The Half-Made World (The Half-Made World, #1) in The Alternative Worlds

Sep 12, 2011 Terry rated it really liked it

Shelves: fantasy, western, steampunk, weird-weird-west

Order and Chaos. The Line and the Gun. The battle between the two elemental forces of order and chaos has long been a favourite for fantasy literature and it has provided ~~fallow~~ fertile ground for many tales of human society as it gets caught in the middle of these two titanic ways of viewing the universe. What better stage for displaying this great and never-ending battle than the American West? What other time period more succinctly portrays the stark differences between these two great forces Order and Chaos. The Line and the Gun. The battle between the two elemental forces of order and chaos has long been a favourite for fantasy literature and it has provided ~~fallow~~ fertile ground for many tales of human society as it gets caught in the middle of these two titanic ways of viewing the universe. What better stage for displaying this great and never-ending battle than the American West? What other time period more succinctly portrays the stark differences between these two great forces? Felix Gilman has taken this stage, albeit in an alternate world that only mirrors that of our own, in order to paint in the stark blacks and whites of this endless battle. Standing in for Order and Chaos we have, as has already been mentioned, the Line and the Gun. These two great unnatural (supernatural? abnatural?) forces are presided over by demonic spirits who drive on the humans in their service in an attempt to forever destroy their opposites. The Line are housed in great Engines that control and drive their human slaves in the name of industry and progress. Their tracks criss-cross the West and lay waste to all in their path, flattening the hills and mountains and filling in the valleys to turn all into orderly, flat wastelands populated only by their great Stations and factories. The Guns take a more personal approach, inhabiting their weapons of steel and wood and brimstone and riding their bearers, shaping them into superhuman gunslingers, able to move almost faster than the eye can follow and heal from grievous wounds in mere moments.

The alternate world that Gilman has created for this story has a great continent broadly divided into two great zones: the settled East, where things have been 'made' or 'shaped' into their final forms as we know them. Peace, order and (good?) government are the rule here and the countries of the East seem to combine elements of both the settled eastern states of the historical U.S. and the 'old world' of Europe. Science and Technology, law and order, are well-founded here, though not with the inflexible singleness of vision of the Line. Out beyond the borders of the map, however, lies the West. Beyond the great, and aptly named, World's End Mountains, lies a country that grows more lawless, and even physically unformed, the farther out you go. Only the Line has brought Order to parts of the West, but its order is a sterile thing, consuming all in its path and replacing it with factories and stations for its great engines, peopled by its hive-like minions who are driven to build and destroy in equal measure. The Agents of the Gun are themselves compelled by their masters to halt the Line wherever they are able, revelling in death and chaos no matter the price. Caught between these two forces are the small communities of 'normal' people who seem to simply sit back and hope that both the Line and the Gun will ignore their presence, at least in their own lifetime.

Amidst these great swathes of black and white, however, Gilman does manage to include many shades of grey in his story at both the macro and the micro level. At the macro level we have the Red Valley Republic, a gathering of many smaller nation-states of the unformed West under one banner and the leadership of the great General Orlan Enver. The Republic is another great power, able in its heyday to do the impossible: hold off both the Line and the Gun, and prosper in the unformed West. They are not, apparently, driven by any demons or supernatural forces, but only the human ideals and hopes of their founders...though these prove to be as dominating and heedless, in their own way, as the more metaphysical powers. At the micro level we have Gilman’s nuanced characterisation, especially as seen in his three main protagonists who move the plot forward: Liv Alverhuysen, a bored widow and professor of psychology at the Koenigswald Academy who dreams of the possibilities of adventure that await in the West, John Creedmoor an aging charmer who also happens to be an Agent of the Gun, and Sub Invigilator (Third) Lowry, a lowly cog in the great human machine of the Line.

As the story proper begins the Red Valley Republic is nothing more than a dream and a memory: a failed fable and cautionary tale of the price of opposing the two great Powers. Liv has received an enigmatic letter requesting assistance from the aptly named House Dolorous, a hospital and hospice on the very edge of the settled West designed to care for those broken by the endless war of the Powers. She jumps at the chance to leave her comfortable and staid life behind and go into the unknown. Creedmoor, a somewhat cowardly and lazy adventurer who has been laying low and avoiding the call of his harsh masters, is suddenly prodded back into service and set on a track that will lead him to cross paths with the other main players of the tale. Lastly, we have Lowry, the lowly, but ambitious, peon of the Line, destined to rise in the ranks of the great machine as he too is goaded on by his masters to find the prize that all three characters will eventually pursue: the great General Envers, thought lost, though now convalescing at the House Dolorous in a fit of madness brought on by one of the horrible weapons of the Line. Apparently the general holds a great secret of the First Folk (the somewhat elvish, somewhat aboriginal, somewhat otherworldly first inhabitants of the West who are enslaved by everyone else when they are not free to roam the unformed wilderness), that both Powers crave for their own, and fear may fall into the hands of their enemies.

I really enjoyed this book, and Gilman's prose is very fluid, so even though it is a sizable tome I found that the pages flew by fairly quickly. This is my first introduction to what has been labelled the ‘Weird West’ in genre circles, and which shades mildly into areas of steampunk, and if it’s an indication of what else is out there in this genre then I’m excited to continue in my discoveries. I thoroughly enjoyed this book both for the extensive worldbuilding that Gilman did, as well as his admirable work with characterisation. Each of the main protagonists is nuanced and interesting, and even Creedmoor and Lowry are able to rise above being simply placeholders for their respective Powers. For his part Creedmoor combines the nostalgic regret of an old gunslinger seeing something of the error of his ways, though held back from change by inertia and cowardice, while Lowry, despite being born and bred as simply a cog in a wheel, displays aspects of individual thinking and initiative that could just as likely get him killed by his Masters as promoted by allowing him to complete his goal. Liv stands in for the rest of us, those ‘normal’ people not beholden to any supernatural Power for their goals and abilities, and who must make her way in the world with only her own intellect and conscience to guide her. General Envers, even though insane and mostly silent for the majority of the book, is also a very interesting figure who, despite his affliction, looms large in the story and stands almost as a power unto himself.

Highly recommended.

Also posted at Shelf Inflicted ...more

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Aug 15, 2011 Terence rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: speculative-fiction

My first experience with a GoodReads’ giveaway was not a very happy one. The book was subpar but it was free so my complaints couldn’t be too excessive. I’m happy to say that my second giveaway win was a considerably different experience.

The Half-Made World gets a solid 3 stars – it falls between 3.5 and 4 but I can’t quite bring myself to give it the coveted fourth star.

When I first read the blurbs for the book I was immediately reminded of the opening scene in Michael Moorcock’s The Weird of ...more

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Sep 10, 2010 Wealhtheow rated it really liked it

Shelves: fantasy, steampunk, queer-characters

Really fantastic, imaginative adventure set in something a bit like America's Wild West of old. Like many Westerns, the main characters are damaged people in pursuit of their own interests, demonstrating occasional bursts of heroism. But unlike most Westerns, people are queer, female, and not necessarily white. And of course, there is the magic: the Line, with their noise-bombs that tear at the mind and their sentient engines; and the Agents of the Gun, whose weapons confer superhuman power but ...more

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May 18, 2011 Nicky rated it liked it

Shelves: speculative-fiction, steampunk

I'm not sure I enjoyed The Half-Made World. I was intrigued by it, which is something different. There's nothing here to hang your hopes on, to get emotionally attached to: the Linesmen are interchangeable, the Line unpleasant; the Agents of the Gun are as bad or worse, though at least they're individuals; the General is nothing but a tool for the plot; Liv is colourless... Even the Republic is hollow. The narration follows a Linesman, an Agent, and Liv, who is neutral. It really just emphasises ...more

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Jul 31, 2016 Kara Babcock rated it liked it

Shelves: own, 2016-read, fantasy

I have great respect for writers who can create entirely different worlds without succumbing to the need to explain every little detail of the world’s workings. Felix Gilman accomplishes this with The Half-Made World. His world is nothing like our own. There is the barest patina of the Wild West to it in the set dressings and costumes: frontier towns, guns and lawmakers, the looming spectre of industrialization, and disillusioned soldiers from a forlorn war. But this world has no connection to o I have great respect for writers who can create entirely different worlds without succumbing to the need to explain every little detail of the world’s workings. Felix Gilman accomplishes this with The Half-Made World. His world is nothing like our own. There is the barest patina of the Wild West to it in the set dressings and costumes: frontier towns, guns and lawmakers, the looming spectre of industrialization, and disillusioned soldiers from a forlorn war. But this world has no connection to our own; it is as fantastic as any other high fantasy book, just more mechanistic in its setting. Gilman skilfully tells an adventure/chase story while touching on deep motifs, such as loyalty, one’s duty to history, and the ability for a single person to make a difference. It’s a half-made world, but it’s not a half-baked world.

(I’m so, so sorry.)

Gilman’s success at creating such a rich world and telling such a brilliant story is due in large part to the characters who carry its weight. He succeeds in that difficult task of portraying a cast whose goals are at odds with one another, yet every character is sympathetic in their own way. This puts the reader in the unenviable position of watching one or more of their “favourite” characters fail in some way. Not all of Lowry, Creedmoor, and Liv can succeed. But thanks to the way Gilman introduces and develops them, we develop a measure of sympathy for each.

Lowry is the closest thing The Half-Made World has to a human villain, and I’m almost tempted to say he’s an anti-villain. He believes in the order brought by the Line; that this belief is the result of indoctrination does not diminish its power to shape his actions. As the book’s chief representative of the Line, Lowry shows us the dark side of an industrialized, bureaucratized superpower. He is repeatedly compared to a cog in a machine: when his superiors expire from incompetence, he is promoted by inheriting their positions because he is “not significantly less adequate” for their task. The Line is all about depersonalizing and removing an individual’s sense of self or accomplishments. Lowry, despite his desire to be a good little Linesman, has a stubborn streak of pride that keeps him from staying under the radar. (Incidentally, this is the second book in a month where I’ve encountered the word “Linesman”, in entirely different uses!)

In contrast, Creedmoor is definitely an anti-hero. Dedicated to the more chaotic forces of the Gun, Creedmoor is not a nice man. He has killed and will kill again and will let innocents suffer. Yet his allegiance to the Gun and dedication to its irreconcilable animosity towards the Line is tenuous: he joined up because he was attracted to the power of the Gun, not its motives. Unlike the true believer that is Lowry, Creedmoor questions and chafes against the orders of his inhuman masters. He is Liv’s sometimes-ally, sometimes-enemy, helping and hindering as he sees fit. This provides for no end of entertaining conflict and contributes to the richness of the characterization here.

Liv Alverhuysen is the closest we come to a protagonist. She is of the unlikely variety, in that she does not set off to get involved in this war. It’s only by chance she ends up in a position to be kidnapped by Creedmoor along with the General, in whose precious but addled mind might lie the key to ending the war between the Gun and the Line, once and for all. Liv quickly proves her mettle though. She sets off from her cushy Ivory Tower with a friend, the cheerful but childlike Maggfrid, and in no time at all negotiates herself into the business side of a trader’s operation. Soon enough she arrives at the House Dolorous to work with mentally ill patients, which is where she meets Creedmoor and the General. As the three of them flee farther west into the unmade parts of the world, Liv’s even-tempered compassion is an essential counterweight to Creedmoor’s manic bouts of trigger-happiness and restlessness.

It’s this perfect balance between this trio of characters that makes me smile so much. The Half-Made World isn’t just an adventure story or a chase novel; it’s an adventure story and a chase novel with three viewpoints that all see the world in radically different terms, and by exposing us to those viewpoints, Gilman provides a more complete picture of that world. Liv’s naivety and aloofness when it comes to the Gun and the Line is a tonic for the embedded ideas of Creedmoor and Lowry’s that this war is inevitable and eternal. Similarly, Creedmoor’s anarchic tendency to buck his master’s commands and chafe at his mission parameters finds a parallel in Lowry’s decision to press forward, no matter the cost, in pursuit: both show traces of individuality and remind us that even when in thrall to inhuman forces, human free will is a powerful determining force all on its own.

The chase and its ultimate goal of uncovering the weapon hidden within (or pointed to by) the General’s mind proves somewhat of a MacGuffin. Its origins lie in the First Folk, Indigenous peoples analogues who are literally immortal and perhaps represent a midpoint between the inhuman demons behind the Guns and the Engines and the briefer, mortal humans ground down in this war. The First Folk regard humans, rightly so, as children (not that it’s our fault). Gilman does little to delve into the mystery behind the First Folk, and I’m ambivalent about that. On the one hand, I appreciate the kind of magical realism vibe that he is going for here. On the other hand, even though the First Folk are not explicitly Native Americans, their analogous resemblance means that this teeters dangerously close to another example of Indigenous cultures being Othered and their spiritual beliefs and practices exoticized for Western consumption.

As far as stories go, though, it is hard to beat the deadly effective combination of a fast-paced plot with a romantically dangerous world. The Gun and the Line are imposing forces wrestling to wrest control of human civilization from human hands. Liv and the other main characters suddenly find themselves at a pivot that could change everything. The stakes increase immeasurably, yet Gilman keeps everything grounded in the goals and motivations of his main characters. The result is something captivating and difficult to put down. I was left with a bit of a Harkaway feel, and not just because the book’s title is similar to The Gone-Away World , which also features a hefty dose of unmaking reality.

...more

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Nov 01, 2010 Lori rated it really liked it

What a remarkable book. It may yet turn out to be a 5, because it lived in me while I was reading it. But be warned, it's not advertised as such, but it is the first of a dualogy. THe ending hangs, and I was relieved to learn that it's not the finale.

I can't even place it in a genre. Steampunk with magic realism? Dystopian? Or fantasy? A Western? All of those. Clang clang go the Engines of The Line. Devouring the land into gray. The Guns embody their Agents to war with the Line, but they are dem ...more

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Sep 20, 2011 Daniel Roy rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, new-weird

The Half-Made World is a good representation of the strengths and limitations of the "New Weird" brand of SF inspired by China Mieville. But although the novel's powerful setting starts out full of promises, it runs out of steam completely before the novel is through.

The setting of The Half-Made World starts out exciting and fresh, with its mix of cursed gunslingers carrying demon-haunted guns, and the grim, Nazi-like servant armies of steampunk sentient Engines. There's also the promise of an u The Half-Made World is a good representation of the strengths and limitations of the "New Weird" brand of SF inspired by China Mieville. But although the novel's powerful setting starts out full of promises, it runs out of steam completely before the novel is through.

The setting of The Half-Made World starts out exciting and fresh, with its mix of cursed gunslingers carrying demon-haunted guns, and the grim, Nazi-like servant armies of steampunk sentient Engines. There's also the promise of an unmade part of the world, where the laws of physics and biology have not yet settled down into stable patterns. These alone go a long way to explain the appeal of this novel. The writing is crisp, although some parts could have done with a bit of tighter editing. (Worst offender, paraphrased: "he said actorly." This gets my nomination for worst adverb ever.)

Unfortunately, the storytelling doesn't live up to its setting. The weirdness and the madness seem to exist for their own sake, instead of providing a refreshing canvas for characters to develop and grow. The main point of the story is the conflict between the Engines, representing industry and order, and the Gun, terrorist superheroes who seem to crave chaos for chaos' sake.

The problem is that neither of these factions attracts much sympathy. They're both unappealing, and their soldiers fight for the sake of fighting, without much attachment to the cause. Ultimately, the conflict is so large that it swallows up everything else, and leaves us with characters devoid of poignant internal conflicts or personal motivations.

Creedmoor, the servant of the Gun, is appealing as an antihero, but unfortunately, we never get a good grasp on his motivations. Moreover, the Guns make him so incredibly powerful that we never fear for his safety, except when the story contrives to rob him of said powers for a moment. There is Liv, a psychiatrist from a more civilized part of the world, who is mildly interesting, except that she doesn't drive much of the plot forward. The third POV character is Lowry, a soldier of the Line, but frankly, his chapters could have been cut out entirely; all he does is follow Creedmoor, until he gets lost in the final confrontation and we never learn his true fate.

The story meanders and rambles. Character actions don't always make sense. Sometimes they do things without struggling much, and the world just seems to bend to the will of the author to see his characters succeed. One of the supporting characters gets dropped from the story altogether, and only gets remembered by another character two chapters later. At one point, Creedmoor conveniently takes himself out of the story to go on a nonsensical hunt, which accomplishes nothing whatsoever.

Ultimately, the biggest disappointment of the novel is the setting itself. The "unmade" portion of the world beckons for half the novel, but when the protagonists finally reach it, there is none of the madness and wonder we expect. Instead, we find a wilderness of pines, with slightly twisted versions of normal wild animals (often just described as 'deer-looking but not quite'), and a boring village of idealists who are meant to inspire our sympathy; the chapters dedicated to them make the book's pace grind to a halt.

Even worse, the last chapters take away any sense of closure that the book built towards, and instead offer a convenient MacGuffin for the (groan) next installment in the trilogy.

No thanks. One meandering, unfulfilling novel is enough for me. ...more

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Apr 22, 2011 Maree rated it liked it

The Half-Made World is a steampunk scifi/fantasy set in an alternate American West where if you go far enough into the west, you'll find the world has not yet settled and is still changing. We follow the paths of Liv, a psychologist who goes to the House of Dolores intending to cure the mentally insane, but instead is kidnapped along with one of her patients, the General, by Creedmore, an Agent of the Gun, whose weapon houses a spirit that is his Master and who he mostly must obey. They are houn The Half-Made World is a steampunk scifi/fantasy set in an alternate American West where if you go far enough into the west, you'll find the world has not yet settled and is still changing. We follow the paths of Liv, a psychologist who goes to the House of Dolores intending to cure the mentally insane, but instead is kidnapped along with one of her patients, the General, by Creedmore, an Agent of the Gun, whose weapon houses a spirit that is his Master and who he mostly must obey. They are hounded by Lowry and soldier of the Line, an industrial enemy of the Gun who has been waging war against them for nearly forever. The General is thought to have information that can lead to a great weapon that will end the war, and both sides want that weapon for themselves.

From the above summary, you may think that Creedmore is the good guy, so let me bury that notion immediately. Agents of the Gun are thieves and murderers who become dependent upon the extra strength and healing powers their masters allow them and must obey or be placed in considerable pain. While he does tend to not kill everyone the Gun orders him to shoot (hence why Liv survives the trip) he doesn't do it out of kindness but because it annoys his masters. All that said, Creedmore was definitely my favorite character, one of those villains who gets the job done, but carries a huge amount of shame (as well as pride) for all he's done. He's an interesting contradiction, and has a sharp sense of what needs to be done. I also appreciated how he continually goads his masters, especially when he's the only one out there who can carry out their mission and he knows it.

The novel has a number of interesting factions and allusions throughout. The Line, with their technological superiority, and the Engines, who are their essential Gods, are spreading rapidly and taking over, winning the war. But when they head west and communication breaks down, it becomes obvious of how much they are interchangeable drones. Even at the end, (view spoiler) They are all the same with their masks on. The Gun are the cowboys of the old west with questionable moral codes, ruling by fear and violence. The First Folk are the wild and strange but knowledgeable inhabitants who originally shared with the General the secret to the weapon, which isn't likely actually a weapon, rather just something that will bring peace somehow.

The ending was very inconclusive, and I wasn't sure if that was because it was supposed to be left open to interpretation (oh those annoyingly deep writers) or because there is supposed to be a sequel. I think it's just the one, but since it's a new book, there isn't much info out there yet. Not sure I'd read it if there was, it was rather long with some interesting action and thoughts, with very little payoff. ...more

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Oct 06, 2010 Sarah rated it liked it

Shelves: speculative-fiction, alternate-history

Three and a half stars. I'm wavering on four because I gave Who Fears Death four just a few days ago, and I was far more captivated by that book. This one had a lot going for it, don't get me wrong. It's a brilliant concept and a vividly described setting. I could feel the grit and soot in my teeth as I read about the mighty Engines. Creedmoor and Liv are both complex and interesting characters, and yet something kept me at arm's length from both of them. It was the world itself that kept my int ...more

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Aug 10, 2010 Eric marked it as to-read

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Sep 11, 2010 Julie S. marked it as to-read

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Dec 31, 2010 Danielle The Book Huntress marked it as to-read

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Jan 22, 2011 Tamara added it

Shelves: fantasy, a-bunch-of-lonesome-heroes, north-america, ideologically-annoying, geography, usa, male-protagonist, author-male, female-protagonist, railway

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