The Half-Made World

According the the author's website, the sequel to this book will be coming out in November. Which is a great relief.

Having elements of westerns and steampunk, and set in a place not unlike early America, this book chronicles a period where the world is still developing. The First Folk seem to be retreating before new settlers that think them strange with their mystical ways and immortality. The Line seeks to cover the world with their steampunk machinery and gadgets, which seem to have a collective will. It manipulates the humans affiliated with it and seeks to spread its mechanical presence everywhere, and overcome its enemy, the Gun. The Gun is a group of agents, acting on the behalf of malevolent spirits which live in the agent's gun and give their bearer incredible strength and healing abilities. But the cost is the Agent's own freedom.

We view the story through three characters: an Agent of the Gun, a Linesman, and a professor of the recently developed mind sciences. I wasn't interested in the Linesman's story at all. He is a victim of the hive-like nature of the Linesmen's culture He performs his duty as handed down from above, dancing on the line between making his successes clear, and appearing to be self-important and power hungry, which would bring down the wrath of the Line upon him.

The other two characters make things more interesting. Liv, the professor from the "civilized" east, is our guide into the strange unmade world. Through her eyes, we learn about this world, and its history. Creedmoor, the Agent of the Gun, who not being needed by his master, had been left to his own devises. But now called upon to serve again, he finds himself bucking authority, no longer the war hungry Agent he may have been when younger. His cocky attitude and development kept me involved in the story.

The writing is fine, though there are occasional stretches of boring exposition (probably my problem, not the author's). But I am very glad to hear that the sequel is coming soon. You see, the entire story hinges on a "secret" held by a former general driven crazy by the weapons of the Linesman. Readers are not privy to the nature of the secret, for the general's insanity prevents the secret from being extracted. It appears it may be some kind of weapon that will end the war. We are barely given any teases as to what it might be, which is a little frustrating for those of us who like to speculate as we read. To be honest, the book wasn't so captivating that I would go on and read the others, if it weren't for the fact that I want to know what the secret is! Perhaps this means the author has done a good job. Perhaps it just means he's hooked me with a plot devise rather than with his excellent storymaking or prose...