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Containment
Edward Roderick is fed up. He has tried to create a safe environment in which to raise his son. But he finds himself sharing his neighborhood with…undesirable people. An idea sparks in his mind that will change his life, and the lives of millions of people.CONTAINMENT is a fast-paced story of a country that is divided into regions, separating the good from the bad, the poor from the rich, the haves and the have-nots. This thought-provoking book explores the changes that take place through the interweaving stories of a brilliant scientist on the verge of a great discovery, an unscrupulous ex-Army lieutenant with ulterior motives, and the gang culture that emerges in the lowest of the regions.
265 pages, Kindle Edition
First published July 15, 2012
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
September 30, 2012
Containment by David Gilbertson struck me as something halfway between a dystopian fairy tale and a grand psychological experiment.
We are introduced to Edward, the main character, who has lost his wife sometime back and is doing his best to take care of his young son on his own. When he finds out that a man with a very dark past has moved into his neighborhood, he becomes fearful for his son’s life and conveniently, it seems, stumbles upon an old army compatriot, Theodore, who has been tucked away from society and presumed dead for a very long time.
The two men begin swapping ideas with one another-Edward brings up the fact that it isn’t right that some dangerous person should be allowed to mix with decent folks. Thus begins these two men’s experiment into realigning the country (in theory, or so it seems) so that the undesirables live with one another and all the good people live together, safely removed from danger. They imagine rankings and qualifications based on a number of factors, including income, positive accomplishments, criminal record and other related factors. They disagree on some, such as health and race, with Theodore being the more extreme, but they are able to come up with a very detailed plan. The country will be split into fifty regions, with R1 being the nicest and R50 being where all the depraved criminals reside.
Little does Edward know that Theodore has taken this whole experimental process seriously and knows people in high places in the government who wish to implement this new plan. So over the course of the next year, R50 is built, an identification process is crafted for all citizens, and the government begins moving people into their appropriate places based on their ranking.
The story follows Edward in his journey of realization of what he has created, the fact that it is real, and the consequences based on his and Theodore’s actions.
This book is challenging for me to rate. It is a solid personal story of Edward, and the relationships he has with Theodore and his wife, Natasha, in particular. As a journey of self-discovery and realization it has some intriguing elements. As a dystopian story, it is more of a mixed bag, with it being interesting in theory and this is my reason for calling it a fairy tale at the beginning of this review. I grew up loving history, and later in life discovering alternate history, written mostly by historians who knew enough about real history to twist and bend it enough to make a different path an intriguing and plausible possibility. Containment dwells on our fears, especially in a post 9-11 world, of distancing ourselves from danger that it presents an interesting topic, but I felt there were far too many factors not considered and elements left by the wayside for this to ever be plausible. In theory or as a make believe story with a moral to it? It packs an emotional punch. And yet…the country in question is nameless and has a convenient round numbered population, giving it a more classroom element to it, rather than a reality. The discussions between Edward and Theodore and then later between Edward and Natasha have that classroom/theoretical element to them. Even with the efforts of the author to cover quite a few bases, there is much left to chance and some elements of society left off the table completely. To transition these theories into reality for this tale, several convenient coincidental meetings of people occur and drive the tale along. So once again, this story works in theory-the idea is terrifying. But put into practice, it became somewhat less than believable to me.
I did enjoy this story. I felt that it left off a little abruptly, which might mean that a sequel is in the works. It works as both a personal tale of discovery for Edward and as a fable of government control gone wrong. It just misses a step or two when it comes to transitioning this new world order into something that has a possibility of becoming a reality.
We are introduced to Edward, the main character, who has lost his wife sometime back and is doing his best to take care of his young son on his own. When he finds out that a man with a very dark past has moved into his neighborhood, he becomes fearful for his son’s life and conveniently, it seems, stumbles upon an old army compatriot, Theodore, who has been tucked away from society and presumed dead for a very long time.
The two men begin swapping ideas with one another-Edward brings up the fact that it isn’t right that some dangerous person should be allowed to mix with decent folks. Thus begins these two men’s experiment into realigning the country (in theory, or so it seems) so that the undesirables live with one another and all the good people live together, safely removed from danger. They imagine rankings and qualifications based on a number of factors, including income, positive accomplishments, criminal record and other related factors. They disagree on some, such as health and race, with Theodore being the more extreme, but they are able to come up with a very detailed plan. The country will be split into fifty regions, with R1 being the nicest and R50 being where all the depraved criminals reside.
Little does Edward know that Theodore has taken this whole experimental process seriously and knows people in high places in the government who wish to implement this new plan. So over the course of the next year, R50 is built, an identification process is crafted for all citizens, and the government begins moving people into their appropriate places based on their ranking.
The story follows Edward in his journey of realization of what he has created, the fact that it is real, and the consequences based on his and Theodore’s actions.
This book is challenging for me to rate. It is a solid personal story of Edward, and the relationships he has with Theodore and his wife, Natasha, in particular. As a journey of self-discovery and realization it has some intriguing elements. As a dystopian story, it is more of a mixed bag, with it being interesting in theory and this is my reason for calling it a fairy tale at the beginning of this review. I grew up loving history, and later in life discovering alternate history, written mostly by historians who knew enough about real history to twist and bend it enough to make a different path an intriguing and plausible possibility. Containment dwells on our fears, especially in a post 9-11 world, of distancing ourselves from danger that it presents an interesting topic, but I felt there were far too many factors not considered and elements left by the wayside for this to ever be plausible. In theory or as a make believe story with a moral to it? It packs an emotional punch. And yet…the country in question is nameless and has a convenient round numbered population, giving it a more classroom element to it, rather than a reality. The discussions between Edward and Theodore and then later between Edward and Natasha have that classroom/theoretical element to them. Even with the efforts of the author to cover quite a few bases, there is much left to chance and some elements of society left off the table completely. To transition these theories into reality for this tale, several convenient coincidental meetings of people occur and drive the tale along. So once again, this story works in theory-the idea is terrifying. But put into practice, it became somewhat less than believable to me.
I did enjoy this story. I felt that it left off a little abruptly, which might mean that a sequel is in the works. It works as both a personal tale of discovery for Edward and as a fable of government control gone wrong. It just misses a step or two when it comes to transitioning this new world order into something that has a possibility of becoming a reality.
September 3, 2012
This was a book from my daily list of free books on Kindle from Amazon. The general plot is about two guys in a dystopian society that is never identified as any _real_ country sit down together and create a plan for separating the country into 50 regions and segregating everyone in the country to one of these regions based on an amalgam of factors including age, race, medical history, criminal history, contributions to society, taxes paid, etc. Region 1 being the "best" region and region 50 being the prison region.
Now, what could have been a taut, scary Orwellian nightmare ended up just being a nightmare to read. The book is filled with far too many incidents that completely ripped me from the narrative. It had good patches, and just as you forget there are bad patches, something absolutely ridiculous happens. For instance:
A librarian widower who was once a member of an assassin squad in the army randomly goes on a picnic in the wilderness where he just happens to accidentally blunder into the off-the-grid home of his former commander who had faked his own death after being warned their superiors were going to take him out for some never named reason. So this librarian former assassin and his hermit buddy set to planning out this segregation of the country (all because a sex offender moved into the librarian's neighborhood and he wanted a way to force him to move) and are able to implement these plans because this guy who's been in hiding for like 20 years still has connections _that good_ with mysterious people in higher power (also, apparently, this country has no leader or congress, etc.).
The book spans about 6 years. It starts with the librarian's son at age 4 and the kid does not seem to grow up at all during this time. At the end of the book he's still behaving younger than my own 4year-old.
The four most powerful prison gangs in region 50 are called The Centaurs, The Players, The Panthers and The Killers. Apparently they were all named by 12 year-old white boys playing gang in the school yard.
Shoving someone with no resultant injury is enough to reclassify one character from region 1 to region 50, but vehicular manslaughter and drunk driving only drops someone from somewhere in the 20s to 37, but the plot needs this guy in region 1 to be in region 50 so a criminal in region 50 with an Xbox controller that can hack satellites for internet and then hack the government's ranking computers can break him back out one chapter later.
Gah.
Now, what could have been a taut, scary Orwellian nightmare ended up just being a nightmare to read. The book is filled with far too many incidents that completely ripped me from the narrative. It had good patches, and just as you forget there are bad patches, something absolutely ridiculous happens. For instance:
A librarian widower who was once a member of an assassin squad in the army randomly goes on a picnic in the wilderness where he just happens to accidentally blunder into the off-the-grid home of his former commander who had faked his own death after being warned their superiors were going to take him out for some never named reason. So this librarian former assassin and his hermit buddy set to planning out this segregation of the country (all because a sex offender moved into the librarian's neighborhood and he wanted a way to force him to move) and are able to implement these plans because this guy who's been in hiding for like 20 years still has connections _that good_ with mysterious people in higher power (also, apparently, this country has no leader or congress, etc.).
The book spans about 6 years. It starts with the librarian's son at age 4 and the kid does not seem to grow up at all during this time. At the end of the book he's still behaving younger than my own 4year-old.
The four most powerful prison gangs in region 50 are called The Centaurs, The Players, The Panthers and The Killers. Apparently they were all named by 12 year-old white boys playing gang in the school yard.
Shoving someone with no resultant injury is enough to reclassify one character from region 1 to region 50, but vehicular manslaughter and drunk driving only drops someone from somewhere in the 20s to 37, but the plot needs this guy in region 1 to be in region 50 so a criminal in region 50 with an Xbox controller that can hack satellites for internet and then hack the government's ranking computers can break him back out one chapter later.
Gah.
July 17, 2012
YAYYYYYYYYYYYY! Another editing project is now a published book! Be sure to check out Containment by David Gilbertson, now available on Amazon.
Edward Roderick is fed up. He has tried to create a safe environment in which to raise his son. But he finds himself sharing his neighborhood with…undesirable people. An idea sparks in his mind that will change his life, and the lives of millions of people.
CONTAINMENT is a fast-paced story of a country that is divided into regions, separating the good from the bad, the poor from the rich, the haves and the have-nots. This thought-provoking book explores the changes that take place through the interweaving stories of a brilliant scientist on the verge of a great discovery, an unscrupulous ex-Army lieutenant with ulterior motives, and the gang culture that emerges in the lowest of the regions.
Edward Roderick is fed up. He has tried to create a safe environment in which to raise his son. But he finds himself sharing his neighborhood with…undesirable people. An idea sparks in his mind that will change his life, and the lives of millions of people.
CONTAINMENT is a fast-paced story of a country that is divided into regions, separating the good from the bad, the poor from the rich, the haves and the have-nots. This thought-provoking book explores the changes that take place through the interweaving stories of a brilliant scientist on the verge of a great discovery, an unscrupulous ex-Army lieutenant with ulterior motives, and the gang culture that emerges in the lowest of the regions.
November 10, 2012
Bizarre book. Once I got past pretending this could actually happen, I enjoyed it. There's no need for details as to which country this is, who is the president, how does the government fit in to this upheaval of society, why does everyone just go along with it, what do outside governments think of it, etc. A social experiment? It's interesting to compare this with what actually transpired in communist countries. What they strove for in theory vs the practical reality on the ground.
July 18, 2012
I think it's a great book. But I'm biased.
Grab it here: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008...
Grab it here: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008...
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews