Fonda Lee - Jade War

“Unless people rise up,” Guriho said, tapping the edge of a playing card against the table. “Jade in the hands of the people could also break chains and free the world.”

“I don’t want jade. Jade ruined my life.” The words came out of Bero’s mouth so quickly and without thought that he was surprised at himself. Yet as soon as he said them, he knew they were true. For so long, he’d lusted after jade more than anything else in the world; he’d risked everything to gain it, worn it for such a short while, then lost it in equally dramatic fashion. For the past two years he’d been an empty shell, unsure of what meaning remained in life. Most everyone he knew was missing or dead—Cheeky, both of the Mudts, Soradiyo, Mo and Shrimps, the scrap pickers, the new green in the Rat House. All because of jade and the clans that controlled it.

The fact that he, Bero, was still alive when they were all dead was a lucky joke of the gods. Or it might have some purpose. Bero said, “Taking down the clans, though, that sounds good.”

This isn’t the first time I’ve written a sequel, but nothing quite prepares you for the seemingly impossible task of following up the biggest, most ambitious novel you’ve ever written with an even bigger and more ambitious novel, the second in a trilogy, no less. My great pleasure in delivering this finished book to you, dear reader, is eclipsed by sheer relief that it all worked out.

My appreciation once again to the team at Orbit, and most of all to my editor, Sarah Guan, who never fails to push my writing in ways that add nuance, deepen the layers of the story, and make things worse for the characters. If you have suffered distress on account of the traumatic ordeals borne by the Kaul family, it is in no small part thanks to Sarah’s encouragement.

Thanks once again to the marketing and publicity team of Alex Lencicki, Ellen Wright, Laura Fitzgerald, and Paola Crespo, design wizards Lauren Panepinto and Lisa Marie Pompilio, editor Jenni Hill and publicist Nazia Khatun in the UK, production overseer Andy Ball, ever-observant copyeditor Kelley Frodel, mapmaker Tim Paul, and everyone else who had a hand in putting my book on physical and virtual shelves.

I shared an early, messy draft of Jade War with my agent, Jim McCarthy, before I allowed any other soul to set eyes on it, and his excellent suggestions and continued optimism convinced me that not all hope was lost. (He’s good at doing that.)

Thank you to beta readers Curtis Chen, Simone Cooper, Vanessa MacLellan, Carolyn O’Doherty, and Sonja Thomas for the feedback and brainstorming sessions. Tina Connolly spent a car ride with me to Seattle helping to solve a section of the story that resulted in the best fight scene in the book.

My husband, Nathan, has acted as reader, proofreader, sounding board, and regular emotional support provider. I couldn’t do it without him. Our two children are a continual reminder that there’s much more to life than how well the writing is going on any one given day.

The marvelous reader enthusiasm to the Green Bone Saga has motivated me through every day of working on this novel. I’m grateful for every appreciative and encouraging email, tweet, review, and in-person interaction I’ve received from new clan loyalists, and I hope you all keep coming back because there’s more where this came from.

Jade City

Jade War

Exo

Cross Fire

Zeroboxer

Copyright

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

Copyright © 2019 by Fonda Lee

Author photograph by Elena Rose Photography

Cover design by Lisa Marie Pompilio

Cover art © Alamy and Shutterstock

Cover copyright © 2019 by Hachette Book Group, Inc.

Maps copyright © 2019 by Tim Paul

Hachette Book Group supports the right to free expression and the value of copyright. The purpose of copyright is to encourage writers and artists to produce the creative works that enrich our culture.

The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book without permission is a theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like permission to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), please contact permissions@hbgusa.com. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.

Orbit

Hachette Book Group

1290 Avenue of the Americas

New York, NY 10104

orbitbooks.net

Simultaneously published in Great Britain and in the U.S. by Orbit in 2019

First Edition: July 2019

Orbit is an imprint of Hachette Book Group.

The Orbit name and logo are trademarks of Little, Brown Book Group Limited.

The publisher is not responsible for websites (or their content) that are not owned by the publisher.

The Hachette Speakers Bureau provides a wide range of authors for speaking events. To find out more, go to www.hachettespeakersbureau.com or call (866) 376-6591.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Lee, Fonda, author.

Title: Jade war / Fonda Lee.

Description: First edition. | New York, NY : Orbit, 2019. | Series: The Green Bone saga ; book 2

Identifiers: LCCN 2019000760 | ISBN 9780316440929 (hardcover) | ISBN 9780316440905 (trade paperback) | ISBN 9780316440936 (ebook)

Subjects: | GSAFD: Fantasy fiction.

Classification: LCC PS3612.E34285 J38 2019 | DDC 813/.6—dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019000760

ISBNs: 978-0-316-44092-9 (hardcover), 978-0-316-44093-6 (ebook)

E3-20190627-JV-NF-ORI