The Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jimenez

Publisher – Solaris

Published – 14th March

Price – £9.99 paperback £7.99 Kindle eBook

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.

With reading we are used to usually one of two perspectives. A usually neutral omnipotent third person narrator telling us what is going on like by line or a more in depth first person narrator taking us into character’s head and we feel their experiences first hand. It isvery rare to have a story try to do something different. Yet stories come from storytelling  - that skill of performance passed down the generations to make us understand our culture, our families and most of all ourselves. Reading Simon Jimenez’ The Spear Cuts Through Water I am faced with a book that delivers not only a great standalone epic fantasy tale but also in novel form manages to create a story as a performance which gives the reader a unique and powerful perspective into the power of stories too.

A young man dreams of a theatre everyone and everywhere could visit. The performance for the next five days will be the legend that he was told by his family and has been passed down through the generations. The tale of the not particularly impressive spear that hangs in the family home and has crossed continents. This time he will find out the truth of the story’s origins

Once there was an Emperor with three sons known as the Terrors. The royal family had ruled the land for many years tightly gripping control and guarding in their palace a powerful magical prisoner who has helped cement their rule. The Emperor though is soon to dsocover his grandson Jun has after six months guarding their prisoner been persuaded to help the prisoner finally escape with devastating consequences. In a small outpost Jun and his passenger are fleeing the Terror’s armies when he falls across the path of the enigmatic solider Keema a one armed man who has been entrusted by his commanding officer to take a spear to a woman he has never met. Jun and Keema soon find themselves on the run from the Terror; battling revolutionaries and discovering the powerful magical forces of the Empire and none of them may be able to save the world from destruction.

We are so used in fantasy to being immersed into a world or character so what impressed about this novel is how Jimenez bravely constantly reminds us that this is a story. The framing device of a young man in a world that is modern but not our own;  a land in constant war with an unnamed power allows us to experience the story several times. We hear the version his beloved grandmother would tell him as a child; the more military focused versions of it that his father told and also those that our narrator told his younger brothers that focused on his favourite elements. This then gets contrasted with the version the mysterious dream theatre shows us (through the medium of danc!). For me this is an unique epic fantasy tale that also asks us to think about why we love these kind of myths and legends; how we experience them and everyone reads into different aspects and will re-interpet them as they get older. Our narrator suddenly realises that the tale of Jun and his father the infamous First Terror has parallels with his relationship with his estranged father. Characters losing family members calls to him about the losses he was experienced thanks to the war and the various tale sof magic and spectacle are just as powerful as when he was told as a child. This is a  novel that wants the reader to consider what a story means to you and how its achieving that effect.

The main plot of Jun and Keema and their race across the Empire is an epic style legend unique to this story and yet evokes other tales and cultures. An evil emperor with three evil sons; gods turned into humans and magical powers that are guiding our characetrs could easily call to mind a fairy tale setting but the novel is filled with a grittier and bloodier background. The Terrors are indeed frightening and violent, characters we get to know and like can be brutally despatched and so many beheadings. It’s got intrigue, battles and romance. Fitting the dream theatre this is based in the story flows through five acts. One for each day of the story. In one we may have a villain but we may then get to see their better natures and vice versa. Jimenez is happy for sone mysteries such as how Keema lost his arm to never be explained. While we get the impression this tale is a long ago history we also get spy networks made of psychic tortoises, weed smoking talking apes and it’s dotted with little legends as to how this world lost its moon. The constantly shifting of tone and direction can be off putting bit for me also remind us these types of myths never settle they constantly evolve with us.

One aspect is the growling friendship into romance of Jun and Keema two fierce warriors who initially want to kill each other and yet bond. Both men have pasta and the bits we are are aware suggest not always noble ones and yet because we see them for this part of the story only they are our heroes. We also find for our modern day dreamer those elements of romance speak to the hidden parts of his own character and loneliness. Stories are shaped just as much by the reader as the storyteller.

Throw in battles with a giant shapeshifter; prison escapes, assassinations within assassinations and a section narrated by a God and The Spear Cuts Through Water is one of the most interesting books I’ve ever written. As with Jimenez’s The Vanished Birds this is a story playing with the genre but also clearly in love with it and for me an even stronger book. Especially if you enjoy stories about stories. Definitely one of my reads of the year, I hope gets a more available UK release soon and strongly recommended!