The Spear Cuts Through Water

The Spear Cuts Through Water, by Filipino American author Simon Jimenez, is a 2022 high-fantasy novel inspired by Asian mythology. The two protagonists of the novel, Keema and Jun, are young men tormented by their pasts, tasked with shepherding a goddess who has escaped her prison across a dangerous landscape to join a rebellion. They face a series of challenges, each more deadly than the last. Along the way, they must learn to trust and rely on each other to survive, leading to feelings of attraction. Simultaneously, the second-person narrative speaks directly to “you,” a grandchild listening to their grandmother’s stories, who becomes mysteriously entangled with the story itself.

Highly regarded for its innovative narrative structure, lush prose, and emotional depth, The Spear Cuts Through Water interweaves the lives of many characters to tell a story of Storytelling as a Means of Identity Formation, Love as a Source of Conflict and Healing, and Ending the Generational Cycle of Violence. The novel follows a tradition of stories about storytelling that speaks to the impact that stories have on both cultural identity and an individual’s sense of self. The Spear Cuts Through Water was nominated for six awards and won two, the British Fantasy Award and the Crawford Award from the International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts.

This guide refers to the 2022 e-book edition published by Del Rey Books.

Content Warning: The source material and guide feature depictions of death, graphic violence, ableism, animal death, suicidal ideation, child abuse, emotional abuse, physical abuse, sexual content, substance use, and cursing.

Plot Summary

The grandchild listens to their grandmother, Lola, tell stories about the love affair between the Moon and the Water, who created the Inverted Theater where their child, the dancer, performs. Then, the grandchild enters the Inverted Theater in their dreams while carrying a spear, their family heirloom, to watch the dancer perform a story.

The narrative shifts to the story performed. The emperor of the Old Country has triplet sons, the Three Terrors. The First Terror leads the Red Peacock brigade, comprised of all his sons, who terrorize the land while preparing for the emperor’s pilgrimage across the country to the sea in the east. There, the emperor plans to take a ship across the sea in search of eternal life.

The First Terror visits the emperor. The emperor claims that someone stole his caged bird, and the First Terror executes a servant at random to appease him. The emperor visits a cavern beneath his palace where he keeps the empress, his mother, imprisoned behind a door guarded by Jun, the First Terror’s favorite son. The emperor enters and discovers that the empress has escaped. She kills the emperor.

Throughout the country, people feel a shift that signifies the emperor’s death, though most do not know what it means. Araya, the commander of the Tiger Gate checkpoint, secretly plans to assassinate the First Terror. When she feels the shift, she knows her plans are in danger. She makes her subordinate, a young man named Keema who is missing his left arm, swear an oath to take her spear to the Divine City on the east coast and give it to someone named Shan.

A wagon reaches Tiger Gate, carrying the body of an old woman to her family for burial. However, Araya knows that it is the empress, who escaped from her prison. She allows the wagon to pass through and orders Keema to go with it. Chasing the wagon, the First Terror arrives and attacks, killing Araya.

Though empress looks like a dead woman, she speaks to the wagon’s driver, Jun, in his head. She is the Moon goddess who fell from the sky and gives birth to each new emperor. She has tormented Jun with shame over his murderous past. His guilt now manifests as screaming voices in his head. He has vowed never to kill again, even when the empress orders it.

When the wagon breaks down, Jun and Keema steal another wagon from imperial soldiers, taking a tortoise that the soldiers were transporting. Tortoises can speak to each other across a mental network, and the military uses them as messengers. However, this tortoise—referred to as the Defect—was born with disabilities that limit its communicative power. The Defect asks Jun to take it with them. Keema also finds a purple bird hidden in the floorboards of the wagon and releases it.

The group reaches the river and steals a boat. The Red Peacocks attack, and Keema cuts off the First Terror’s head. The group travels down the river until a rebel group called the Gathering captures them. The Gathering plans to attack Luubu, the Second Terror. They learn that the Mother Tortoise is imprisoned by Luubu. At the Defect’s request, the empress, Jun, and Keema agree to help. However, Luubu has eaten the Mother Tortoise and gained control of the mental network, leading them into a trap. He kills the Defect and captures the others. Keema loses Araya’s spear in the struggle.

Luubu eats one of the empress’s fingers to gain her power. Then, the Red Peacocks arrive, rescuing their father’s head and sewing it back onto his body. However, Luubu can control people through speech and orders the First Terror to murder his own sons. The empress uses the last of her strength to kill the First and Second Terrors. She, Jun, and Keema escape.

The empress dies after instructing Keema and Jun to eat her body to gain her power. The boys do so, gaining the ability to hear each other’s thoughts, as well as other powers. They travel again, intending to join a rebellion in the Divine City. On the way, they encounter three mythical creatures who lead them to the Inverted Theater.

The dancer tells them that the Water is sending a tidal wave to destroy the country to retrieve the Moon’s bones. They must stop the tidal wave, which will mean their deaths. Jun accepts, having always intended to die. Keema refuses. Then, the dancer reveals that every member of the audience, including the grandchild, is Araya’s descendant, who will never be born if the tidal wave destroys the Old Country. The grandchild, whose family heirloom is Araya’s spear, gives the spear to Keema to complete his oath.

Jun and Keema enter the Divine City and find Shan, Araya’s daughter, giving her the spear. They join forces to confront the Third Terror, who is secretly the bird that Keema previously saved. They fight the Third Terror but lose. However, the Third Terror is in love with Keema and does not kill him.

The tidal wave approaches, and Keema and Jun perform a dance to speak to the Water. The tidal wave crashes over them and part of the Divine City but does not drown the country. In the aftermath, Shan rebuilds the country. The Water allows Keema and Jun to live. They decide to stay together and make love in the woods.