2023 British Fantasy Award for Best Fantasy Novel
2023 Ignyte Award for Outstanding Novel (nominee)
2023 Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction (shortlist)
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.
Genre: Fantasy
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.
Genre: Fantasy
Praise for this book
"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
"Drawing on staples of traditional fantasy such as reluctant, mismatched heroes on a quest, The Spear Cuts Through Water subverts expectations with its language, point of view, and narrative choices. Readers looking for self-aware fantasy with folkloric overtones and the sensibilities of an epic poem--look no further. Jimenez's novel is an intricate, multilayered story speaking in multiple tongues at once. Fans of diverse, nuanced epics like Black Sun and the Broken Earth series will find this worth their while." - Suyi Davies Okungbowa
"Gorgeously written, The Spear Cuts Through Water is unlike anything I've ever read before. It is a fable, a dream world, a love story, and a meditation on the nature of humanity all wrapped into one. Simon Jimenez has written the rare kind of book that changes the way you see the world, that makes you pause and appreciate the beauty in every small moment of life and, even, death. The Spear Cuts Through Water is a beguiling fantasy not to be missed." - Evelyn Skye
"Drawing on staples of traditional fantasy such as reluctant, mismatched heroes on a quest, The Spear Cuts Through Water subverts expectations with its language, point of view, and narrative choices. Readers looking for self-aware fantasy with folkloric overtones and the sensibilities of an epic poem--look no further. Jimenez's novel is an intricate, multilayered story speaking in multiple tongues at once. Fans of diverse, nuanced epics like Black Sun and the Broken Earth series will find this worth their while." - Suyi Davies Okungbowa
"Gorgeously written, The Spear Cuts Through Water is unlike anything I've ever read before. It is a fable, a dream world, a love story, and a meditation on the nature of humanity all wrapped into one. Simon Jimenez has written the rare kind of book that changes the way you see the world, that makes you pause and appreciate the beauty in every small moment of life and, even, death. The Spear Cuts Through Water is a beguiling fantasy not to be missed." - Evelyn Skye
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