The Spear Cuts Through Water

I have long been chasing classic epic fantasy stories featuring gay characters, and have been disappointed over and over again. I love romances (and read many of them) but finding stories focused on gay men where romance plot structures don’t dominate is horribly difficult. I put of reading The Spear Cuts Through Water for a long time, out of fear it would not live up to my hopes for it. When I read it, I discovered the best book I’ve ever read.

Elevator Pitch:
Jun is a guard. Keema is an outcast. They find themselves on a journey that will shape the fate of worlds as they help a dying god escape from the Empire that has enslaved it, and the Three Terrors who keep the land under the Empire’s control. But it’s also the story of a child hearing the story of Jun and Keema from their grandma. And it’s also the story of a person in the theater of dreams and ocean watching this story performed. These three narratives weave together seamlessly throughout the book, passing the story back and forth often, sometimes within the same sentence.

What Worked for Me
The prose of this book is, I think, the biggest selling point. Written in 1st, 2nd, and 3rd person point of view, it’s nesting of the story of Jun and Keema within multiple framing narratives gives the book a dreamlike feel. We oftentimes slip into the minds of side characters for half of a sentence, performed by actors, or dip into the story of the child and grandmother talking about the story. The story leverages its unique structure to great effect, building meaning piece at a time until it looms large over the story. It manages at once to tell an incredibly tender story of the journey of two boys, chronicle the fall of an empire, and tell stories about family and belonging and guilt and power. And, like most of my favorite fantasy, it acknowledges the role of storytelling in the construction of the genre that I love.

However, the majority of the book focuses on the story of Jun and Keema. It’s about as classic Epic Fantasy as you can get, at least in an Asian-inspired world with talking turtles, moon goddesses, a legendary spear, and two young men slowly falling in love. There’s brutal battles, quick violence, and a quite terrifying set of villains to be conquered, though not always by our two leads. The story feels familiar and comfortable, even when presented in such a bespoke way.

The book drips with metaphor and meaning as you are constantly confronted with things from many sides. The characters are complex and well-realized, even those who receive less screen time. And on a sentence level, Jimenez’s craftsmanship really shines through. This book is intentional in every aspect, and it really sings.

What Didn’t Work for Me
This is probably the closest to perfect a book can get for me. However, many will be put off by the shifting between points of view, especially so rapidly. I think this is a love it/hate it book, which is a sign of how ambitious it is.

In Conclusion: A mythic an ambitious book that is simultaneously archetypical epic fantasy and unlike anything I’ve ever read. It is stunning.

• Characters – 5
• Worldbuilding – 5
• Craft – 5
• Themes – 5
• Enjoyment – 5