The Half-Made World

The Half-Made World is a half-Cattle Punk, half-Weird West novel by Felix Gilman. In this reality, the West is partially uncreated and ripe for exploitation- but also hosts the 400-year old battle between the demonic Gun and oppressively industrial Line. Both sides have caught wind of a powerful weapon that could permanently destroy their opponent, and are racing to seize the one man who knows its location. Unfortunately for a newly-arrived psychologist from the East, this man happens to be one of her patients...

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This work contains examples of:

• As Long as There Is Evil: As long as there's hatred and murder, there will be a Gun. As long as there's a drop of oil to be had, the Line will live on.
• Brown Note: Directly hearing the Engine's Song would drive listeners mad- or worse. Indirectly hearing it, via proximity to the Engines and other Line machinery, helps keep the Linesmen pale and sickly. A variation is used in the mind-bombs.
• Child Soldiers: The Line used every available body in their final attempt to break the Republic. A ten-year old Lowry was among those forced onto the front.
• Eldritch Location: The unmade lands of the far West.
• Fantasy Counterpart Culture:
  • The Hillfolk are clearly intended as Amerindian stand-ins, and magic ones to boot. However, they also take inspiration from The Fair Folk. The Hillfolk don't stay dead, are unnaturally gracile and pale (if a touch hairy), are vulnerable to iron, and would like to remind you to properly pronounce their names.
  • The East/North are Europe and Asia.
  • The Red Valley Republic is heavily based on the United States- for example, the Republic was a democratic nation founded on psudeo-Enlightenment principles- but its initial unification more closely resembles that of Germany or Italy.
• Mind Rape: The effect of the mind-bombs.
• Order Versus Chaos: The Line and Gun, respectively.
• People Farms: The Engines only permit Linesmen to reproduce in their industrialized factory-farms. The book doesn't go into detail, but the consider the line "Father unknown, Mother irrelevant."
• The Republic: The Red Valley Republic
• Reality Warping: A significant problem in the West. In many areas, exactly can and cannot exist isn't yet determined, and what does exist can find ways of giving physics the finger. This state allows the existence of... things... that are functionally like spirits. Unfortunately, humans exert influence over the spiritual. The personification and manifestation of our emotions led to the creation of the Line, Gun, and many minor spirits.
• Schizo-Tech: The Line has attack aircraft, tanks, machine guns, telegraphs, electricity, and, of course, the Engines. Everyone else makes due with the equivalent of late 18th to early 19th century technology.