Well I didn’t finish this in time for book club (it was my pick 😂 ) but I did finish it! And it was excellent.
[two and a half months later]
Okay, so, I am largely incapable of writing reviews in 2024 it seems, but I wanted to say things about this! Firstly, I am going to lower this down to four stars because in the past two months, it really hasn’t stuck with me as much as I thought it would, the way that his second book has. BUT IT WAS STILL EXCELLENT. I just want to make that clear. I also think I did myself a disservice in the way I read this. I think Simon Jimenez is one of those rare authors whose work I have to read slowly (Seth Dickinson and Robin Hobb are the others). I did that with The Spear Cuts Through Water, and I should have done it here, but I waited too long to start it and had a book club deadline, so I rushed through it. And didn’t finish on time. And then finished the book by audio (which was fine, but didn’t add anything to the experience for me). All that to say, I think if I had taken my time with it, I would feel slightly different about it.
But anyway, this is a sci-fi found family book that plays with time and, in what has to be a nod to Alfred Bester, jaunting across the universe. It’s sort of like if Becky Chambers’s sci-fi also stabbed you with knives.
That’s really the best I can do for now, maybe will write something better on re-read.
[4.5 stars, rounded down]