SF/F Review - The Spear Cuts Through Water
The Spear Cuts Through Water, by Simon Jimenez
Synopsis: Across five days two young men fight & flee from imperial forces in Fantasy-China, to bring a stolen artifact of great power from the palace to the coast in a desperate gambit to destroy the evil imperial dynasty.
Book Review: What is this novel? That’s the primary question people want answered in a review. It’s a very hard question to answer for Spear, I’ve been wrestling with it for some time. What it is keeps changing. I don’t know if that’s because it keeps growing, or because it is afraid to commit.
So. It is grappling with denied parental love. It is a coming of age. It is great action and fantastic world-building. In each passing day, the scope of the action expands and the stakes are raised. This is a thing I love. The story is intentionally artsy and downright psychedelic for a span, which I also love. The narrative plays with structure, with overlapping storytellers and timelines, which I always adore.
The thing is, the story always keeps its reader at arms length. This is obviously intentional. The nominal narrator is unnamed and undescribed, more of a shadow than a person. The narration takes place within a dream, which contains a stage, upon which a rendition of events in the past are portrayed, which is where the actual storyline takes place. These many layers of remove are mostly in the periphery, but every chapter we are reminded of them. Very frequently the other “audience members” in the dream comment on the action taking place.
It makes the whole story rather cerebral and ephemeral, rather than visceral. A member of our book club joked I wouldn’t like this book because there’s no gore or violence in it. This is the opposite of the truth, there is TONS of gore and violence. But the book does such a good just of keeping the reader at a distance via the mechanisms stated above that one never feels the emotional impact of these things. They are not felt as much as they are accepted. Acceptance, in the sense portrayed in this novel, is not a passionate thing, it is a tranquil thing of soft beauty.
Spear Cuts Through Water is very good at what it does. The book, in addition to being ephemeral and beautiful, leaves you feeling soft tranquil acceptance—a sort of sparkling warmth. I am extremely impressed with a piece of art that can keep one entranced and engaged for so long, and deliver them to exactly the emotional space the author aimed for.
Recommended!
Book Club Review: I was unable to attend our book club this night we discussed this. From reports, it was well received and there was plenty to discuss. Without firsthand knowledge, I cannot give a yea/nay. But from what I was told, this would be a good book club choice.