The Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jimenez

Discussion questions by K. F.

1. What did you think of the way the author narrates the story, by using an unnamed narrator travel a mystical dream realm where a play tells our story?
2. Why do you think the author used the voices of the dead throughout the novel? How did this technique impact your reading?
3. When reading through the perspective of the unnamed narrator, did you assign a gender to them? Was it ever mentioned the gender of the narrator, and how might that have impacted the way you read this story?
4. Many of the gods in this world – the Lady Moon, the tortoise god, the river spirit – have been subjugated and/or had their powers diminished by humans. What do you think the author is trying to say with these portrayals?
5. What did you think of this world? How is it similar and different to other stories you have read?
6. Of the characters we were introduced to, who did you like the most? Who did you dislike the most?
7. How does the concept of story telling play into the narrative? 
8. What was your opinion of the map that showed the Land as Dreamt by the Eighth Emperor. Why do you think it was a map depicted from his perspective?