Line #34 Literature/TheHalfMadeWorld


1	[[quoteright:335:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/71zz1xkadcl.png]]
2
3	''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...
4
5	Was followed by a sequel, ''The Rise of Ransom City'', starring the eccentric inventor Harry Ransom and his run-ins with Hill Folk, servants of both Line and Gun, the protagonists from the previous book and more.
6	----
7	!! This work contains examples of:
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9	* AsLongAsThereIsEvil: 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.
10	* BlingBlingBang: All Guns are ornate and beautifully crafted, which makes them easy to tell apart from regular guns.
11	* BottomlessMagazines: The Agents' Guns come with an infinite number of bullets. Justified, as they're actually embodied spirits.
12	* 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.
13	* ByronicHero: Deconstructed with Creedmoore. Lowry cynically notes that he seems to [[SlaveToPR 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.
14	* CapitalLettersAreMagic: The Line and the Gun. The Engines. The Lodge.
15	* CapturedSuperEntity: The Hillfolk as a whole. It's strongly implied that they're much more powerful than they appear ([[spoiler: the Red Valley Republic only thrived for so long with their help, and they know the location of ''something'' that can end the threat of the Line and the Gun forever]]), yet many of them are also enslaved.
16	* ChildSoldiers: 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.
17	* DamnedByFaintPraise: The Engines make a habit of this, presumably to discourage the Linesmen from harbouring any personal pride. At one point they authorise Lowry's FieldPromotion on the grounds that he is "not significantly less adequate" than his dead predecessor was.
18	* DroppedABridgeOnHim:
19	** [[spoiler: Creedmoor shoots Lowry without realizing it, and Lowry is never mentioned again. This anonymous death is ''exactly'' as Lowry had predicted.]]
20	** 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]].
21	** In the same book, [[spoiler: both Mr. Carver and Adela are unceremoniously and abruptly shot dead with little dramatic tension or buildup.]]
22	* EldritchLocation:
23	** 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...
24	** The hellish Lodge that the Guns call home.
25	* EvilVersusEvil: Line and Gun are ''both'' horrifying. Agents of the Gun are more glamorous than the Linesmen, true, but they're also ready to murder everyone in sight with little to no compunction.
26	%%* FantasticRacism: Against the Hillfolk.
27	* FantasyCounterpartCulture:
28	** 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]][[note]]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[[/note]], 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.]]
29	** The East/North are Europe and Asia.
30	** 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.
31	* HalfHumanHybrid: It depends on exactly how human you consider them, but Mr. Carver in ''The Rise of Ransom City'' is very likely part Hillfolk.
32	* HopelessWar: The Line always wins and the Gun always loses. 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.
33	* IKnowYourTrueName: Strange example. Names have power in the West. It's strongly implied that the "creation" of the world is less of an ongoing physical process and more caused by humans settling ever deeper in the wilderness. By naming something, you pin it down and define it; by defining it, you make it concrete and immutable. Hence, the further people travel into the West, giving everything around them a name like ''rose'' or ''deer'' or ''bridge'', the more ordered and logical the West becomes.
34	* InSeriesNickname: All Agents of the Gun who have made a name for themselves get cool nicknames. Abban the Lion, Blood-and-Thunder Boch, Procopio "Dynamite" Morse, the list goes on.
35	%%* InvincibleVillain: The Line. The Line always wins.
36	* MachineWorship: Only lightly touched on in regards to the Line. They're described as worshiping their machines, the Engines especially, but nothing really resembling religion shows up in Line POV chapters, aside from offhanded references to blasphemy and "spiritual excellence."
37	* MindRape: The Goad that the Guns use to punish/"encourage" their Agents. Varies in severity from "really nasty headache" to "instant death".
38	%%** The effect of the mind-bombs.
39	* MotorMouth: Creedmoor tends to ramble when he talks. However, he's strangely taciturn in ''The Rise of Ransom City'' (aside from an ImagineSpot of how Harry thinks his confrontation with Knoll went).
40	%%* OrderVersusChaos: The Line and Gun, respectively.
41	* OutOfFocus: Done spectacularly in ''The Rise of Ransom City'': major world-changing events are taking place ([[spoiler: Liv and Creedmoor recover a Folk weapon that can kill Engines and Guns permanently, the Red Valley Republic is revived, the Line begins falling apart station by station]]) yet the main character only hears about these things secondhand, and we never get to see them happening "in person".
42	* PeopleFarms: 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."''
43	%%* TheRepublic: The Red Valley Republic.
44	* RealityWarping: 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.
45	* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: John Creedmoor's Gun, Marmion, delivers these to him on a regular basis.
46	* ResurrectiveImmortality: You can destroy the physical forms of Guns and Engines, but their spirits can't be killed and their bodies can always be remade.
47	* SanitySlippage: The West isn't good for Lowry's mental health, which declines steadily as he pushes further into uncreated lands.
48	* SchizoTech: 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.
49	* 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 important thing to remember is that they're ''villains''.
50	* WeaksauceWeakness: You can destroy an Agent's Gun (although not the spirit it embodies) by smashing it or blowing it up, just as you would a regular gun. Once that's accomplished, the Agent is reduced to a normal human being and easily killed, tortured, or maimed. Averted by the Engines, which are extremely difficult to wreck.
51	* 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 demoted if they show any hint of pride or ambition and immediately removed from command if they fail their assigned task. If Banks is any indication, they usually shoot themselves afterwards.
52	%%* YouAreInCommandNow: Lowry twice gets promoted this way.

Context Literature / TheHalfMadeWorld