The question is merely what that something will be. It’s not a surprise that Jade Legacy deals with questions about the very nature of the clan system that Lee has created even if the title didn’t hint towards that, the book’s prologue sets a tone that makes it clear that we are in the final volume of this saga, and that something – be it one of the clans, the Kaul family, or something larger and more existential – is beginning to fade away. Instead, Fonda Lee sets herself a difficult task: not just to wrap up the story of the Mountain/No Peak conflict, but to truly give closure to this series and the characters, delivering a final book that spans multiple decades and multiple generations of the clans, grappling with the ramifications she had started to explore in the second book and following them into the obvious next question: is this system, in fact, something that should continue? It would have been a little surprising, mind you – after the way that Lee expanded so much on her story in Jade War, exploring the ramifications of a world in which true jade can give exceptional powers, but it’s controlled tightly by family clans that mix the honor code of wuxia with Mafia-like tactics – but I would have understood it. To follow up the one-two punch of Jade City and Jade War is no mean feat even on its own terms, so I would have understood if Fonda Lee had played it safe, wrapping up the story of the ongoing struggle between the No Peak Clan and the Mountain Clan for power and even survival in a neat, tidy way.
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