Rate this book

The Half-Made World (2010)

by Felix Gilman(Favorite Author)

3.69 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

0765325527 (ISBN13: 9780765325525)

languge

English

genre

Historical Fiction

publisher

Tor Books

series

The Half-Made World

review 1: I don't understand why I enjoyed this book so much. I really did, and I don't know why. It's a steampunk fantasy western, three words which should have sent me screaming for the hills, and yet it was well written and inventive and interesting enough that I stuck with it. It's not perfect; I wish the Linesmen had been a little more humanised, outside of Lowry's moments of personal pride, I wish the Folk hadn't teetered on the edge of a Magical Native stereotype and I wish Maggrid had been less of a Hodor. But I really did enjoy this book, and its half-made world, where the unexplored frontiers are literally terra incognitas, still in the throes of being tethered to a single form (impliedly trapped as such by humanity and the demons that seek to enslave it). I loved poisonou... mores relationship with technological demons given a literal form, the violent and unpredictable Guns which force their wielders to kill (is it the shooter to blame, or the weapon they wield?), and the vast, incomprehensible, near-omniscient Engines of the Line, merciless production lines that plough through the landscape with no care for what lay there before and what little of it will remain afterwards. All I wish for is for a true sequel; or, at least, a less cruel cliffhanger.
review 2: (3.3) Very inventive in mixing steampunk, the old west, and a striking parable of closing the frontier. I've never been a fan of steam punk since it has always struck me as much more style than substance and the introduction of the spaghetti western seems a non starter but it works well together. My only complaint is the unfinished ending. It's enough that that the world is half-made, the ending should not be too. less

Download links for: The Half-Made World

Advertising