Collider writer Amanda M. Castro argues that Simon Jimenez's 2022 novel *The Spear Cuts Through Water* deserves far more attention than it receives, presenting it as a standout in a crowded fantasy market saturated with familiar epic sagas. Although the book opens with well-worn genre staples — a cruel emperor, an imprisoned god and two heroes thrown together in peril — Castro contends that it quickly reveals itself to be something more ambitious, using those foundations to explore memory, history, love and the survival of stories themselves.

The novel follows Keema, a one-armed warrior, and Jun, grandson of an imprisoned moon goddess, as they escort a dying deity across the "Old Country" while an empire collapses. Castro highlights its experimental structure, in which stories are nested within one another, the tale is framed as a family legend staged in a mysterious "Inverted Theater", and the narration shifts between first-, second- and third-person perspectives. She praises the way this technique deepens rather than distracts from the emotional core, noting the restrained central romance, the weight given to the consequences of violence and minor characters, and a demanding, dreamlike style that trusts readers to piece the world together — qualities that, alongside its critical acclaim and awards, she says make it feel like a modern classic worth rereading.