see the allure of this series and why it has such a big fanbase, but sometimes, books just don’t click for you, and this series didn’t click for me.