The Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jimenez
This book is definitely a favorite of mine. The overall storytelling style was weird, and interesting. It was unique. It was hard, at first, to get into, and I'm really glad I did not give up on it. It was an easy read after the initial weirdness. (the weirdness is important and I'm glad its there)
We start with a kid (12 or so?) sitting with his Lola who is telling him stories about the Old Country. We get some of the setting of the present day - his Granjo (grandma/lola's dad), his brothers, the war that's ongoing, the dockside town they live in.
As his Lola had told him, one day, he would have this mystical dream about the Old Country. So there he is in this mystical place, a massive theater, filled with shadow-people, sort of like ghosts. They take their seats and are facing a stage filled with dancers.
And so the book sets the scene of this theater, and the audience of shadow-people (our boy also a shadow people), and the dancers on stage, etc. And then the dancers start acting out the story of the Old Country, and then we kind of fall into the major tale of this book. As the story is told, we also hear voices of the dead, commentating on some aspects of the story as it happens.
I would say the main story of the book is the Old Country stuff (which I'll get to). But the theater also matters, and the "present"-day also matters. But the main story is a 5 day journey within the Old Country by our two main characters Keema and Jun.
I recently wrote about how bad A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J Maas was. One of my big complaints about it (Idr if I said this in my post) was that it seemed to invent magic on a whim, rather than having any underlying system. It was often an way of doing something with the plot that just ... didn't really fit. And Court ... Roses didn't really care about its own plot, the world it was building, its magic "systems", or the political conflicts. It was a badly told romance story with shallow characters.
Most books I've read don't have the problem Court...Roses had. But reading Spear Cuts Through Water after it really elucidated this issue for me.
Spear Cuts cares a great deal about the world it built. There is an actual magic system, and it plays an integral role in moving the plot forward. It's established in meaningful ways, and then followed through on with consistency. It's thoughtful.
So anyway. The story. Meaningful spoilers follow.
The Moon once was high in the sky, but the Moon & The Ocean were in love. So the Moon asked a great warrior to cut the threads that held her in the sky. She plummeted to the earth and fell onto a great Tortoise God's back, which saved her from a deadly impact. She granted the Tortoise God a wish, which was to allow her and all her children to communicate telepathically, no matter how far apart they were. She also granted the warrior a wish, which was godly powers and godly offspring - she granted him three children, despite the fact he only wanted one sun.
The Moon, now in a woman's body, still having godly powers, but no longer lighting up the night sky ... is kept captive underneath the Great Warriors palace, under the Emperor's palace. The Emperor's three sons are called the First Terror, Second Terror, and Third Terror. They have names, but it hardly matters.
Jun is a son of the First Terror. He is assigned to guard the Wolf Door (behind which the moon is held captive). The First Terror's Sons take 6 month rotations guarding the Wolf Door.
The Moon turns Jun. Jun helps her escape. The Moon literally explodes the Emperor. And then the First Terror is hunting down Jun.
Keema worked as a guard at the Tiger Gate - there are massive Gates setup across the empire to control contraband and traffic across the empire. Jun comes through the Tiger Gate. Commander Araya tells Keema to leave Tiger Gate and deliver her Spear (it's special) to someone a fair distance away. TLDR Keema ends up traveling with Jun as they outrun the First Terror.
This is all, basically, the setup of the book.
What follows is an epic journey, with a good deal of action. It is all wonderfully told. And its a large part of why I love this book.
But this book also engages in gentle social commentary. It speaks of sexual attraction in the time of the Old Country and how same/opposite sex things just ... weren't a thing then like they are now. And then how queer things are explored in the Old Country story are just very ... nice. It just feels normal, and natural.
His Lola told the boy the story was a Love Story.
I believe it is a Love Story between the Moon and the Ocean. But it is also a love story between Jun and Keema.
Unlike Court...Roses, it does not get bogged down in the Love Story. The Love is a thing that happens as a part of a much grander story. It happens because of the overall plot that's playing out. It's thoughtful, it's sweet, and it's well told.
Oh, also. The tortoises talk. The Emperor has one at each Gate, and uses them to communicate messages across his kingdom.
Keema and Jun steal a wagon at one point, and in it is The Defect - a Tortoise that is not in such good shape. He's my favorite character in the whole book, I love him so much. He's just such a sweet delight.
There's also a purple bird that Keema freed from that wagon. The bird plays a role throughout the book, though it is typically pretty minor. This stuff is also sweet, mostly.
There are some really horrible people in this story. Jun had spent his life slaughtering people on behalf of the First Terror, who did not get his name lightly. But Jimenez makes us feel for and care about Jun, and even the First Terror. While the First Terror is a true monster, he also deeply loves all of his sons (like 30+ of them). He really truly loves and cares for them, and this is shown in extremely human ways. Jun is reformed now, but also has this really dark and genuinely evil past.
It's just. It's just such a beautiful book.
One of my favorite things from the whole story is toward the end of the book, where rain falls for the first time in a very long time. It made me cry, and makes me cry again as I type it. It is just so beautiful. The bold below are the voices of the dead.
And so it is raining:
We looked up and opened our mouths and tasted the same taste. As did the boy with the cleft lip, who sat on a ledge in a small village in the palm of the Spires, where he was taken in by those who cared, along with the other lost children of the land - his tongue held out beneath the cloudburst sky. And we knew this to be nothing less than the fruit of heaven