I love this series, and I'm honestly not sure why. It's a mashup of two genres I don't usually care for that much: mob and wuxia. It has lots of violence in it, to a degree that I often find offputting (and it's mostly hand-to-hand fighting which I find more real and therefore more affecting than big war stuff). While it does have some good characters, Kekon and Janloon feel more real to me than any of the individual people. Actually Kekon is the series' greatest strength: it feels so very alive, and in the real world I'd be itching to spend some time there the day its gang war ended.

Biggest flaw of all: it asks us to cheer on a side, without giving any reason that they're actually good - the "Star Wars" flaw, and I think also a big part of why I didn't love Dune as an adult in the way that I did as a teenager. It's so clear that No Peak is just as good or bad as The Mountain, and that the only good outcome for Kekon would be the two clans merging, and yet I do find myself cheering on the clan we're allowed to see the action through the eyes of.

But for whatever reason, these books really work for me when things like them usually don't. I loved Jade City, and it's a pleasure coming back to Kekon for the sequel.