Published in 2019, Fonda Lee’s Jade War is the second installment in the award-winning Green Bone Saga, an epic urban fantasy series that blends the intricate world-building of high fantasy with the gritty family drama of a crime saga. Following the events of Jade City, the novel finds the Kaul family struggling to maintain control of the No Peak clan in the wake of their leader Kaul Lanshinwan’s assassination. The new Pillar, Lan’s hot-headed brother Hilo, must navigate a fragile truce with the rival Mountain clan while dealing with escalating international tensions, as foreign powers begin to see Kekon’s magical jade as a vital resource in a brewing global conflict. The novel explores themes including The Necessity of Ethical Compromise to Maintain Power, The Conflict Between Family Duty and Personal Identity, and Tradition, Modernity, and the Cost of Globalization. Lee, a black belt martial artist, draws on her background to create a world inspired by Hong Kong action cinema and classic gangster films. The Green Bone Saga has received widespread critical acclaim. The first novel, Jade City, won the World Fantasy Award, and Jade War was a finalist for the Locus, Dragon, and Aurora Awards.

This guide is based on the 2019 Orbit edition of the novel.

Content Warning: The source material and this guide contain depictions of cursing, graphic violence, physical abuse, sexual violence, substance use, addiction, rape, death by suicide, pregnancy termination, mental illness, illness, and death.

Plot Summary

The Green Bone Saga takes place in a world in which the island of Kekon is the sole source of bioenergetic jade. For those who can wield it, who must be Kekonese, it is a source of immense power, offering increased strength, perception, defenses, and the ability to channel energy. Kekonese jade wielders, known as Green Bones, are trained to both use jade and withstand its drastic effects on their bodies. For others, a drug called shine (SN1) has been developed, which offers the ability to wield jade but also causes addiction, mental illness, and health issues. Jade has long been controlled by the Kekonese jade clans; currently, there are only two: Mountain clan and No Peak clan. These clans have been warring to establish dominance over Kekon and the jade trade, but recently, other countries have come into play, seeking to acquire jade for their own uses.

The story begins as Bero, a young jade thief, and his accomplice Mudt Kalonun rob the grave of the No Peak clan’s recently deceased Pillar (leader), Kaul Lanshinwan, taking his jade. To eliminate witnesses, they murder the groundskeeper they bribed and stage it as a robbery. Meanwhile, the new Pillar of the No Peak clan, Kaul Hiloshudon, known as Hilo, mourns his grandfather.

At the funeral, he sees Ayt Madashi, the Pillar of the rival Mountain clan, and Yun Dorupon, a traitor to No Peak. Afterward, Hilo grants patronage to Eiten, a former Fist (fighter) maimed by the Mountain, and agrees to rescue his cousin, who is being held in the nearby Uwiwa Islands by the jade smuggler Zapunyo. Hilo also confronts his adopted cousin, Emery Anden, who refused to wear jade after graduating from the Kaul Du Academy, where Kaul Green Bones train, exiling him to the Republic of Espenia for an education.

Brothers Maik Kehn, Hilo’s Horn (head of the military), and Maik Tar, his Pillarman, discover the grave robbery. Enraged, Hilo orders Tar to find the thief, whom he believes was involved in Lan’s murder. Tar captures a Mountain Fist named Seko, who admits to hiring Lan’s assassins but dies by suicide before revealing their names. The Mountain retaliates, escalating tensions.

Meanwhile, Kaul Shaelensan, or Shae, struggles in her new role as No Peak’s Weather Man (second-in-command). After a tense meeting with the Mountain’s Weather Man, Ree Turahuo, she agrees to a clan summit to negotiate a truce, prompted by a growing international crisis in the nation of Shotar. Her perspective is broadened by a new romance with Tau Maro, a university professor, who explains the geopolitical implications of the conflict in the Shotarian province of Oortoko. Shae uses this insight to persuade a reluctant Hilo to meet with Mountain Pillar Ayt Madashi.

Bero begins using his stolen jade, aided by a dangerous drug called shine (also known as SN1) that allows untrained users to tolerate the effects of the jade. He trains at the Rat House, an underground club for unsanctioned jade users, and is recruited by Soradiyo, an agent for Zapunyo, to work as a jade smuggler.

Hilo’s wife, Kaul Maik Wen, who is pregnant with their first child, discovers a letter from Lan’s ex-wife revealing that Lan had a son, Nikolas, who now lives with his mother in Stepenland. Hilo travels to the Uwiwa Islands to confront Zapunyo, scornfully rejecting the smuggler’s offer of a business partnership. On his way out of the country, Hilo and his men are ambushed by corrupt police on Zapunyo’s payroll; they kill the officers and escape.

In Port Massy, Espenia, Anden lives with a host family, the Hians, and feels isolated. He is shocked to discover a local community of Green Bones, including Dauk Corujon, or Cory. Back in Kekon, Hilo and Ayt Mada meet and negotiate a truce, agreeing to restart the national Kekon Jade Alliance (KJA), divide disputed territories, and cooperate against smugglers. In a private moment, Ayt proposes a merger of their clans, which Hilo flatly rejects. Hilo later reveals to his inner circle that the truce is merely a tactic to buy time before destroying the Mountain.

As part of the truce, Ayt gives up the traitor Yun Dorupon, formerly No Peak’s Weather Man before his work with the Mountain clan was discovered. Shae goes to execute him but finds him dying of cancer. Before dying by suicide, Dorupon tells her that succession in the Mountain clan is undecided, causing tension between the Koben, Ven, and Iwe families, all of whom have potential successors to Ayt. Hilo’s wife Wen, secretly acting as an intelligence handler for Shae, gathers more information, leading Hilo and Shae to secretly ally with the Ven family to orchestrate a coup against Ayt.

In Espenia, Anden gets into a fight with a member of a local gang called the Crews. He is brought before the local Pillar, Dauk Losunyin, and learns about the Keko-Espenian clan structure. Although not an official clan, Dauk acts as Pillar, his wife Sana as his Weather Man, and a man named Rohn Toro as his Horn. The Dauks, who are aware of Anden’s connection to the Kauls, resolve the conflict.

In Janloon, Kekon’s capital city, Shae trades intelligence on the Mountain’s secret shine (SN1) factories in another country, Ygutan, to Espenian officials in exchange for future favors. Hilo travels to Stepenland to retrieve Lan’s son. When the boy’s mother, Eyni, refuses to return, Hilo kills her and brings the boy, Niko, back to Janloon. Soon after, Wen gives birth to their son, Ru.

In Port Massy, Anden befriends Cory Dauk and is introduced to the “grudge hall,” a secret Green Bone social club. The grudge hall is attacked by the Crews, sparking open conflict.

One of Zapunyo’s scavenging operations, where Bero and Mudt are now working, is ambushed by the Mountain clan’s Horn, Nau Suen, who spares them to send a recruitment offer to their manager, Soradiyo. Hilo and Shae formalize their alliance with Ven Sandolan to help him overthrow Ayt and put his son Haku in place as the Mountain’s Pillar. Hilo’s Horn, Kehn, intercepts one of Zapunyo’s jade shipments, drawing No Peak into conflict with the smuggler.

In retaliation for the destruction of her shine factories, Ayt leaks Shae’s past as an Espenian informant to the press, causing a scandal. On Heroes Day, Ayt publicly denounces Shae, who, to defend her honor, challenges Ayt to a “clean-bladed” duel. Hilo secretly prepares for war if Shae is killed. Ayt wounds Shae but spares her life to avoid the political fallout of killing a surrendered opponent, taking Shae’s valuable jade choker as her prize.

Shae recovers and reasserts her authority. She ends her relationship with Maro after confessing she was pregnant with their child but had an abortion before the duel. Bero, betrayed by Mudt, is found by Eiten and gives No Peak intelligence on Zapunyo’s network. The clan conducts city-wide raids, during which they capture Mudt, who is overheard bragging about his role in Lan’s murder. Hilo recovers his brother’s jade and executes Mudt by burying him alive.

Meanwhile, Ayt discovers the Vens’ plan for a coup of the Mountain clan. Nau Suen kills Haku, and Ayt executes Ven Sandolan and his other sons, consolidating her power by eliminating her rivals.

Months later, No Peak learns Zapunyo is traveling to Port Massy for a kidney transplant. They plan for Anden and Rohn Toro to assassinate him during a fake interview. Dauk agrees to help only if Anden ends his relationship with Dauk’s son, Cory, which Anden does. The plan is compromised when Hilo’s son, Ru, accidentally swallows jade and is rushed to the hospital, where doctors discover he is a stone-eye, immune to jade like his mother Wen.

Unexpectedly, Zapunyo changes the site of the interview, wary of a potential assassination plan. Hilo calls off the assassination. Wen, learning of both events, secretly contacts Shae and travels to Port Massy. Posing as Anden’s assistant, she smuggles jade to Rohn in a fountain pen. During the interview, Rohn kills Zapunyo’s guards, and Wen executes Zapunyo. As they escape, they are ambushed by a Crew foreman. Rohn is killed, and Wen is suffocated. In a desperate act, Anden puts on Rohn’s jade-lined gloves and uses his latent Channeling ability to resurrect her.

Hilo is enraged at Shae and Wen for acting behind his back but is convinced by Shae that their family must remain united. Ayt reveals to Shae that she has used a new Refugee Act to bring thousands of allied barukan (outsiders trained to use jade, known as “half-bones”) fighters into Kekon, bolstering the Mountain’s strength, and she proposes a cold war between the clans. Anden returns to Janloon and decides to wear jade again, but as a healer, enrolling in medical school. Hilo accepts his decision and welcomes him home. In the epilogue, Bero, now working in a casino kitchen, is recruited by an anti-clan revolutionary group.