The Half-Made World by Felix Gilman

The Half-Made World
by Felix Gilman

Published: October 12, 2010
Genre: Steampunk, YA
Hardback: 380 pages
Rating: 4

Description from the amazon:
A fantastical reimagining of the American West which draws its influence from steampunk, the American western tradition, and magical realism

The world is only half made. What exists has been carved out amidst a war between two rival factions: the Line, paving the world with industry and claiming its residents as slaves; and the Gun, a cult of terror and violence that cripples the population with fear. The only hope at stopping them has seemingly disappeared—the Red Republic that once battled the Gun and the Line, and almost won. Now they’re just a myth, a bedtime story parents tell their children, of hope.

To the west lies a vast, uncharted world, inhabited only by the legends of the immortal and powerful Hill People, who live at one with the earth and its elements. Liv Alverhyusen, a doctor of the new science of psychology, travels to the edge of the

made world to a spiritually protected mental institution in order to study the minds of those broken by the Gun and the Line. In its rooms lies an old general of the Red Republic, a man whose shattered mind just may hold the secret to stopping the Gun and the Line. And either side will do anything to understand how.

My two-bits:
In-a-word(s): gritty
A real wild west steampunk of sorts.

This is a serious slow read with a collection of characters and scenes to savor.

::=== Old Skewl Steampunk schedule ===::

Dandy Fanshawe

Dandy Fanshawe is a character that makes a brief appearance in the newly released steampunk novel, The Half-Made World by Felix Gilman.

Excerpt:
That slow drawl was Dandy Fanshaw--the pomaded and silk-coated old Queen of Gibson City, who was so outrageous and self-indulgent that few ever suspected he was a first-class spy or that he had once killed over a dozen Linsesmen with nothing but his ebony swordstick and his own teeth.

It had been Dandy Fanshawe who first recruited Creedmoor into the service of the Gun, back when Creedmoor had been young, and Fanshawe, well, not young, but not so scandalously old as he was now.

They'd met in an opium den in Gibson City, and Fanshawe had been lying on silk cushions wreated in smoke, with his jade-ringed hand idly draped on some young man's thigh. His nails had been painted. He'd been ethereal, mysterious, behind clouds of smoke made nebulous by candlelight.

Darling boy! Fanshawe had said. We've had out eye on you for quite some time...
- chapter 4, page 55

Read more about Dandy Fanshawe in...

The Half-Made World
by Felix Gilman

~*~
Time for a cuppa tea with cucumbers sandwiches as you listen to this podcast interview at Authors Speak with Felix on What is steampunk?

~*~
* read another extract from Half-Made World

* image source dandy
Model: GD Falksen / Photographer: Tarilyn Quinn / Arm: Brute Force Leather

~~*!~~ Dandies & Delectables schedule ~~!*~~

The Smilers

The Life and Adventures of Young Sam Smiles
by the Brotherly Order,
of the New Thought
or
"The Smilers"

A Story of Young Men or Women
Containing Moral, and Certain
Principles for Spiritual
Improvement

Learn a bit about Sam and his ways in this nifty pamphlet of the times with illustrations.

Here's an illustration I especially liked...



The Smilers folks can be found in this here book...

-+0+o+ Book Giveaway courtesy of publisher +o+0+-

The Half-Made World
by Felix Gilman
Just released: October 12, 2010
Genre: Steampunk, YA
signup for giveaway here
Excerpt:

CHAPTER 1
THE DEPARTURE
~ 1889 ~
One fine spring afternoon, when the roses in the gardens of the Koenigswald Academy were in bloom, and the lawns were emerald green, and the river was sapphire blue, and the experimental green-houses burst with weird life, the professors of the Faculty of Psychological Sciences met in the Faculty’s ancient August Hall, in a handsomely appointed upstairs library, where they stood in a little group drinking sherry and saying their good-byes to their colleague Dr. read more here

-+0+o+ October Trix-n-Treatz schedule +o+0+-

Ghosts: The Half-Made World

G H O S T S
As you walk up the stair towards Dr Viiiii's lab, a book is floating in the air.

It seems to appear and disappear.

You reach up and grasp it.

It's starting to fade and disappear again.

If you want a tangible one to own...

The Half-Made World
by Felix Gilman
Just released: October 12, 2010
Description from the amazon:
A fantastical reimagining of the American West which draws its influence from steampunk, the American western tradition, and magical realism.

The world is only half made. What exists has been carved out amidst a war between two rival factions: the Line, paving the world with industry and claiming its residents as slaves; and the Gun, a cult of terror and violence that cripples the population with fear. The only hope at stopping them has seemingly disappeared—the Red Republic that once battled the Gun and the Line, and almost won. Now they’re just a myth, a bedtime story parents tell their children, of hope.

To the west lies a vast, uncharted world, inhabited only by the legends of the immortal and powerful Hill People. Liv Alverhyusen, a doctor of the new science of psychology, travels to the edge of the made world to a spiritually protected mental institution in order to study the minds of those broken by the Gun and the Line. In its rooms lies an old general of the Red Republic, a man whose shattered mind just may hold the secret to stopping the Gun and the Line. And either side will do anything to understand how.

-+0+o+ Book Giveaway courtesy of publisher +o+0+-
Open to all.

Offer ends: Oct 31, 2010 - extended to Nov 14, 2010

TO DO:

1. Sign the guestbook (if you signed it already or in September - no need)

2. Visit the author, Felix, and tell me something about him or his books.

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Contest has ended - winner is here

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* part of my weekly post on things steampunk (Victorian sci-fi/fantasy)

-+0+o+ October Trix-n-Treatz schedule +o+0+-