Simon Jimenez: Spear Cuts Through Water (2022, Random House Worlds)
English language
Published July 23, 2022 by Random House Worlds.
Smart, skillfully written mythic fantasy, which succeeds in doing interesting things with voice and viewpoint. Bit gay. Some violence, but treated thoughtfully, with actual stakes. Thoroughly enjoyed it.
Absolutely wonderful story. It is at times unbelievably dark and grim, and then at other times almost magical in it's beauty. Jimenez's unique style gives the reader insight into the world the protagonists travel upon, by allowing us to peer into the thoughts and dreams of others. This book covers many themes. Love and War, Greed and Hate, Honor and Family, and many many more, as well as the marriage and intersection of these themes. This book explores the history of a fictional world from the past, the present, and from somewhere entirely in-between. It is dark, complex, and beautiful, and I couldn't recommend it more than I already am
"Blame is an endless circle."
I waited fervently for this ARC to be available, because I loved The Vanished Birds so damn much I couldn't stop talking about it to all my book friends. When I started reading this book, though, it struck me immediately how different it felt from my first love. I believe in honesty, and will say that I almost bounced off this one from the beginning because of how different it is. I've never been a very literary reader despite reading literary fiction, so when confronted with a clearly very literary book I immediately get discouraged and think most of it will go over my head and I'll never understand what's going on. I stuck with it, though, because it's an ARC and I felt obligated to finish what I start, and noticed that after I let the book begin and got used to the different …
"Blame is an endless circle."
I waited fervently for this ARC to be available, because I loved The Vanished Birds so damn much I couldn't stop talking about it to all my book friends. When I started reading this book, though, it struck me immediately how different it felt from my first love. I believe in honesty, and will say that I almost bounced off this one from the beginning because of how different it is. I've never been a very literary reader despite reading literary fiction, so when confronted with a clearly very literary book I immediately get discouraged and think most of it will go over my head and I'll never understand what's going on. I stuck with it, though, because it's an ARC and I felt obligated to finish what I start, and noticed that after I let the book begin and got used to the different way it tells its story, I was completely sucked in. It's a bit of a dense book, but if you just give it space to tell its story (and the beginning was a bit slow), it's not a hard read. I loved this book.
I'm going to be brief with the summary because it's a hard book to summarize. A country is led by a tyrannical family, and a quest to rescue a dying god out from under these rulers brings two warriors together to bring an end to their rule. There's lots of magical twists and turns along the way, but your lola wasn't kidding when she said that this was a love story at its core.
The story's told using basically all points of view at one point or another. As the story with the main characters is being told, you're also being given little snippets of what people around the main characters are thinking at the same time in a weirdly non-disruptive way. It's also told as if you're in a theater watching the story unfold as a play at times too, the Inverted Theater your lola told you stories about. It can be disorienting in the beginning, but it really grew on me. Things get incredibly wild towards the end, so if you're looking for a straight fantasy tale, this probably won't be for you. It's fantasy, but surreal fantasy. It's also an incredibly dark story, so if gore bothers you, maybe pass on this.
I never thought literary fantasy would be a thing I'd enjoy so much, but here we are. This was a gorgeous, compelling read that I highly recommend.
I loved The Vanished Birds more fiercely, but I think that this one made me laugh like the SICKOS guy more often, so who's to say which is better, really. Brilliant and weird, playful and bloody, and confident enough in what it's doing to put off explaining it until it has enough momentum to hurt.
