I enjoyed The Half-Made World for reasons I don't understand. I didn't even know what was happening for the first several chapters. It builds this alternate world as you go, filled with all sorts of fantasy, steampunky, magical aspects that, somehow, work. 
 Who are the good guys here? There aren't any, really; the two warring parties are the Line and the Gun, the former being an industrial-based organization and the latter a cult possessed by the Guns, who are ruthless immortal spirits. And thrown in the midst is Liv, a simple psychiatrist traveling west to work with physically and mentally wounded solders. 
 ...And that all happens in the first three chapters. 
 Line & Gun are both searching for "the General," a remnant of the war who they suspect holds the secret to end it. But the General's mind was permanently damaged in battle, so neither side knows whether the secret is retrievable or not. 
 Nothing is predictable here at all, between the story's magical realism elements (the only time I've liked magical realism!) and the "unmade" world. You don't know which side to root for. You want them both to win; you want neither. And then you wonder if anyone is going to win at all.