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Containment

by Christian Cantrell (Goodreads Author)

3.68 of 5 stars 3.68 · rating details · 1,698 ratings · 273 reviews

As the Earth's ability to support human life begins to diminish at an alarming rate, the Global Space Agency is formed with a single mandate: protect humanity from extinction by colonizing the solar system as quickly as possible. Venus, being almost the same mass as Earth, is chosen over Mars as humanity’s first permanent steppingstone into the universe.

Arik Ockley is part...more

Kindle Edition, 251 pages

Published February 22nd 2010 by Cantrell Media Company

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Jun 09, 2013 Calamus rated it 4 of 5 stars

When the destruction of Earth becomes not just a possibility but a guarantee, a group of dedicated scientists create a colony on Venus. Arik, a gifted young scientist, is a first generation Venusian working to create a sustainable oxygen source for the growing Venusian population. After a life threatening accident sends Arik into a coma followed by rigorous rehabilitation, he quickly tries to pull himself back together. As he struggles to reassemble the pieces of his research and his life, Arik...more

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Jan 25, 2013 J.L. Dobias rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: book-shelf-10

Containment by Christian Cantrell

I loved this book and the character of Arik and it would be nice to give it five stars, but that would be lacking honesty.

This is good hard science fiction about a group of settlers on the planet Venus. As such, it is necessary to draw the proper picture of why we are there and how we got there and how we survive there so much of this hard science has to be there to support that. Some of the science seems questionable to me but that's only because I didn't stop...more Containment by Christian Cantrell

I loved this book and the character of Arik and it would be nice to give it five stars, but that would be lacking honesty.

This is good hard science fiction about a group of settlers on the planet Venus. As such, it is necessary to draw the proper picture of why we are there and how we got there and how we survive there so much of this hard science has to be there to support that. Some of the science seems questionable to me but that's only because I didn't stop to look things up to verify them and I'm just not an expert in many of those fields.

Often the hard science of Containment seems to come at the reader from a distance with detachment. Other times there are moments when Arik resonates with the science. There are long paragraphs about the harshness of the planet and life in the biosphere that contrast to the Arik's feelings because he expresses a few times how he's comfortable within the biosphere that he must live. The exposition often draws on the harshness of the planet almost as though we are portraying the planet as another character, and that didn't work that well with me because I didn't see the plot developing in that direction.

There also seems to be two stories happening. The present and some flashbacks. Again it's necessary, but at times it's confusing.

I had this one curious problem, Containment caused what I refer to in my antiquated thinking as the vinyl record skip syndrome. It's like having that scratch on the record where the needle skips and you have no idea how much you just missed. That's where I'm reading along and stumble into exposition and then suddenly reach the bottom of a page that I can't remember reading. It's a bad habit of mine and I believe many other readers might have something similar. I know to catch it because, as is the case with Containment, the parts I nearly napped through have some plot points that I need to know.

Containment qualifies as a hard science science fiction. The problem with that is that in trying so hard to do this many times hard science becomes hard to read. If the goal is to deliberately alienate readers who hate walls of exposition then it's likely to be successful at that. Most readers will accept a few of those when they clearly drive the plot. But, when a few of them seem to be there just to increase the hard science quotient, some readers end up skipping the important ones later. And, although I can point out many occasions where the exposition does drive the plot forward; for each of those there always two that are questionable.

I would never ask a writer to give up their babies, especially when they are doing hard science because it does tend to create some lovely images. The problem is that they often serve as a match for the dreaded purple prose that other creative writers get noted for. Neither of these are bad, But out of necessity they should drive the plot or character development and serve a purpose that the reader can identify.

Over all Containment is one of those curious books that everyone who loves science fiction might like, but it will always have a variety of reactions from love to mild acceptance to confusion.

Obviously many people do love it, and although it's possible one more good edit might have made those numbers rise, it's just as likely to make it worse. By the numbers (reader response) I can't say that the author made any large mistake in leaving it as it is. It might be a tough read for one out of four readers, but overall it's a tightly written and entertaining read.

J.L. Dobias(less)

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Sep 13, 2012 Megan rated it 4 of 5 stars

I have been wanting to try Amazon Prime's lending library with my Kindle for a while now. Since I had a free month membership, I decided to scan the list of books available. Containment written by Christian Cantrell caught my eye. It had an intriguing premise. The book follows the story of Arik one of one hundred children, the first generation born on the first permanent extraterrestrial settlement on Venus. V1 is a fully contained colony on the harsh surface of Venus built to protect the human...more

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Jul 23, 2012 Parajunkee.com rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: reviewed

When you compare a novel to Isaac Asimov and Orson Scott Card you better bring it. I had high hopes for this novel and just ended up chucking it to the side in disgust. I really am disappointed and am scratching my head as to why this came up via Amazon Vine. I didn't realize that this was the same novel that had been on the Top Kindle charts for so long.

In Christian Cantrell's future, Earth is in a crisis (climate change, what else) and the powers-that-be have devised that the only way to save...more When you compare a novel to Isaac Asimov and Orson Scott Card you better bring it. I had high hopes for this novel and just ended up chucking it to the side in disgust. I really am disappointed and am scratching my head as to why this came up via Amazon Vine. I didn't realize that this was the same novel that had been on the Top Kindle charts for so long.

In Christian Cantrell's future, Earth is in a crisis (climate change, what else) and the powers-that-be have devised that the only way to save the human race is to establish off-planet colonies. Because, of course, Venus has a much better climate than Earth. In the midst of being wowed by the technojargon and science speak, you are introduced to Arik, one of the first to be born on Venus. Arik is the the most intelligent person ever and he and his wife, the second most intelligent person ever, have to come up with a way better colonize the planet because she is pregnant. They also have to dig through all the false-truths they have been fed by the colonies founders.

Look, out of all this, I do have to say the Cantrell can form a sentence is a manner very pleasant to read, even though I did notice a good bit of sentence structure issues. My problems did not revolve around Cantrell's talent as a writer. The problems that I found in the novel centered on how the book was structured, the plot behind the words and some of the beliefs that were the founding basis of the novel. I was at once taken in with the story of Arik and really enjoyed that part of the novel, but then the author would digress into long, boring "tellings" of facts and history that would have me yawning. I'm not a fan of "tell-me" type novels and this one was full of them.

Chapter headings that read…"The History of V1, Part 1: The End of the Space Age" should have been my clue-in right there. They read like a history book. Even when the story moved into the character's lives it was a very dry and more telling instead of showing:

"Cadie and Arik had an early dinner, and probably for the first time since the day they were married, went to bed at the same time and without opening their workspaces."

Sentences like this tend to wear on me as a reader and I just find it boring, even though the underlying story might be interesting. I understand what Cantrell did here and that was come up with a great and interesting science fiction tale, full of the knowledge that is needed to tell a tale of this scope. But, I do believe that he has to go a bit deeper and let his characters bloom a bit more and it would make his novel so much better.
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Jun 13, 2012 Ryan N rated it 2 of 5 stars

This isn't so much an adventure as it is someone telling you a number of things they find interesting, kind of interesting, and what's necessary to move a plot point along. You'll know what the author finds interesting by the amount of paragraphs that are devoted to the most minute activities and items. Other items, even if important, that either aren't of much interest or are somewhat unknown, are given a sprinkling of jargon, while the rest is glossed over. The unevenness becomes jarring when...more

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May 09, 2012 Cass marked it as read-the-ebook-sample

This review is based on the ebook sample

Rating: probably not... Would have to be desperate for something to read.

The first few chapters are positively overloaded with world building. The author is very heavy handed about it, particularly as so much of it was just fluffy stuff. For example we learn the planet is called V1. Then we get to learn the much longer official name, followed by a long dialogue about why it is called V1 and who calls it that. This kind of world building is repeated on eve...more

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Apr 11, 2012 Ixris rated it 3 of 5 stars

I want to like this book. I really do. There were some annoyances with it, some frustrations, but on the whole it tried to redeem itself by the end.

The truth of the matter is, though, the actual conflict doesn't become apparent until 3/4 through the book. There's no direct conflict between the characters, and there's really very little drama. What drama there is, it seems to be swept under the carpet for convenience's sake.

Containment follows around Arik Ockley, a brilliant computer scientist wh...more

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Feb 02, 2012 Alisha rated it 4 of 5 stars

Parts of this book were absolutely amazing, including the story, the main characters, subject and the science of it all. Obviously the author is very intelligent as his descriptions of things are very realistic. However, his descriptions also hold this book back, as sometimes they get too detailed and tedious. For instance at the end of the book where he spends a page going on about how the train(or whatever he calls it) works, especially since we had been introduced to the train multiple times...more

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Jan 07, 2012 Crazyjamie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Containment is the second book that I bought for mere pence from the Kindle store. The description of the book sounded interesting enough, so I thought I'd give it a go. In short, after Earth's near devastation in the future, the world sets up the GSA (Global Space Agency) to set about colonising other planets in an attempt to preserve the human race. This is eventually achieved on Venus, where a largely self sustaining colony of 1000 people is set up to work on technological breakthroughs that...more Containment is the second book that I bought for mere pence from the Kindle store. The description of the book sounded interesting enough, so I thought I'd give it a go. In short, after Earth's near devastation in the future, the world sets up the GSA (Global Space Agency) to set about colonising other planets in an attempt to preserve the human race. This is eventually achieved on Venus, where a largely self sustaining colony of 1000 people is set up to work on technological breakthroughs that will ultimately aid all of mankind.

Arik is part of Gen V, a group of 100 children who were the first to be born on Venus, bringing the total population of the colony to 1100, which is the absolute limit that the amount of oxygen in the colony can support. Gen V are expected to be the new generation that will finally make breakthroughs that will advance the colony. Arik is considered the smartest of his generation, but the already considerable pressure on him to succeed is enhanced when his wife reveals that she is pregnant, and will soon give birth to a child that the current levels of oxygen in the colony simply cannot support.

The sci-fi genre has no shortage of stories like this, and whilst the setting of Containment can't be called generic, equally it doesn't tread new ground for the genre either. However, Cantrell does an excellent job of building up an image of the colony and engaging the reader with the plight of the colonists. The main focus of the book is Arik himself, but the peripheral characters are detailed just enough to give a sense of the society and culture that exists within the colony.

The plot itself progresses at a decent enough pace, with Cantrell cleverly jumping between different time periods to the reader interested and engaged. There is some sense of mystery and tension from the outset, and this is maintained until the plot becomes more hard hitting later on.

The book isn't perfect. Cantrell favours significant passages where he describes science and technology, and whilst this fits in well in the initial portions of the book, I felt it was over used towards the end, to the point where the pace of the final 10% or so of the book felt a bit laboured, albeit the ending itself was satisfying enough.

Overall though this is well worth a read for fans of the genre, and may even ensnare the odd newcomer. I was debating with myself whether to award this three or four stars, and I think ultimately I would have given it three and a half if I could. But the well constructed setting and largely engaging plot makes it worth rounding up for me, so four stars it is.

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Oct 21, 2011 Gene rated it 4 of 5 stars

Containment is a rather nifty science fiction novel, rife with fascinating ideas and twists. It's heavy on the science, and engineering geeks should get a big kick out of it, although environmentalists will get just as much from it. The best part is how well-thought out all the concepts are -- the science is believable, and intricately detailed but rarely boring, with some very difficult explanations boiled down to easily-digestible nuggets. The biggest problem is the characterizations, which ar...more

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Oct 16, 2011 Jeannie Mancini rated it 4 of 5 stars

When Arik Ockley wakes up in a hospital after being rescued from a serious "outside" accident, his life is suddenly turned upside down when he begins to use his genius-like high-tech skills to uncover a well hidden secret that the founders of A1 (a geodesic dome style containment on the planet Venus) have been harboring for decades. To Arik, "outside" means outside the dome of what he believes is the outer atmosphere of another planet where he was born and raised in seclusion. The selected famil...more When Arik Ockley wakes up in a hospital after being rescued from a serious "outside" accident, his life is suddenly turned upside down when he begins to use his genius-like high-tech skills to uncover a well hidden secret that the founders of A1 (a geodesic dome style containment on the planet Venus) have been harboring for decades. To Arik, "outside" means outside the dome of what he believes is the outer atmosphere of another planet where he was born and raised in seclusion. The selected families of A1 were brought on board because of their top level of intelligence and talents, and babies born to the colony were matched at birth with the opposite sex for an assured plan that the colony will survive and continue for many generations. Trouble is they are running out of air. As Arik graduates from school and is ready to use his incredible skills for the purpose of improving the colony, he is asked to participate in the most important unsolved problem A1 has. The founders need him to solve the dilemma of finding more air so that the next generation can reproduce and continue with the mission. Another solution to recycling air or reproducing oxygen must be found. But when Arik starts digging, and hacking into computer mainframes, and investigating both personnel and outer atmosphere conditions, he realizes they have all been seriously duped. Mysteries,and questions begin to surface as Arik begins to discover layers of lies, deceit, and betrayals that will put all their lives at risk.

Christian Cantrell's novel paints a vivid picture of what life would be like if Earth was destroyed from a cataclysmic event and was forced to develop programs for space colonization in other parts of the solar system. The author's creative mind stirs up an exciting and unique sci-fi thriller that is beyond the average when compared to other stories being currently pumped out. Containment is a true "science" fiction novel with many detailed descriptions of science and computer related elements from both the present day and in the far future. For some readers there might be too much detailed and complicated science not normally understood by the layman, but then again, others like myself who know nothing about science just might find it incredibly fascinating in spite of the incredibly detailed data.

I was ready to give the book 5 stars because I loved the idea of the story and sincerely felt it was well executed. I enjoy creativity and ingenuity and felt Cantrell certainly offered that. But I cut my star review back to four because I did feel the ending was a bit anti-climactic and could have been a little more of a surprise. This reader thinks a little bit more, a longer story, could have helped put more substance into the minor background stories and characters that sort of did not get enough attention, or to a few of the teeny things I believe were not resolved and left open for interpretation. All in all, this was a great story, very fun and entertaining and I look forward to what the author comes up with next.(less)

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Oct 02, 2011 Jacobi rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Fans of classic SciFi books

Shelves: read-in-2011

For some reason I've become hesitant to give books five-stars, because even if I love something, I don't think anything is perfect. But five stars doesn't have to mean perfect, it can just signify an incredible reading experience, and book that achieves everything it sets out to do. Just so you know where I'm coming from.

Containment, was awesome. This just might be the most well realized world I've ever read in a scifi book. Even though this book is shy of 300 pages, the amount of effort Cantre...more For some reason I've become hesitant to give books five-stars, because even if I love something, I don't think anything is perfect. But five stars doesn't have to mean perfect, it can just signify an incredible reading experience, and book that achieves everything it sets out to do. Just so you know where I'm coming from.

Containment, was awesome. This just might be the most well realized world I've ever read in a scifi book. Even though this book is shy of 300 pages, the amount of effort Cantrell goes through to give a plausible and authentic back story to the world he creates and the science he uses is unreal. Seriously, there are amazing little nuggets littered throughout the story of tech used in this world that seems like it would fall on the logical progression of where the tech of the world is now, while still managing to be fantastical.

Containment has an element of oral history to it, as well, that I really enjoyed. I really liked learning how this colony on Venus came to be, and how its colonists function now that they're there. This story didn't even need to have a plot to satisfy me, but when the plot of this book kicks in -- lets just say shit gets real.

This is about as hard scifi as you can get. It's pretty clear that Christian Cantrell is a smart guy, because he's given as much thought to how his world will work as he has to the motivation and destination of his characters. I can't say for certain, but I got the real sense that there were real scientific theories behind a lot of what was created in Containment which was cool.

I'm not saying much about the plot of the book, because the less you know going in the better. I think some people might find Cantrell's writing a bit dry, or his explanations of tech to drone on at times. I do think it felt matter of fact, and to the point, but I appreciated that. And when it came to the talk of tech, because it all felt real to me, I dug that aspect of the book a lot (which is a good thing, because there is A LOT of talk of the tech of this world).

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Sep 20, 2011 Gary Nilsen rated it 3 of 5 stars

I finished reading Containment and decided to let it sit for awhile before I wrote my thoughts in the form of a review. For the most part I enjoyed working my way through the novel, eager to understand how the world evolves in the future in such a way that we successfully colonize Venus. Christian Cantrell is obviously a very bright guy and I was drawn into his explanations of how the colony was engineered - in fact, most of his scientific exposition throughout the book was impressive in my opin...more I finished reading Containment and decided to let it sit for awhile before I wrote my thoughts in the form of a review. For the most part I enjoyed working my way through the novel, eager to understand how the world evolves in the future in such a way that we successfully colonize Venus. Christian Cantrell is obviously a very bright guy and I was drawn into his explanations of how the colony was engineered - in fact, most of his scientific exposition throughout the book was impressive in my opinion; even his Herman Wouk-like digressions on the history of the world leading up to the point in time of the story was engaging. I started to encounter some issues when he would begin a new chapter from a different point in Arik's timeline without warning - you have to recalibrate your head to catch up to where he is. Secondly, he leaves a lot of development off-camera which leaves you assuming too much rather than foreshadowing and then delivering on the promise of what he was alluding to in the first place.

Then there was the ending. It was quite abrupt and I had to think about it for awhile before I came to a hazy conclusion of what I think happened - but you're not really quite sure. The story has some good twists and I think he had the foundation for driving home a strong finish, but it's almost as if he was tired of telling the tale and decided to end it. I was one of those who felt anger at the way The Soprano's ended - however they wanted to finish to storyline would have been fine with me - but tell me what it was! I felt this way with Containment - I wanted the picture to be drawn for me a little more artfully.

Overall I was satisfied, but not satiated. I wanted more than he gave me. I think he underpriced the book on Kindle, but I would have been a bit peevish had I spent the full price for a print version. There were several typo's and missing words in the manuscript which made me wonder who his copy-editor was. I would recommend the book on Kindle as a way of coming to know someone who promises to be a good story teller once he hones his craft some more.(less)

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Aug 23, 2011 Christine Blachford rated it 4 of 5 stars

I picked this up from the Kindle store when it was either free, or rather cheap (under a pound). I wasn’t really sure what to expect, but when I finally got around to reading the blurb and seeing what it was all about, I was keen to read on.

This is the story of the first off-Earth colony, based on Venus, and how it got to where it is and how it is going to survive going forward. There are twists and turns along the way, some of the obvious and some of them not so much.

The story gets off to a bit...more

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Jul 18, 2011 James rated it 3 of 5 stars

I picked this up, to be completely honest, because Amazon recommended it and because it was 99 cents and I really wanted something to read on the train. Given the degree of care that went into the selection, I feel like I ended up on the right side of the deal. The story was entertaining and satisfying enough; a fine piece of escapist literature.

That said, the Kindle edition I bought had ... issues. Perhaps this is the consequence of having gotten it on the digital equivalent of the 99-cent rack...more

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May 24, 2011 Maurice Alvarez rated it 2 of 5 stars

Containment is not for all sci-fi fans. If you enjoy paragraphs of technical details on the workings of possible future technology and chapters devoted to ancillary background narrative, then this book is for you. I might have been persuaded to look past all that, after all it was very successfully handled by Stephen R. Donaldson in his Gap series. But all this exposition often comes at the expense of story flow. Even at the end, when the protagonist's great plan is about to be sprung, the story...more Containment is not for all sci-fi fans. If you enjoy paragraphs of technical details on the workings of possible future technology and chapters devoted to ancillary background narrative, then this book is for you. I might have been persuaded to look past all that, after all it was very successfully handled by Stephen R. Donaldson in his Gap series. But all this exposition often comes at the expense of story flow. Even at the end, when the protagonist's great plan is about to be sprung, the story breaks into a multi-paragraph technical explanation of how the colony's transportation system works, for no reason. It's great that the author had all this in mind as he wrote it; an author should have an in-depth familiarity with his setting. But a reader does not require all this detail unless it applies to the plot and if it is inserted seamlessly.

To make matters worse, the over-exposition interspersed with very confusing shifts back and forth in time throughout the first half of the book. I often found it difficult to tell if I was reading about Arik in the present or if it was his past until some detail 2-3 pages into the chapter clarified the setting. A more chronological approach in flashback would have worked well and not changed the effect of the story at all.

It isn't until 3/4 of the way through the book that the past catches up with the present and the plot twist is revealed. And it's a great plot twist, if somewhat implausible. While it might be difficult to believe that these young scientists are unaware of the true nature of their environment, one can imagine a situation in which external input is so carefully controlled that they remain sheltered from the truth until they get into the truly hardcore experiments. So this implausibility can be overlooked.

More difficult to overlook is the lack of connection with the characters. Despite an account of their youth through several flashback chapters, there was little to make me like/dislike Cam, Zaire, Cadie or any of the Gen 5 kids. Only Arik's struggle to recover from brain surgery elicited any sympathy from me. Everyone including Arik is written in such a way as to seem almost emotionally destitute; even Arik's reactions to life-threatening situations are handled with cold logic. V1 might just as well have been a colony of Vulcans straight out of Star Trek.

The ending is abrupt, which I had expected and did not mind at all.

Containment is a decent story wrapped up in a package that doesn't allow it to reach its potential.(less)

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Nov 26, 2010 Lars rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: science-fiction

Considering the content of the book, I don't want to say much in order to avoid giving a spoiler. The author describes a colony on Venus and the difficulties the settlers have to deal with. To begin with the positive aspects: one of the biggest assets of the novel is discussing interesting technologies like terraforming, cloud computing and genetic engineering. I really liked the questions Cantrell brought up, as some of the issues are of concern even today. On the other hand, the technical focu...more

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Sep 10, 2012 Aubrey rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: thriller, won-t-read-again

The idea of living on a completely different planet, and the sacrifices that would need to be made is what attracted me to this book. There started with a group of super smart scientists sent to Venus to figure out how to make it hospitable for humans in the long-term. Eventually, they realized they had enough oxygen to have children, and miraculously enough, they had 50 girls and 50 boys, all who grew up together at the same time, in the same class. The hero of the story gets injured in the beg...more

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Oct 10, 2012 Dee West rated it 2 of 5 stars

I really liked the characters, although I have no idea why. They were awfully one dimensional. I still found myself caring about them and wanting good things to happen to them.

As I was writing this, I learned Christian Cantrell is also a technology writer. A piece of info that was not at all a shock after reading his novel. There are a lot of very detailed descriptions of the tech used in the V1 colony. Although there were times when I felt like I wished the author would get on with whatever it...more

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Jan 15, 2012 Chance Maree rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: science-fiction, kindle

"Containment" is one of the most cerebral novels I've read in a long, long time. The joy of the novel is in defining and resolving problems of planetary colonization. On a more basic level, the novel describes how to think both creatively and scientifically. I'm not a scientist, but the physics appear to be quite solid and well-founded. For this accomplishment, and its rarity, the novel deserves four stars.

Switching to the right side of my brain, no --- wait --- the left is not finished: The pl...more

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Aug 30, 2011 Randy rated it 2 of 5 stars

I really had to dig deep and get through this book. It had alot of cool ideas of future science and a great cliffhanger, but overall fell flat against all the techno babble.

I went into Containment with a good feeling, reading a few reviews on Goodreads and Amazon lead me to believe it was a quick story with a great twist. That said, the twist half way through was great but the science that lead to that point wasn't. Most of the times I tried to wrap my brain around everything Cantrell was writin...more

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Jun 25, 2011 Robert Kangas rated it 3 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Sep 20, 2011 Jason Beineke rated it 3 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. This was a book that I really wanted to like, but in the end I was quite disappointed. By laying the blame on Earth becoming a dystopian nightmare Mr. Cantrell puts himself into a very tired camp that has been beaten to death and is still lacking credibility. In the end when Arik takes an air sample around the station it shows 78% carbon dioxide. This is an impossible number to be obtained. Only if the founders of the station had found a way to attract carbon dioxide to surround them could this...more This was a book that I really wanted to like, but in the end I was quite disappointed. By laying the blame on Earth becoming a dystopian nightmare Mr. Cantrell puts himself into a very tired camp that has been beaten to death and is still lacking credibility. In the end when Arik takes an air sample around the station it shows 78% carbon dioxide. This is an impossible number to be obtained. Only if the founders of the station had found a way to attract carbon dioxide to surround them could this possible be real. Yet, not all that far away where he is growing his plants there are near normal air readings. Those are some tough working plants!

At one point it is mentioned that the station runs off of nuclear fusion. Yet, despite all of the careful detail that he engages in explaining so much of the science throughout the book, he totally sidesteps explaining how it is that nuclear fusion was made to work. The drawback with fusion is that it takes an incredibly strong electromagnetic field to force atoms together, which would require a massive amount of energy.

I have seen in other reviews that people are questioning how anyone could have thought the station was on Venus when the mean surface temperature of Venus is 850 degrees F. The energy expenditure to keep the station cooled would have outstripped the reactor's energy output.

Then, in the end, we find out that the station is simply out to make a massive buck by releasing critical tech under their own terms for extortionist rates. Wow, that has never appeared in fiction before...

As for the story crafting itself we have characters with little emotional depth, including the main character. One might be forgiving of this in regards to Arik, the main protagonist, who is more comfortable with computers than humans, including his wife. But then his wife, Kate, becomes mostly a non-character. Arik's relationships with his best friends and parents are only touched on, but no depth is ever explored. And I didn't understand that importance of the baby that Kate was carrying. Supposedly, their daughter, Hannah, will carry special memories, but this was not handled in a Frank Herbert Dune series way and I merely shrugged my shoulders and moved along.

Other things that bothered me: Why was Arik trying to grow plants on Venus? If he really thought he was on Venus, he should have questioned the viability of plant seeds to grow in 850 degree F heat! The mystery of what happened to Arik that precipitated his brain surgery and led to his memory loss is suddenly dumped on us, removing all mystery and plot devices. It could have been crafted so much better than its. Why did Arik want Kate and his friends to leave the station? It looked like they had the best lifestyle there as opposed to what they might find in the real world. Again, the depth of his motivations was never explored. Arik gets himself dead on radiation poisoning. He knew he had the poisoning, but didn't do anything on his own to treat it, like start taking iodine.

At the end of the book Arik does a major reveal to all the people in the station, but it is written with so little build-up or tension that again I simply found myself shrugging my shoulders and moving on to the next book on my iPod. This could have been such a better book.
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Aug 20, 2011 Patricia Bardua rated it 4 of 5 stars

I liked this book. You really need to understand some basic science principles, especially concerning space and subatomic theory. Well, maybe not, because they explain some of it, but definitely would be a better read if you did have a background. What makes this different than most science fiction is that the author bases his story on scientific knowledge up to the present. As the book progresses, we are introduced to the science of the future. What happens to space travel? What do we discover...more

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Mar 06, 2012 Janos Honkonen rated it 3 of 5 stars

Containment left me feeling kind of conflicted. On one hand, it was very enjoyable old-school hard scifi with the focus on technology and ideas, which it did reasonably well. This is definitely a book for the people who want their science fiction with science, not with ray guns. On the whole the sciency parts were pretty easy to follow, I'd imagine also for people who have no background in them. The driving idea of the story carried through the novel, which was a good, tight read.

Unfortunately t...more

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Feb 15, 2012 John rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: sci-fi

To summarize the blurb on this book, Arik is one of 1100 members of the first off world colony (on Venus). Recovering from an accident that left him with no memory of what happened, he must recover and work on a solution to the problem of oxygen consumption and generation before his daughter is born.

This is a well written book, with the chapters alternating between events after Arik's accident and events preceding the accident, as well as a few chapters to get the reader up to speed on why Venu...more

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Dec 30, 2011 Kristin rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: free-book-friday, dystopian-fiction, science-fiction

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Feb 11, 2013 Hannah M. rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2013-read, fiction, science-fiction, mystery-thriller

Life on Earth isn’t what it used to be, and in order to ensure the continuation of human life the colonists of V1, the first permanent off-earth settlement, must rush to find viable solutions to colonizing the rest of the solar system.

Arik Ockley is the star of Gen V, the first generation of humans to be born on Venus. When he wakes up from a three-month coma after a horrible accident he finds that his wife is pregnant. Normally this would be something to be celebrated, but there’s one huge prob...more Life on Earth isn’t what it used to be, and in order to ensure the continuation of human life the colonists of V1, the first permanent off-earth settlement, must rush to find viable solutions to colonizing the rest of the solar system.

Arik Ockley is the star of Gen V, the first generation of humans to be born on Venus. When he wakes up from a three-month coma after a horrible accident he finds that his wife is pregnant. Normally this would be something to be celebrated, but there’s one huge problem. V1 isn’t producing enough Oxygen to sustain a single additional life. This means that Arik must rush to find the answer to artificial photosynthesis, the key to producing more oxygen for this colony. Yet, things are not what they seem and Arik gets caught up in trying to find the answers to what’s really going on in V1 and on the planet in general.

Overall, Containment was actually a really interesting read. Though I still consider myself to be a sci-fi newbie, I think of this book as a pretty awesome hi-tech sci-fi mystery. I read it in a matter of a few hours because I really, really wanted to know what was going to happen. That mystery side of the story kept me absolutely hooked from beginning to end. In addition, the idea of colonizing Venus had me particularly curious, especially since in real life it’s all about finding life on Mars and hardly ever hearing anything about life… elsewhere.

All that being said, I have a couple of bones to pick with Containment. First, parts of the book were a bit slow moving. There are a couple of chapters that talk about the history of space exploration and such. A lot of this was stuff I knew already and I found myself skimming because I wanted to know more about what Arik was going to learn and do next. The other thing that bothered me was the ending. I saw it coming, I really did. I even understand why it ended the way it did. But it still left me with this feeling of… ‘what just happened?!’

On a positive note, Cantrell left it open for a sequel and according to his Twitter there will be one which I’ll be patiently-ish waiting for. ‘Cause, for reals, I need more. I’m not satisfied.

Bottom line, interesting book, but give me a sequel because I need better closure.(less)

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Jun 30, 2011 A.R. Norris rated it 3 of 5 stars

This one was a mixed bag for me. I loved the story concept. The science was fantastic, but a little too much. The idea was great. I loved the twists and turns along the way.

To readers, if you're not into hard SF, this isn't the book for you. It's heavy on the science and very light on the character. Like most hard SF, these characters are in the book only to support the concepts behind the science. This was a little disappointing because the baseline of Arik, Cadie, Cam and Zaire's characters we...more

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Dec 11, 2011 Jose rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: sci-fi

Wow!
Mind boggling, science heavy, great story!
This is the kind of sci-fi story which merits its Sci part.

The author creates a very believable world and while explaining the science involved (engineering, computers, biology, genetics, psychology) in this Venus society, it slowly deconstructs what he built.
The story is also written in two time frames, and we see the past and present of Arik rapidly meeting to this unexpected ending.

Mankind last hope is here! Will we make it ?

At the end of this gr...more

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Modern SF: Containment, Christian Cantrell	3	11	Dec 22, 2012 10:20am

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About Christian Cantrell

Christian Cantrell is a writer and software developer living in Northern Virginia.

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Quotes from Containment

“Solving problems isn't so much about simplifying them as it is about properly and realistically reducing them to only what's relevant. And one of the best ways to reduce a problem to only what's relevant is to throw away most of your assumptions about it.” — 7 people liked it

“The fewer moving parts, the better." "Exactly. No truer words were ever spoken in the context of engineering.” — 5 people liked it

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