The Spear Cuts Through Water

By Simon Jimenez

Book Overview

Two warriors shepherd an ancient god across a broken land to end the tyrannical reign of a royal family in this epic fantasy from the author of The Vanished Birds.

"A beguiling fantasy not to be missed."--Evelyn Skye, New York Times bestselling author of The Crown's Game

WINNER OF THE IAFA CRAWFORD AWARD - WINNER OF THE BRITISH FANTASY AWARD - SHORTLISTED FOR THE URSULA K. LE GUIN AWARD - SHORTLISTED FOR THE IGNYTE AWARD

ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: Oprah Daily, Vulture, Polygon, She Reads, Gizmodo, Kirkus Reviews, The Quill to Live

The people suffer under the centuries-long rule of the Moon Throne. The royal family--the despotic emperor and his monstrous sons, the Three Terrors--hold the countryside in their choking grip. They bleed the land and oppress the citizens with the frightful powers they inherited from the god locked under their palace.

But that god cannot be contained forever.

With the aid of Jun, a guard broken by his guilt-stricken past, and Keema, an outcast fighting for his future, the god escapes from her royal captivity and flees from her own children, the triplet Terrors who would drag her back to her unholy prison. And so it is that she embarks with her young companions on a five-day pilgrimage in search of freedom--and a way to end the Moon Throne forever. The journey ahead will be more dangerous than any of them could have imagined.

Both a sweeping adventure story and an intimate exploration of identity, legacy, and belonging, The Spear Cuts Through Water is an ambitious and profound saga that will transport and transform you--and is like nothing you've ever read before.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0593156617
• ISBN13: 9780593156612
• Release Date: May 2023
• Publisher: Del Rey Books
• Length: 544 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 5.4" x 8.1"

Customer Reviews

10/10!

The Spear Cuts Through Water is one of the most unusual and powerful fantasy novels I have read in a long time. It does not feel like a standard fantasy adventure. It feels like myth, memory, theater, family history, oral tradition, and nightmare all braided together into one strange and beautiful thing. Simon Jimenez writes with a level of ambition that could easily collapse under its own weight, but somehow the book holds. More than that, it sings. The structure is probably the first thing people will notice. This is not a simple, linear story told in the usual way. The narration moves through layers of memory, performance, dream, and inherited history. At first, that can be disorienting. But once I settled into the rhythm of it, the structure became part of the magic. It made the story feel older than itself, as if I were not just reading a book, but listening to something passed down through generations. What impressed me most is how alive the world feels. The setting has that rare fantasy quality where it seems ancient before the story even begins. The names, the rituals, the violence, the gods, the empire, the small human details, everything feels like it has weight. Nothing feels like empty lore. It feels excavated. It feels remembered. The prose is gorgeous, but not in a hollow decorative way. It has force. Jimenez can move from brutality to tenderness in a single breath, and both feel earned. There are passages that feel almost ceremonial, like the book is less interested in explaining itself than in pulling you into its current. It is dense, yes, but never lifeless. The difficulty feels purposeful. The book asks something of the reader, and I appreciate that. What kept me most invested, though, was the emotional core. Beneath all the mythic machinery, this is still a deeply human story. It is about loyalty, grief, love, inheritance, violence, and the terrible cost of power. The characters are not just figures in a legend. They are wounded, exhausted, funny, stubborn, frightened, and alive. That tension between the intimate and the enormous is where the novel is strongest. I also loved how the book handles darkness. It is violent and often brutal, but it never felt empty or edgy to me. The violence has consequence. The world is cruel, but not shallow. There is beauty here too, and tenderness, and even humor. That balance keeps the novel from becoming oppressive, even when it becomes genuinely harrowing. Overall, The Spear Cuts Through Water reminded me why fantasy can still feel sacred and dangerous. Not just escapism. Not just worldbuilding. Something closer to ritual. It is strange, poetic, dense, emotional, and deeply original. I finished it feeling like I had not merely read a story, but witnessed one being remembered back into existence.

**SPOILER WARNING** I was not a fan of this book

*****SPOILER WARNING***** I did not enjoy this book. Honestly, if I had not read this for a book club, I do not think I would have finished it. The constant POV switching was hard to keep track of and made reading the book confusing, frustrating and time-consuming. There were portions that I liked. The tortoises being used as a communication network was intriguing and the tortoise god’s story line, while depressing, was compelling. I also thought that Simon Jimenez did an excellent job of creating a world with a complete mythology and history. However, reading this book was an exercise in patience as I had to constantly stop and figure out who was talking. The ending also seemed contrived. The book had been brought to a satisfying end. It was sad, but a lot of the book was depressing, and it worked. Then, out of nowhere it seemed, the warriors were brought back to life to have a ‘happy’ ending. It came across as forced. Overall, The Spear Cuts Through Water had some high points and originality, but the constant POV switching made reading it confusing and the ‘happy’ ending felt like a cop-out. 2/5 ⭐