This was a good story with some neat hooks tying it to the larger tale of _The Half-Made World_. We follow, as his business cards state: "Professor" Harry Ransom, Lightbringer &c, &c (who made a small walk-on cameo in _The Half-Made World_), one part charlatan and two parts idealistic scientist, as he finds himself pulled into the midst of the inescapable war between the Line and the Gun. Not only has his 'apparatus' once again been destroyed leaving him on the edge of poverty, but now he finds himself dealing with the machinations of a rival "scientist" (the rainmaker of the title) and the intrusion of the Line into the small western town he has found himself in as they cast their net in search of some characters we may be more familiar with from Gilman's larger tale.

Ransom tells us his story, with varying levels of candour, through letters penned to various people and he proves to be an endearing character. He is an idealist making the best of a bad world in the belief that it can only be made better. I definitely felt that the story got better as it progressed, but it still pales in comparison to Gilman's novel set in the same world...understandable given the short length of this novellette. I think I was hoping for a bit more from this story, either an unexpected twist, or perhaps a wider range of characters/situations to give a broader overview of the people of the unmade West, but it was still an enjoyable excursion back to the Half-Made world. ( )