History Literature / TheHalfMadeWorld

''The Half-Made World'' is a half-CattlePunk, half-WeirdWest 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...

* BrownNote: 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.

* DroppedABridgeOnHim: [[spoiler: Creedmoor shoots Lowry without realizing it, and Lowry is never mentioned again. This anonymous death is ''exactly'' as Lowry had predicted.]]
** In the sequel, The Rise of Ransom City, the narrator Harry Ransom mentions briefly that [[spoiler: Marmion, Creedmoor's Gun, had been permanently destroyed during an off-screen battle]].

* EldritchLocation: The unmade lands of the far West. Plants and animals and machines aren't wholly distinct from each other, time flows strangely, the sun and moon move in bizarre and unpredictable ways...

* FantasticRacism: Against the Hillfolk.

* InvincibleVillain: The Line. The Line always wins.

* MindRape: The effect of the mind-bombs.
** The Goad that the Guns use to punish/"encourage" their Agents. Varies in severity from "really nasty headache" to "instant death".

* OrderVersusChaos: The Line and Gun, respectively.

* TheRepublic: The Red Valley Republic.

* YouAreInCommandNow: Lowry twice gets promoted this way.

* AntiHero: Deconstructed with Creedmoore. Lowry cynically notes that he seems to want to be admired both for his [[NobleDemon virtue]] and for his [[EvilIsCool wickedness]], but most of all for how romantically conflicted he is between the two.

* HopelessWar: The Line always wins and the Gun always loses. Subverted in that it's strongly hinted that that's exactly how the Gun likes it - it's the embodiment of lost causes and doomed last stands, so winning would be against everything it stands for. It also helps that the Gun [[AsLongAsThereIsEvil can't be permanently defeated]] any more than the Line can, making their feud both a HopelessWar for the Gun and a ForeverWar for them both.

Was followed by a sequel, ''The Rise of Ransom City'', starring the eccentric inventor Harry Ransom and his run-ins with Hill Folk, agents of both Line and Gun, the protagonists from the previous book and more.

* EldritchLocation: The unmade lands of the far West.

* HalfHumanHybrid: It depends on exactly how human you consider them, but WordOfGod implies [[spoiler: Mr. Carver]] in ''The Rise of Ransom City'' is part Hillfolk.

* MachineWorship: Only lightly touched on in regards to the Line. They're described as more religion than political entity (and more shared mania than religion), and at one point Lowry describes the excessive amounts of fuel the Heavier-Than-Air Vessels consume as being evidence of their "spiritual excellence".

* TheRepublic: The Red Valley Republic

* SanitySlippage: The West isn't good for Lowry's mental health.

* WeHaveReserves: The Line takes this view with not only its soldiers (46 deaths to kill one Agent of the Gun is considered ''exceptionally'' good work) but also its officers, who are immediately removed from command if they fail their assigned task. If Banks is any indication, they usually shoot themselves afterwards.

* WeHaveReserves: The Line takes this view with not only its soldiers (46 dead soldiers to one dead Agent of the Gun is considered ''exceptionally'' good work) but also its officers, who are immediately removed from command if they fail their assigned task. If Banks is any indication, they usually shoot themselves afterwards.

* MotorMouth: Creedmoor tends to ramble when he talks.

* VillainWithGoodPublicity: As Agents of the Gun are modeled after folk heroes and famous outlaws, it's inevitable that a lot of them wind up as this. One, Gentleman Jim Dark, has robbed the same bank so many times that he poses for photos and signs autographs whenever he comes around, and that bank has made a fortune selling merchandise about him. Of course, the important thing to remember is that they're ''[[CompleteMonster villains]]''.

Was followed by a sequel, ''The Rise of Ransom City'', starring the eccentric inventor Harry Ransom and his run-ins with Hill Folk, agents of both Line and Gun, and the protagonists from the previous book.

* VillainWithGoodPublicity: As Agents of the Gun are modeled after folk heroes and famous outlaws, it's inevitable that a lot of them wind up as this. One, Gentleman Jim Dark, has robbed the same bank so many times that he poses for photos and signs autographs whenever he comes around, and that bank has made a fortune selling merchandise about him.

** The Hillfolk are clearly intended as Amerindian stand-ins, and [[MagicalNativeAmerican magic ones]] to boot. However, they also take inspiration from TheFairFolk. The Hillfolk [[BackFromTheDead don't stay dead]][[hottip:*:This supposedly requires some sort of ritual or healing in their warrens, but at least one Hillwoman was revived from the dirt she died on]], are unnaturally gracile and pale (if a touch hairy), are vulnerable to iron, and would like to remind you to properly pronounce their [[TrueName names.]]