I keep recommending this book to everyone with the blurb, “Imagine like an 80s Hong Kong gangster film but with superpowers,” and that seems to really sell it for a lot of people, so let me start off that way!
Honestly, I love this book and I think it is an extremely good stepping off point for a series. Jade City seems mostly to be about establishing the clans in Janloon and the jade abilities and responsibilities that come with clan membership, and I think Fonda Lee does a really masterful job with that — she focuses tightly on this island nation and its capital city and the people who live there, and she really brings the readers in close to get intimate with these characters. She makes us come to care about them quite a lot — for better or for worse, she says, still heartbroken…
Although the issue with a second-world fantasy novel can often lie in creating a believable magic system that has its own internal logic and also follows the laws of the world in which it resides, it seems like Fonda Lee has no struggles there. The jade system and the abilities jade grants are SO realistically and firmly rooted in the sociopolitical landscape of the world she created that it feels incredibly natural and just as much a part of life in Janloon as death or taxes. I honestly don’t think I’ve ever read a fantasy series that had a magic system so deeply and intentionally rooted in the daily lives of the average people of the world that contains it.
Also, not to be dramatic, but this book has exactly the same problem as the Redwall series: Please, Fonda, I beg you to stop describing extremely delicious-sounding food items if you don’t plan on releasing a cookbook, it’s just torture at this point!