there's a level of unhinged insanity here that i've missed reading in epic fantasy - the climax is heart-poundingly wild and the ending is so satisfying and emotional and beautiful, i could barely contain my feelings when i finished. I am extremely happy to say that not only does the book live up to how beautiful the cover and those unique endpapers are, it actually exceeded my expectations. By a lot. Content & trigger warnings: blood, gore, torture, war, ableism, body horror, dismemberment, cannibalism, murder, genocide Basically I want to give it 4 or 5 stars for literary cleverness and 1 star for actual enjoyment of the reading experience. Two warriors shepherd an ancient god across a broken land to end the tyrannical reign of a royal family in this new epic fantasy from the author of The Vanished Birds.

It's actually a clever way to tell this story, but it has two major detrimental effects on my reading experience. Firstly, it makes the book way too long for what it is, which is fairly simple: two warriors flee from powerful magical enemies, falling in love in the process. All of which forces them both to grow as characters. With the constant interruptions and the extended gruesome illustrations of how horrible the Terrors are (see the spoiler section above as to why), the tale is extended beyond my patience. 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. I was so intrigued by the history of the world and the glimpses we get of it through Jun and Keema’s five day journey — and it’s not just a couple of perspectives but we get insights from the most insignificant characters in first person. I would normally be put off by it but I realised how well this structure worked for the novel as I wouldn’t have it any other way. First, it begins with an unnamed character (these parts narrated in second person). This person gets introduced to the cruel, brutal world Simon Jimenez created, through the stories of their Lola (do say it as loh-la, not low-la). Like Jimenez’s previous novel, this book starts as compelling as ever. Other books you’d describe as a movie playing in your head, but this one was a theater play. It was a performance through and through; it starts with the introduction of an Inverted Theater after all. A theater for dreamers, where the story of the two warriors gets acted out. And as it begins, the prose seems to follow a rhythm, seems to flow in tandem with the drumbeats in that theater. The Spear Cuts Through Water is remarkably rich. . . . This novel is an astonishing feat, one that lovers of sophisticated story won’t want to miss.” —Chicago Review of Books

Content warnings: lots of extremely graphic gore, body horror, torture, ritual cannibalism, scenes of someone being eaten alive and so on and so forth And that is the ultimate truth of the spear, the artifact and symbol of the disempowered, the metaphor for power as it is transfered in the world of rank and division. It is, in its very nature, a symbol of what enables leaders to become dictators. It is supremely easy to pass the spear on through family lines. It is always the case that the spear is turned against its user.

Lyrical, evocative, part poem, part prose—not to be missed by anyone, especially fans of historical fantasy and folktale.

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Also, if you want another glimpse into the author’s brilliant mind, read this post about the mapmaking of his book. Jun and Keema, the men whose love animates the story from beginning to end, aren't going to do the wild thing for your amusement. They are going to manifest for you the eternal story of accepting the love patiently offered you, in spite of believing you're not worthy of it. If you believe you're not worthy, you aren't; because the offering is not to you, but to the one you will become with the gift accepted. What’s so creative about this story is how it’s told. I’ve never seen a book so seamlessly blend 1st, 2nd, and 3rd person narration and use those stylistic choices to elevate the way the story of conveyed. The unnamed reader’s tale is told in 2nd person, with lines like ‘you remember your lola saying…’ or ‘you sit at the theater…’. 3rd person is the main narrative, with an epic fantasy-level storyline. The fun part is the 1st person, which are the little interjections throughout the 3rd person sections, marked in the paragraph in italics. It certainly took a while to get used to, but I think it’s such an incredibly cool feature. As the main story is told, we hear single from minor characters with minor roles, a cook, a guard, a dying soldier, about the current events. On paper, this really shouldn’t work but for some reason, it does. Through the unnamed narrator we witness the main storyline, about two warriors Jun, the grandson of the emperor and Keema, the disabled guard, who are roped into a quest to rescue a god from The Moon Throne, the tyrannical rulers of their land. With folklore woven effortlessly into the magic, action and setting of the story, The Spear Cuts Through Water has all elements of a fantasy world but the kind that’s surreal and unhinged in all those aspects. And a violent kind too, as the book definitely has gory themes but they perfectly fit into the characterization and world of the novel.

The story alternates between first, second, and third person narration. In the second-person sections, the reader is cast as Araya's descendant and current keeper of the spear. [2] Not recommended to: those who hate omniscient narrative style or get easily confused, anyone sensitive to violence and torture In a fantasy, so often the focus is the hero's journey - their growth and feelings. Most everyone else in the fantasy world is fodder - bit players, wallflowers, NPCs. Commonfolk. Okay, so this book is really hard to talk about, so bear with me. Nominally, this is a book about a pair of fugitive young men who are tasked with shepherding a dead god (who still talks) across a fantasy landscape filled with obstacles, and it is also a love story. But that very brief summary in no way conveys the actual *experience* of reading this one. The style it's written in, aside from the actual prose, is pretty experimental and a little hard to get ahold of at first. But once you do, it is so incredibly effective at playing on your emotions and telling the story in a way that makes your brain light up in pleasure. Jimenez structures his story like a matryoshka doll, nesting one story in another, in another. And the way he navigates between them is like this fluid little magical dance. I don't even know what that means, but it's what came out as I was typing this, and it seems right. I say the main narrative, our throne toppling narrative, has a epic-fantasy-esque vibe to it, yet this is one of the rare occasions in epic fantasy that I’d say the plot plays second fiddle to the characters themselves. As one of the characters says in the story, ‘this is a love story’. Every event that occurs, every big reveal, all fuels the absolutely incredible character work Jimenez puts into this story. Really, this is a story about the connections that Jun and Keema make together, from strangers to a partnership that transcends simple romance.Reading Simon Jimenez’s The Spear Cuts Through Water feels like dreaming an impossibly epic movie, cinematic yet fluidly surreal, a mythic tale of clashing gods that never loses its human heart.” —Indra Das, Lambda Literary Award–winning author of The Devourers I think four very bright stars would be most suitable. I love many aspects from this book, from its beautiful prose/narrative, its unique storytelling of combining many POVs at once (mind you, it's fascinating to read!) and the endearing main characters who you'll immediately root for and got invested in. According to Chicago Review of Books, there are three layers to the story. The story of Keema and Jun serves as the novel's core and is a fantasy adventure. This story is explicitly told to "you", observing the story in the Inverted Theater. In the Inverted Theater, the story is told through dance, and parts are heard from ghosts or spirits. Interjections feel like "stage directions, or exclamations, or internal monologue." Additionally, the narrative often expands from the primary narrator of each section to allow other characters to speak directly, much like a Greek chorus. [1] Reception edit the storytelling is phenomenal, unlike any other, and inviting. it pulls you into the story and enchants you and you will not leave wanting after FINALIST for the second annual Ursula K. LeGuin Prize for Fiction. Winners were announced on her birthday, 21 October, last year, so might be again this year, but no formal announcement of that was made that I found.