The novel received critical acclaim, including being shortlisted for the 2023 Ursula K. Le Guin Prize.

The moonlit body, a child of the Water and the Moon, performs the following story for the grandchild and other visitors to the Theater.

The people of the Old Country suffer under the rule of Moon Emperor Magaam Ossa and his sons, the Three Terrors.

The emperor enforces his control over the population with the help of a network of psychic tortoises, who can transmit information instantaneously.

Keema and Jun travel with the goddess, who is ancient and close to death, as well as the Defect, a disabled tortoise.

The moonlit body tells Jun and Keema that the Water will destroy the Old Country in order to retrieve the bones of its lover, the Moon goddess.

The moonlit body reveals that the grandchild is Uhi Araya's descendant, and that the spear they are carrying is the same one from the tale.

Shan recovers the spear, which is passed through many generations of her descendants until it reaches the grandchild in the Inverted Theater.

According to Jake Casella Brookins of the Chicago Review of Books, a major theme of the novel is storytelling.

In the Inverted Theater, the story is told through dance, and parts are heard from ghosts or spirits.

[3] Publishers Weekly also wrote a positive review, stating that the difficult style made a "steep barrier to entry" but praising the "beautiful prose and inventive worldbuilding.

"[4] Writing for Locus, Paul Di Filippo wrote that "some works of SF [are] so unique that they don’t really inspire any scions, homages or imitations."

In this category he included works such as The Stars My Destination, Lord of Light, and The Spear Cuts Through Water.

[5] In a review for Book Page, Noah Fram praised the novel's prose, calling it "dense and poetic."

Fram also wrote that the story "never forgets the pair of humans" at the center of its plot, despite being a tale of "gods and demons.