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The Spear Cuts Through Water
4/5. One of those books where summarizing the plot seems rather beside the point. Somewhat experimental fantasy about a guard and a runaway prince doing the bidding of a dying goddess to try and topple a corrupt monarchy, except also this is taking place in the theater of dreams.
I read this a month ago and am still chewing on it. You know how I was just saying literary fantasy isn’t my thing? Exception to every rule, I guess. This is a dense, structurally challenging book that, to name only the most obvious thing, contains first, second, and third person sections, each POV fulfilling a different structural purpose. This book fucks with time, perspective, reality, and a bunch of other things. It is disorienting and yet absorbing, violent, intense, tricky, sad, queer, and kind.
Not everyone will like this. Some will like it more than I did. But if you want the best of the best who are pushing the boundaries of the genre, here you go. No one writes like him, I’ll tell you that.
Content notes: A lot of violence. Imprisonment, implied rape and forced childbearing. Cannibalism I guess?
4/5. One of those books where summarizing the plot seems rather beside the point. Somewhat experimental fantasy about a guard and a runaway prince doing the bidding of a dying goddess to try and topple a corrupt monarchy, except also this is taking place in the theater of dreams.
I read this a month ago and am still chewing on it. You know how I was just saying literary fantasy isn’t my thing? Exception to every rule, I guess. This is a dense, structurally challenging book that, to name only the most obvious thing, contains first, second, and third person sections, each POV fulfilling a different structural purpose. This book fucks with time, perspective, reality, and a bunch of other things. It is disorienting and yet absorbing, violent, intense, tricky, sad, queer, and kind.
Not everyone will like this. Some will like it more than I did. But if you want the best of the best who are pushing the boundaries of the genre, here you go. No one writes like him, I’ll tell you that.
Content notes: A lot of violence. Imprisonment, implied rape and forced childbearing. Cannibalism I guess?