#90 in Science fiction
The Spear Cuts Through Water
- 373
- Pages
- about 7 h
- Reading time
- Robert Holdstock Award for Best Fantasy Novel
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Our view
“The Spear Cuts Through Water” is a myth staged like a play, and the daring of its telling is its great strength. Two men escort a dying goddess across the Old Country while a frame tale, a watching audience and a chorus of voices fold into one another. Some readers praise the prose, the fierce mythology and a quietly drawn romance; for some the form takes rereading to grasp, and others never settle in.
The view of the BookRank editors, written from readers’ ratings and comments. It does not affect the score or the book’s place in a ranking.
About the book
The Spear Cuts Through Water is a 2022 fantasy novel by Filipino-American writer Simon Jimenez. The novel contains a frame story about a grandchild listening to stories of the Old Country; it also tells the story of two men who journey across the Old Country with a dying goddess. It is Jimenez's second novel. The novel received critical acclaim, winning the 2023 British Fantasy Award for Best Novel as well as the Crawford Award. It was shortlisted for the 2023 Ignyte Award and Ursula K. Le Guin Prize.
Where the score comes from
The sources average 8.4 across 244 ratings — not yet many, so the reader vote carries 62% of the weight and the rest pulls toward the Science fiction average of 7.8. That is how 8.3 comes out.
| Source | Average | Ratings | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hardcover | 8.4 | 244 | 100% |
Frequently asked
How long is The Spear Cuts Through Water?
It has 373 pages — shorter than 85% of the ranked books in Science fiction.
In this book
Themes this book shares with others — each leads to the best books on it.
If you liked this
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