Sprawling and orginal. This book is epic. I’ve never read this author before, but getting this ARC has added yet another author on my list to watch for. It reminded me of the fantasy stories I grew up reading.

I’ll admit that I came to this story expecting something like The Vanished Birds, and that expectation failed almost immediately. That isn't a bad thing.

If you are looking for a fantasy quest, The Spear has got your back. Our main plot follows Jun and Keema, on a mission to protect the Moon Goddess as she destroys the reign of her murderous sons, the Three Terrors. Under their rule the land has become a desperate and starving country, unsafe to travel alone, even for a goddess. We’ve got a broken turtle who can smell feelings, a purple bird whose love language is violence, and spliff smoking Apes for all your fantasy creature needs. There are sword fights and a battle with a giant, really a one-stop shop for fantasy fare.

But Spear isn’t just a run-of-the-mill fantasy. This is a story about identity in the face of obligation, an homage to the immigrant family, and, above all, a demand to be seen. Jimenez takes real risks to deliver a vulnerable and honest look into his mind, indulging his creativity for maximum reward. Although the narrative style takes some getting used too, it lends the story a sense of intimacy and depth that could not have been achieved with a more traditional structure.

Overall, I enjoyed this story immensely. Jimenez has a talent for making fantastical situations relatable and injecting humor in the most unexpected ways. (If you don’t laugh during the bear scene, I have to ask why you are so opposed to joy.) My only real issue was the climax being drawn out for far too long, certain aspects felt redundant, which lessened my enjoyment. Even so, this is a tale meant to be read again, if only for the prose, and I look forward to that experience in the near future.

This book will not be for everybody, it is challenging in ways that will turn off some readers. I recommend this book for seasoned fantasy readers, seeking an ambitious story that is heavily influenced by oral story telling traditions.

This book is pure storytelling! I loved this book. You might need patience to get going but the creativity and beauty of this book are so worth it!

This is one of the most interesting and original books I’ve read this year! When I first sat down to read this book I wasn’t sure what to expect. It was such a nice surprise to learn that the author is Filipino-American like myself! Additionally, the unique narration made it feel like it truly was my lola recounting the myths of our family’s past. The tale Jimenez weaves is intricate and emotional, consisting of stories within stories and overlapping perspectives. Does this style make it hard to follow if you’re not invested? Perhaps. But I think that it emphasizes the point that everyone’s story is important and worth hearing, from our heroes to characters that appear once. The Spear Cuts Through Water is everything I want in a fantasy book and more; It’s a love story, a mythic quest, and the writing is challenging yet thoughtful. It is a refreshing and much-needed step in the right direction for fantasy literature.

An imaginative and unique tale, an experience unlike any I've had reading a fairy tale. Thank you to Random House and Netgalley for the ARC!

Content Warning:
- Serious gore at times
- A few mentions of rape and non-consensual body modification
- Cannibalism

Jimenez does not pull any punches in this book. It tells the history of a people and that is often times violent and messy. If any of these make you uncomfortable then please put your mental health first and reconsider reading this novel.

The Spear Cuts Through Water is Simon Jimenez’s second published novel. Perfect for fans of N K Jemisin's Broken Earth trilogy, the main narrative is relayed to you in the second person perspective by various characters. Two disgraced warriors of the empire, a grandson of the emperor and a guard missing his left arm, must bring a lost god across the country to restore her power and end the all-powerful dynasty that she began centuries ago. But a lineage this strong will not go down without a fight. This novel speaks to the power of history and ancestry while also being told outside of time, this is a tough balance to keep but Jimenez does it perfectly.

The imagery that Jimenez uses along with the second-person perspective immerses you in the book in a way few others have. There were times that I felt like I could smell lola’s cigarette or hear father slam the door. The author brings these elements together to evoke the feeling of sitting with your older family members as they teach you your history as a family and as a people. The prose itself is so beautiful and meaningful that there were times I highlighted a passage just so that I could sit with it for a moment and think. The prose doesn’t hold up the pacing or make things too convoluted.

I felt like Jimenez truly captured the character of a force of nature in his writing. The Moon does not care about individual people unless they can help her, she craves worship to the point that it actively derails her plans and puts others in danger, she refuses to take responsibility for the ‘gifts’ she gave that might have hurt people, and she is selfish without considering any other being’s needs. Yet she is still the moon and we still need her to function. No human can hold a grudge against her because she is so clearly inhuman.

The pining in this novel was just the cherry on top for me. Same-sex relationships are not exactly accepted in this world while also not being illegal and both characters recognize and have internalized this messaging. Jimenez plays into this cautious tension amazingly. The stolen glances, the duels, the denial of caring for each other even when it's obvious. This is the kind of story that I live for.

The disability representation in this novel was fantastic. One of the main characters does not have a left arm and in the culture, he lives in, that is often a punishment for cowards or criminals. This knowledge complicates his relationships and interactions with others along with the physical adaptations he must make to work around his amputation. At no point in the book is he magically healed, nor does he truly want to be.

Small spoiler warning here for something that happens at the end of the book: It meant so much to see that when restored to his body, Keema was still missing his arm. That alone would have been enough for me but when another character comments on it, asking why he was not ‘made whole again’, Keema’s response of “I am whole” genuinely made me tear up a bit. It was such as small moment that speaks so loudly to disabled readers, saying you are enough, you are whole.

DNF at 55% - this book is SOMETHING ELSE and I was really enjoying it. The format, the cinematic nature of it? Just great. My issue is with how much it drags and the chapter structure (or lack thereof). I may pick this up again, but today just wasn't its day.

I'm honestly at a loss for words when thinking about how to describe this book and my experience reading it. So, I guess I'll just start at the beginning. For the first quarter or so, I did not like this book AT ALL. I considered DNFing it multiple times because I had no idea what was happening. The story has a very unique structure that utilizes first, second, and third person narration without much to mark the different voices apart. It took me forever to realize the story (told in third person) was being watched by someone (the second person narrator) in a theater during a dream with occasional narrative input from people the characters met along the way (first person). Knowing this going in would have greatly reduced my confusion and improved my reading experience of the first part of the book. So, you're welcome. :) I was probably just too dense to figure it out, but in case you're dense too, I saved you the effort. lol.

Once I discerned what was going on, I quickly fell in love with the story. The prose was stunning and had a lyrical quality that kept me glued to the pages. The world came alive and seemed to leap into being as if I was the one in the dream. The plot consistently surprised me, and I was incredibly impressed with the author's ability to create a complex, moving story with so many different parts and voices. The pace also picked up considerably once everything got under way at approximately the 25% mark, and it became relentlessly more intense with a wide assortment of adventures filled with violence, magic, mind-reading, and a bit of humor. There was even a good deal of cannibalism, which seriously made my skin crawl. By the end, I was in awe of how it all came together, with even seemingly small details from earlier in the narrative being tied together in ways I never expected.

I became very attached to the characters, which was probably a bad idea given the intense levels of violence in this book. They were all vibrant and multi-faceted, and I especially loved how the author managed to make even the minor side characters seem well-rounded and deep despite some of them only having a few scenes. I enjoyed following the main duo on their adventure and began rooting for them pretty early on in the story. Their slow-burn romance was one of my favorite things about the book, and it led to some pretty hilarious scenes involving mind-reading. My other favorite character was the tortoise. I'm not going to say too much about him because of spoilers, but I absolutely adored him. He made me smile every time he spoke despite his unfortunate circumstances.

One of the main themes about the book was acceptance/belonging. Most of the characters were outcasts in their own way and were driven to some extent by their longing for connection and inclusion. So many of the stories were absolutely heart-breaking, especially the Third Terror. On a related note, most of this narrative revolved around a love story, and I don't just mean the central slow-burn romance of Jun and Keema. Almost every character was motivated by love (not necessarily romantic), either the desire to obtain it or the anger from being spurned. It beautifully highlighted both the redeeming and destructive powers of love.

This book was an absolutely stunning work of art. I've never read anything quite like it before. It used common tropes in unique ways to tell a story that felt simultaneously familiar and fresh. It felt profound while reading it even though I couldn't quite put my finger on why, and the more I think about it now, the more lessons and themes jump out at me. The story was beautiful, and it is one I will think about for a while to come. Therefore, I rate it 5 out of 5 stars.

As you read this, you will realize you are reading something that is destined to become a classic. The Spear Cuts Through Water is going to be taught as an example of truly excellent epic fantasy. The world is fully realized, with all the magic and menace being palpable as you read through the story. This is the concept of an epic quest taken to a truly beautiful level of skill. I could gush for hours about how glorious everything here is. The union of nature, myth, and faith all smash into an element of the surreal. I don't even want to talk about the plot (which flows excellently and moves with the exact right speed). The plotting is excellent, and I don't want to spoil a moment of the slow, gorgeous reveals. Seriously, everything about this book is genuinely beautiful.

Ohmygods this book. Read, you must read this book.

At first I really, reeeaallly did not understand, and so could not get into, the writing style. The brief asides of supporting characters' POVs was super confusing at the start. However, once that sorted itself, and their echo of a Greek chorus become apparent, which echoes the dream play itself taking place throughout the book, I was stunned, and that feeling did not stop until I reluctantly turned the last page.

This is one of the best books I have ever read. I wish I could be more descriptive, but I'm honestly still shook like a week after finishing it, and unfortunately no more coherent. Jimenez had Big aspirations, and the reverberations in me feel just as profound.

I'm not sure I even have the vocabulary to talk about this book properly. This is literary fantasy at a very high level. This book demands the reader's attention and requires concentrated, detailed reading on every page. As I was in a somewhat distracted state when I started this, it took me some time to really sink into the story and the storytelling. Jimenez is an incredible world-builder, and his characters are unforgettable. The structure is unconventional and yet fits the novel perfectly. I could tell you what this book is "about", but you can read the blurb and still be completely unprepared for the journey this will take you on. Creative, sweeping, expressive, this saga will stay with me long after the last page. Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, Del Rey for a digital review copy.

Free Netgalley book for review. 2.5 ~ish*

If I had seen some of the warnings at the beginning of the book, I probably wouldn't have requested or read this one actually, but I really appreciate that those content warnings were there! So this is a bit of an aberration from my usual reading and might explain why it took me so long to read, even though 500 pages or so is a pittance when it comes to epic fantasy. (I'm going to need something seriously fluffy after this.) I'm actually adding a star for the author being kind enough to give warnings, so kudos to them.

This fits solidly in the grim dark spectrum of fantasy and is also heavily lgbtq+ friendly. There's lovely /sarcasm/ things such as body horror, mind rape, traumatized childhoods galore, gore and body fluids in abundance, and cannibalism to top things off probably around 50% of the way through, which I skimmed heavily. In other words PAY ATTENTION to those warnings. If that stuff makes you happy instead of running away in fear more power to you.

The writing is grotesquely beautiful in certain places,. The best way to describe the unique style of this book is that it reminds me a bit of niche Interactive Fiction style games with limited choices to proceed, similar to some online Twine games I have read in the past.

It definitely doesn't make sense at the beginning and it's one of those stories you just have to stick with it for the book to finally be understandable in the end. I'd say with caveats that this is a story worth reading, especially if you like grim dark. I'm a wuss, so . . . take my review with a grain of salt I guess.

💧The Spear Cuts Through Water💧

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

Summary: New from the author of The Vanished Birds, this epic fantasy tale follows the journey of two warriors to aid the escaped Moon goddess on her quest to reunite with her lover, Water, at the eastern sea. Along the way, they encounter thieves, assassins, and magical tortoises while becoming embroiled in a plot to end the dynasty of the powerful emperor and his terrifying sons, the Three Terrors. This is a fast-paced, high-stakes story rich with folklore, magic, and the exploration of identity.

As expected, this was a fantastic new title from Simon Jimenez. He takes risks by constructing this tale through the use of framing stories, second-person narration, and interjecting thoughts from minor characters that feel reminiscent of a Greek chorus. All of these elements combine to make the reader feel immersed in an epic poem akin to The Iliad, The Epics of Gilgamesh, or the Ramayana, but with an entirely fresh plot and setting. There are sprinkles of modernity as the tale is told to a child by his lola sometime in the mid-1900s, adding context to the events from the Old Country and exploring the implications of honoring your heritage and identity. The book is a bit hefty at about 550 pages, but it doesn’t feel long and is appropriately paced to the scale of the story. I was able to finish in about 2 days of intense reading, and I honestly think it could have been longer! If anyone is looking for a uniquely styled fantasy inspired by East/Southeast Asian history and folklore, this is your next read! Releases on 8/30. Many thanks to NetGalley and Random House for giving me the opportunity to read and review the eBook!

CW: cannibalism, body horror, graphic violence, death, imprisonment, torture, sexual content

For fans of: The Song of Achilles, ATLA, Studio Ghibli movies

HIGHLIGHTS
~stories within stories
~dreams within dreams
~telepathic tortoises
~an inverted theatre
~if it really came to it, what would you sacrifice?

There are no other books like this book.

No, really.

Not because there are no other stories like this story – all stories are like all other stories, it’s a fundamental, sacred mystery of storytelling – but because the way in which Jimenez tells this story is something new and unique.

Really.

*

The Spear Cuts Through Water is not what I expected it to be – and no matter how many in-depth, super-detailed, professionally-analytical reviews you read before you pick it up, this book won’t be what you expect, either. There is no way to be prepared for Jimenez’ latest masterpiece; you can’t possibly imagine everything you will meet, see, and experience on this journey. However you pack your bags for it, you will not be ready.

You can try and play tourist, if you like, with sunscreen and map and phrasebook in your pocket. But by the end of The Spear Cuts Through Water, you’ll find yourself an immigrant instead, drawn in and changed and made a part of the dreamwilds Jimenez has spun into being here.

I don’t think this book would have hit me quite like it did had I had a more detailed idea of what to expect. The short, minimal blurb once frustrated me; now I’m incredibly glad I went in basically blind. And besides, no description can possibly do it justice. The Spear Cuts Through Water is a shapeshifter, morphing from one thing – one kind of story – to another, and another, and back again, quick and graceful as a dolphin dancing through waves. It’s one story, and two stories, and a hundred stories intertwined, sagas and whispers and white hot flashes where they cross and touch. It’s dreamy and visceral, soft and brutal, earthy and mythic, a tapestry of contradictions that nonetheless coheres into an incredible, breathtaking whole.

You can fault the dancer, but more often than not, it is the dance itself that has to change.

There are two young men and their grandmothers; one man is a prince, and one is not. One grandmother is a goddess and empress, and the other very much isn’t. Their stories do not run parallel, but are interdependent, each vital to the other’s existence. This is a book about dreams – dreams of the past, the future, the idealised history we hold to, the gleaming future we want to build. And I think it’s fair to say it’s equally a book about nightmares; this is an unquestionably, objectively excellent book, but it is not nice. It’s magical, ephemeral, one moment; then blunt, crude, graphic the next. There is suffering, torture, death, and some extremely fucked-up people. There is injustice and sadism and cruelty. But there’s also incredible tenderness, incredible humanity, that nameless celebration of how fragile and wonderful and precious it is that we all exist. There’s hope and humour, people working together, strangers being kind to strangers. And, of course…

“This is a love story to its blade-dented bone.”

From the very first page, from the very first line, it is immediately obvious that The Spear Cuts Through Water is something spectacularly special. That impression crystallises further into certainty with every page you turn. Jimenez weaves multiple layers of story together to create a stunning edifice, an unfamiliar but powerful structure which is the framework for the tale(s) being told – and oh, how I want to talk about that! I want to dive in and joyfully dissect his structure in particular; I want to write essays about the constellation of merely-mortal voices that dart, there and gone, across the narrative like shooting stars, illuminating the reality of what it means to be caught in the crosshairs of legend!

And I mustn’t, because you need to discover it for yourselves, but I have to say that what Jimenez has done here isn’t just extraordinary; it’s revolutionary. This is storytelling like I’ve never seen it, and I don’t mean that the story he’s telling is a unique one – although it is! I’m talking about the way he tells it, the style and craft and artistry that’s gone into structuring this book. I’m sure some readers are going to call it experimental, but I disagree strongly; The Spear Cuts Through Water is what comes after an experiment, after a successful experiment; it is what a positive, promising result becomes when it is then polished and refined and perfected.

This book is not an experiment because dear gods, Jimenez knows what he’s doing.

“The telling of tales beyond even my knowing.”

I have discarded so many drafts of this review, because no matter what I try, I can’t explain this book to you. I’m serious about the dark awfulness in it – please look up the content warnings; I would try writing them out for you, but I lost track after the cannibalism – but this book is, genuinely, in a league of its own. Reading it, I was mesmerised, I was invested, and I geeked out so hard over the sheer craft that went into it. I don’t know if I liked it, but I loved it, and it feels unfair to call it Jimenez’s magnum opus – how rude and presumptuous to claim he’s peaked, when this is only his second novel! – but I have to admit that I can’t imagine anyone outdoing this book, simply in terms of sheer technical artistry.

I guarantee that you have never seen anything like The Spear Cuts Through Water before – and I doubt you ever will again. This is a once-in-a-lifetime book.

Don’t miss it.

I started with low expectations about this book. While I love science fiction, I’m finicky about my fantasy. If anything takes me out of the story’s world, it ruins the book for me. But I didn’t need to worry. The Spear Cuts Through Water is excellent! A completely different take on fantasy fiction that will have you regret coming to the end of this 544-page book.

Just like the author’s first book, The Vanished Birds, elevated science fiction, this book does the same to fantasy. It’s best to know nothing of the plot of The Spear Cuts Through Water going in. Don’t miss this creative and innovative tale. 5 stars and a favorite!

Thanks to Del Rey and NetGalley for a digital review copy of the book.

This book is like nothing else I've ever read, in the best possible way.

The Spear Cuts Through Water tells two stories: one set in something like the early 20th century and the other set in something like early modern China. These stories are joined by the titular spear, which appears in both, and through a play about the history of the spear in the distant past that the character in the outer frame ("you") watches in a mystical realm filled with shades and spirits from all across time.

For the most part, the story stays in the inner frame (the world of the past as presented by the play), but one of the most astonishing things about the book for me was just how many voices it contains. Not only is there the "you" of the outer frame and the third person of the inner frame, but the voices of the dead continually interrupt the narrative to add their own recollections of what happened in the past. Sometimes, these interruptions are only for a half-line of dialogue, and occasionally they go on for longer.

If I had to describe the book in a sentence, I would end up with something like "An omniscient first, second, and third person experimental epic fantasy." If that sounds equal parts ambitious, bonkers, and amazing, it absolutely is, and Jimenez pulls it off without a hitch.

I did sometimes feel the story was too dark for my tastes, but the prose is so gorgeous and the characters and their world were so compelling, that didn't slow me down too much, especially at first. As the book reached its conclusion, I did find it a little difficult to stay engaged, but I think that had more to do with my state of mind than the book itself. (It's been a rough year.)

In a word, though, this book is astounding. If you don't mind a little experimentation in your fantasy (or if you don't mind fantasy in your experimental fiction), you absolutely won't regret picking it up.

What an immaculate, beautiful, intricately weaved story. I have never, ever in my life read anything as unique as this book. It did take a moment to get into, to understand the perspective points and how the story was being told, but once it clicked the story grew even richer.

It reads like one of the most human stories ever told. It starts in the second person with your Lola telling you a story which then beautifully blends into a story told to you in ethereal, dreamlike theatre. The story becomes a play and, like most people do, you keep relating this play back to things your Lola told you. I felt so wrapped up in this story, in this world.

I felt like, truly, I was sitting there, watching this play unfold, watching it fall into something so beautiful that, when it went to third person and we followed Keema and Jun, I still felt like that watcher, over their shoulder or at a distance watching historic events unfold. And not only are you getting *your* perspective, Keema, or Jun's, you also get the lost souls that lived through this time's perspective. Their words are brief, heartbreaking, but it makes this story so much more alive. So much more human. Real.

It took time to get used to, and at a point it was frustratingly confusing, but remained interesting.

While this story isn't marketed as a tragedy it truly is. At a certain point during the story, you know what is to happen. You know the steps these characters you love are going to have to take and, like every great tragedy, you hope there's an out. You experience beside one of the characters the terror of learning their fate and want to fight alongside them against it. And like all tragedies, it's beautiful and romantic and loving and human.

For all the praise I've been giving, I will say the treatment of women in the book had me a little down. While there were visceral deaths throughout, the women's (or at least women-presenting) deaths always seemed more than the rest. And I don't know if it's meant to say something, or show something symbolic for the story, but to see a woman's death described brutally while a man gets a sentence, maybe two, is a little disappointing. Just something that rubbed me the wrong way, but didn't ruin the entire book as it didn't feel hateful (and we've all read a hateful death given to a woman).

The characters though were some of the most beautiful characters I've had the pleasure of reading. They were mean, they were cold, they were warm, they were kind. They didn't shy away from what they are to make the reader love them. They were so, so human and sometimes that is so hard for an author to accomplish, and Jimenez accomplished it and beyond. The way they interacted with each other, and the world, the way their stories remained intimately tied to one another, not to the reader, all made that oral story-telling aspect so much stronger.

And the love in this book... the love that pours from it if you just read it how it's written to you... it is truly astounding. Truly beautiful.

Like everyone has been saying, have patience. Love this book. It will love you back.

My first review with content warnings! CW: gore, torture, genocide, cannibalism, ableism

I read Simon Jimenez’s debut novel, The Vanished Birds, last year, and while I didn’t necessarily think it all came together, the prose and the secondary characters were good enough to spur me to pick up his next project. That next project was this year’s fantasy epic, The Spear Cuts Through Water. 

The Spear Cuts Through Water could be described simply as a fantasy quest story, though it’s told in such a way that there’s nothing simple about it. The lead characters are traveling together trying to reach the Divine City on the East coast of the land before a major celebration planned five days hence. Both have deliveries to make that could upset the dynastic succession and change the course of their land. 

But it’s more than that. The Spear Cuts Through Water leans hard into the mythopoetic style, being communicated as a stage play performed for the reader in a second-person frame story partially taking place hundreds of years later, in an industrial society, and partially taking place outside of time entirely. And every minor character has their part to play, as demonstrated by frequent interruptions of perspective, where someone met in passing—often not even a named character—delivers one or two sentences demonstrating how they viewed the events. The pair of warriors carrying out the quest are absolutely the focal points, but we hear from everyone, and cuts through the fourth wall to the frame story are not unusual. 

It makes for a tale notable for the storytelling as much as it is for the story. The prose is excellent, and the framing of the tale puts the reader into the mind of an audience hearing and seeing the performance of an epic, not of a reader of fantasy novels. If you enjoy different storytelling voices, the style itself is worth the price of admission. 

About the story, on the other hand, my feelings are more mixed. It’s clear from the beginning that there’s a potential revolution in the works, but we see little enough about the revolutionaries to have a sense of whether their cause is any nobler than that of the tyrannical Emperor. And so the first half of the story is left to be carried mostly by an extended chase, with the heroes doggedly pursued by agents of the Emperor whose supernatural endowments make them almost impossible to either defeat or escape. For readers whose interests fall in the intersection of literary stylings and epic chase scenes, The Spear Cuts Through Water may be a new favorite. For others, the success of the first half of the story will depend on the interpersonal relationships between one of the two leads, the fallen goddess he escorts, and the pair of villains, all of whom have long and complicated histories with each other. Said relationships tend toward the archetypical and are characterized by extreme actions and emotions, which fits nicely with the mythopoetic style, but to me didn’t capture quite enough nuance to sustain the length. 

The back half of the story, on the other hand, opens up more context, with details about the revolution, a third powerful enemy, and a lot more time devoted to the relationship between the two leads. I wouldn’t say that the main plot ever develops an abundance of complexity, but fans of high-stakes adventure fantasy will have enough to satisfy, and the storytelling technique continues to provide depth and nuance, even where the plot is more straightforward. 

Ultimately, I’m not sure The Spear Cuts Through Water offers enough from a plot or character perspective to ascend my favorites list, but there’s quality in both aspects—even if it may run a bit long—especially if you don’t mind frontloaded action and backloaded context. But the true star here is the storytelling, with excellent prose and a mythopoetic style that’s worth the price of admission for readers looking for something beyond the typical Western fantasy epic. 

Recommended if you like: quality prose, interesting storytelling techniques, mythic voice.

This book was a nice read and I really enjoyed it's slow paced plot. It is full of mystery and fantasy. I enjoyed every thing about it a lot.

DNF at 10% - Not for Me

I loved the premise of this book and was really excited to give it a try. However, it just really didn't jive with me. I didn't enjoy the narrative structure. All the reviews I read said you had to be willing to give it an open mind, and I just don't have the brain capacity at this moment in time to try to figure that piece out. It had vague Night Circus vibes so I may try to come back to it at some point, but it just wasn't working for me right now.