Equinox

Children of Occam #2

by Christian Cantrell

A delicate balance exists between humankind on Earth and the Coronians, the descendants of terrestrial scientists who were marooned aboard the space station Equinox. In exchange for raw materials crucial to expanding their off-world home, the Coronians provide precious space-based solar power to an Earth obscured by greenhouse gasses. But distrust runs deep between the two races, with each yearning for freedom from their mutual dependence yet both terrified of perishing without the other’s help.

Now, their future rests in the hands of Ayla Novik, an itinerant smuggler desperate to survive the menacing world in which she plies her trade, and Luka Mance, a drug-addicted technician determined to save his planet and his people from deadly betrayal by their extraterrestrial cousins. When Ayla makes a devil’s deal to take human hostages in a Coronian power play, her mission sparks a revolt that will force an ultimate confrontation between earthbound and space-born…deciding once and for all whether two races will rise to coexistence or collapse in devastation.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Amazon, Dystopia, Space

477 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 17, 2015

About the author

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

Reviews

[Rose · Rating 2 out of 5]

The funniest/saddest thing about this book overall is that it could have easily ended up on my favorites shelf. There is a really good story here but it is absolutely drowning in a sea of words. Pages and pages, chapters even, of filler that takes away from the story rather than adds to it. I like descriptiveness but this was to the point of ridiculous. Here’s an example – there were several pages (yes, pages not paragraphs) dedicated to why the hexagon is the best shape for storage, and it made no difference to the story whatsoever. Hardcopy messages were sent in hexagon tubes. Jail cells were hexagon. Frankly, who gives a shit what shape they were. Not being a writer, I can’t offer the author much advice other than to say “Less is more”. I don’t care how good your story is, I will never read another if I’m forced to dig through all the irrelevant crap to find it.

I will not recommend this to anyone other than science fiction readers who just love details, not relevant details but just as a means for the author to write a bunch of things down to show how much he knows. He’d be a great Trivial Pursuit – Science/Computer Geek edition partner. Hopefully he’ll learn someday to omit rather than add.

[Greg Tymn · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a review of Containment and the follow-on novel Equinox. I've combined them both since they are serial in nature.

Overall, the story has quite a bit of potential and to his credit, Cantrell effectively built a "world". However, the books read like tech writer instructions to the properties manager on a film set. Kurzweil meets Famous Property Master....

What is absent, and what I consider the most serious drawback of the books, is an emphasis on human qualities.
Hugh Howey wrote a dystopian series (Wool) which successfully built a future world inside a mega-silo. However, the books in that series were focused on the people "IN" the silos, not the silo itself. Cantrell provided me with a great deal of information on the technology associated with his "silo" but not very much about the people.

All in all, a 12 year old would probably love the books. Lots of techie "gee whizzz" geeky stuff. An adult reader? I suggest you pass this series up.

[Viking Jam · Rating 1 out of 5]

http://koeur.wordpress.com/2014/12/02...

Publisher: 47 North

Publishing Date: March 2015

ISBN: 9781477825952

Genre: SciFi

Rating: DNS



Publisher Description: A delicate balance exists between humankind on Earth and the Coronians, the descendants of terrestrial scientists who were marooned aboard the space station Equinox. In exchange for raw materials crucial to expanding their off-world home, the Coronians provide precious space-based solar power to an Earth obscured by greenhouse gasses. But distrust runs deep between the two races, with each yearning for freedom from their mutual dependence yet both terrified of perishing without the other’s help.

Review: I started reading this and encountered the use of “actually” twice, within the span of two sentences. So rather than boldly go forth, bludgeoning my brain with repetitive phrasing I decided to do a word search for “actually”. As a quick aside, I loathe phrasing and the overuse of words to expedite scene development. “Actually” is currently used in our society to bolster ineptitude into a sense of believability and rarely is needed in any sentence. To me, overt phrasing and word overuse begin around the 15x mark and trend towards excessive at around 30x. This novel comes in with a staggering 117x. So an easy review for me as I did not even get to start reading (DNS). Perhaps the publisher would be better off investing in more beta readers or content editors.

[Don Viecelli · Rating 3 out of 5]

From My Newsletter Number 100:

This review is on EQUINOX by Christian Cantrell. It is the second book I have read by this author. It is the Sequel to CONTAINMENT, which I found to be very original and a great read.

The story begins with a Prologue that brings the reader up to date with three of the main characters from the first book, Cadie, Cam and Zaire, who are outside of the V1 Containment facility waiting for the strangers that Arik has arranged to meet them. It is their only chance to escape the harsh environment they live in and begin a new life.

Chapter One immediately introduces new characters and a new setting. One new character is named Luka and he lives on the San Francisco, which is a very big mining and refinery rig/city that travels on the oceans looking for minerals. Luka is a technician who works on certain projects that get him in trouble with the ruling council members of the city. Luka begins to question what is behind some of the new orders for materials.

In Chapter Two, we learn the history of the Coronians who live in space and developed into an entirely new species of Homo sapiens. The Coronians need certain resources and other items from the surviving colonies or Pods on Earth to survive in space and in exchange provide electric power to those who need it. The relationship between the Coronians and humans on Earth is strained to say the least.

At this point the story seems to move in a whole new direction that does not seem related to the original storyline. It feels like a different story altogether and the new characters take over the story at the expense of the original four characters until the final few chapters. Unfortunately, the new characters are not as exciting as the original ones.

I give this story three stars because the story is not as entertaining as the first book and much too detail oriented. The plot is still good, but the new characters get lost in all the technical and mundane analysis of daily life on the mining rig that it detracts from the story and makes reading very slow. I was hoping for a better sequel.

[Drew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another great story by Cantrell

Equinox wraps up the story that began with Containment in a very satisfying climax and conclusion (though there's plenty of room to explore other parts of this world in future books).

I first started reading Chris Cantrell a few years ago, starting with his short fiction. Containment was the first story of his I read, and I quickly went on to read Anansi Island, Brainbox, Epoch Index and others. Cantrell does a phenomenal job of setting up three-dimensional characters, whether it's a short story or a novel-length story like Kingmaker or Equinox.

Frankly, I wasn't sure if a sequel to Containment could be pulled off without feeling a bit like a reach, but Equinox is very successful. Much like how the world of V1 in Containment is but a microcosm of a larger, unknown world and landscape, hinted at and with the potential for something greater not yet seen, Equinox delivers to both readers and the characters the opportunity to walk out the door and explore a much more immense, complex and narrative-rich world.

This was a very enjoyable book in its own right, and a very worth sequel to Containment. If you haven't read Cantrell, read everything I mentioned above. If you have read his work, then you are probably like me, waiting for the next chance to explore.

[Pat Buchanan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant - one of the best Cantrell has written. There are many bad reviews here complaining about how he spent too much time "on the details". For many of us, like myself, we thrive on them - because that is how his universe builds up around us. I can picture each ship, each location, each character in my head still to this day - and what a relief it is to some other authors who leave you craving more detail. Yes, there were a few chapters that could have been a bit smaller, but when you end the book wanting more, you can easily look past those.

Here's hoping to Children of Occam #3! :)

[Travis · Rating 2 out of 5]

Probably a decent story, unfortunately written

The art of storytelling is blending pace with depth. Give the authentic nuggets that provide insight and awe, but for Christ's sake, move the story along.

This author - who nailed it in Book 1 of the "Containment" series - opts in this book to be painfully verbose, spending pages and pages about stuff that isn't interesting, insightful, or anything worth the time it takes to read it.

I wonder if he was influenced by Stephenson's "Seveneves" - an example of how to do hard science exposition (mostly) right. If so, this author failed miserably.

Boring. Boring. Boring.

Too bad. It sure seemed like a good idea.

[Alex Shrugged · Rating 2 out of 5]

The story keeps going on and on. The writing is good, but the story is structured so oddly that I no longer care how this all ends.

You can see the story in the description of this book. Tied within this story is a continuation of the previous book, Containment, although exactly how they are tied together happens about halfway through this very long book. I suppose there was a reason to keep everything moving around in a mysterious manner so as to conceal the real point of this book, but it was concealed for too long. Toward the end the book became quite exciting, but by that time I was already tired of this book.

I am sorry. I had hoped for more and didn't get it.

[Brant · Rating 1 out of 5]

Containment -- book one of the series which this book follows -- was fast-paced, filled with mystery, suspense & hard science (that was relevant to the story). I loved it, so I pounced on Equinox hoping for a second helping of the same thing.

It is emphatically not that, I gave up in disgust at about the 60% mark because I was just swimming in an ocean of -- mostly irrelevant -- words. Nothing was happening, there was no mystery and zero suspense.

The author is very coherent and the writing is well edited, I just didn't care about the 'story' and I got bored.

[Kellen Wallis · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this one. It helps explain something that happens in the end of the first book. It also covers why the world is they it is. It has a cool cast of characters that have a part to play in executing Arik's research. The life aboard of the Equinox was not what I thought it would be in the end. The story of the Equinox was brilliant. It was so hopeful and inspiring. But nothing gold can stay.

[Farhan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read CONTAINMENT years ago and fondly remembered the novel as a intelligent science fiction with a nice little twist towards the end. I decided to pick up EQUINOX and was simply blown away.

Cantrell has squeezed in more ideas, more imagery, more beautiful prose in this single book than most authors could in numerous volumes. And the world-building is simply staggering.

It's a shame that Cantrell isn't as well-known to sci-fi fans as Kim Stanley Robinson or Cixin Liu.

[Billie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Aaah okay this book is a lot like the first one in that such a slow burn to start off with, totally bleak but stick with it! Then the end. Wow.

Yeah. Future me, if you're reading this because you're wondering if you should read any sequel that may or may not come out. Go read it.

P.S. Hexagons are fucking dope!

[Michelle Best · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not as fast paced as the first book but am glad that I stuck with it and ploughed through all the technical descriptions. It did feel at times like the author was determined to describe absolutely everything he had had to research to build the world, and quite a bit of it could have been left out. I enjoyed it, but then I'm an engineer so maybe that helped!

[Carl D. Sickerott · Rating 5 out of 5]

Difficult to read, but worth the effort

One of the best books I have had the pleasure of reading. Difficult at times to read, but the story and characters draw you in to the point you feel as though you are part of the story. I’ve read 3-5 books a week for over 60 years and have to rate this in the top 10.

[Miranda Benson · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF at ~50 pages. Way too much exposition and jargon, it was like reading a textbook. I was also really excited to see a female protagonist, but my hopes were dashed when she was literally a black widow. Not worth it.

[George Nash · Rating 4 out of 5]

the book picks up right at the conclusion of Containment. It then takes a turn instantly into the politics and differences of the rest of the world.

I enjoyed the story be felt that the characters from the first book were little more than catalyst to move the story into the second book.

[Billy Ribs · Rating 5 out of 5]

Highly recommend

Good read, thoughtful, surprise twists, had depth and insight into the human character, provocative, very entertaining and well written. Bravo, thank you. Books like this are far and few between

[Andi · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book showed me a lot of correlations between their futuristic problems and where we're at now. An enjoyable read with descriptive details. So many times I didn't want to put it down. If you enjoy futuristic with a touch of mystery/suspense, this is probably for you.

[Gábor Auth · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story of the book is really exciting and interesting... but it is too overwritten, really hard to read it... :(

[MARY DIEZMAN · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting

I enjoyed the book but found it to be too detailed and skipped several pages. The author went into too much detail and made it boring to read

[Martha R. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book pulls the camera back, so to speak, and shows us the dystopian world around which the society shown in Containment exists.  I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and I must be numbered among the "geeks" because I did not object to the meticulous world-building explanations (how enjoyable to know the why of a thing instead of just being presented with the finished product or idea).  An excellent conclusion to the story.  Recommended.

[Blase Ciabaton · Rating 5 out of 5]

-Culture is a form of immortality. It’s probably the only form of immortality.

Christian Cantrell's short book, Containment, was one of my all-time favorite science fiction stories, so I was very excited when I discovered that Cantrell was coming out with a sequel, Equinox; I was also quite surprised because Containment was published in 2010 so there was nearly a 5-year gap between book one and publication of the sequel.

I've read many of Cantrell's stories, and I'll call them stories instead of books because they are generally of the short story/novelette length, and I can read them typically in the course of a weekend or short week. Equinox completely bucks the trend because it's a full length novel. Since most of my reading is done on a Kindle, this completely caught me by surprise. I took a quick peek on Amazon for reference and the print version of Containment is listed as 298 pages while Equinox is 574 pages.

I should also mention that Equinox is not your typical sequel. It's really very much its own independent story with a 100% new story line. In fairness it is nicely tethered to the original story, Containment, at key parts; it's certainly done well enough to qualify it as a proper sequel, but it's truly unlike any other sequel I've read.

Despite, all of my ramblings about Equinox's length, and about and how it fits in as a sequel, it's a very, very good story. The one caution that I'll offer is that it is relatively heavy on the "science" part of science fiction-especially at the beginning of the book. In general, this part was very enjoyable for me and certain revelations were actually fascinating. The scientific sections probably fall more into the category of "world building," but if you're not someone who's interested in hard science, these sections may be hard to get through. For me, they actually improved the story.

-You're thinking linearly. To figure out where technology will be in the future, you have to think exponentially.

Without revealing any spoilers, some of the more interesting scientific concepts covered were human development in the absence of gravity, the genesis of off-Earth colonies, future power sources, currency and construction methods, and brain-computer interfaces. There's also some interesting dialogue on the future of 3D printing, and required steps to establish security protocols to prevent falsifying copyrighted items or creating weaponry.

One of my favorite accomplishments of the book is that Cantrell constructs a plausible utopian future for the human race and then systematically deconstructs it within the first 10% of the book.

-Luka realized that he was being called upon to lead, and that being a true leader was not about doing what was easy or popular, or even necessarily what was humane. Being a true leader meant having to make the right decisions...

There were many nice plot twists throughout the book which for me made it rewarding despite the fact that it was a longer read than anticipated. The book is certainly not only filled with the scientific; it has plenty of human drama including love, self-sacrifice, drug addiction, suicide and political corruption.

I’d highly recommend the book to fans of Christian Cantrell, and anyone who enjoys science fiction with an emphasis on the science. I believe reading Containment first would make Equinox more enjoyable; however, Equinox could stand alone as a single novel.

Rating books is a subjective science, and for me although most of the science inserted into the book added to the depth of the story, there were some sections where I found the science was a bit too heavy to maintain the proper pace of the story. This is the only reason that I’ve rated Equinox four and a half stars instead of five stars.

[Adam Turoff · Rating 2 out of 5]

I (thought I) really liked Containment - a novel where the characters were dropped into and clearly inhabited an impossible situation, yet somehow followed a coherent plot line to a reasonable and more believable conclusion. The premise behind Containment was unique, didn't rely on tired tropes, and the richness of the setting helped drive the plot along. Suspension of disbelief paid off, because while the setting was clearly impossible, it all resolved with a satisfying conclusion (which left enough material unexplained to support a sequel).

Equinox was none of that.

Equinox was about twice as long as it needed to be, relied on tiresome exposition about the technology and the setting, used cardboard characters to move the plot along (such as it was) in a plot that was neither interesting nor coherent. The plot elements tried to tie together a few too many well-worn tropes (plus one or two new ones), and focused way too much on explanations of futuristic technology to drive the story, to the detriment of character development or plot development. There was a germ of a good novel here, but it was lost in entirely too much writing. (Yes, we understand that hexagons tesselate and cover a surface. Sigh.)

Equinox exists as a sequel to Containment only insofar as a couple of characters for the first novel reappear as cardboard placeholders in the second novel, and a couple of key plot points eventually resurface from Containment. Aside from that, it could have been a better standalone novel with a chapter of exposition to introduce the key plot elements lifted from Containment, with no connection to the previous novel.

[Michael Long · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very interesting book about a post-apocalyptic Earth where Earth-dwellers are dependent on a space station for power, energy, and technology, while the station (the Coronians) are dependent on Earth for raw materials.

Having not read the first book, I found it took me a little while to get into the story. Once there though I found it very fascinating. The technology and characters were great and I great enjoyed the story.

The only downsides are a whole "drug addict" subplot for one of the main characters which was unnecessary and went nowhere, and the tendency for the story to go off on tangents with way too much detail about inconsequential or mundane things. Also, it took way too long to get real details about the Coronians, although at least there were some major revelations before the story ended.

I listened to the audiobook and the narrator did a pretty good job. It was a bit rough in the beginning with some of the female voices but it smoothed out as time went on.

Overall a really enjoyable book (and audiobook) and I am very much looking forward to any future sequels.

NOTE: I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review.This review was originally posted on MichaelSciFan

[Steve Walker · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was very disappointing. The predecessor to this novel, Containment, was thoroughly original with a wonderful surprise twist ending. When I heard of a sequel I was excited as the ending of Containment left the group walking past the wall and meeting another group, and being told where they really were. This has been referred to as Containment #2 as if Containment might be a series, but the author calls it book #2 of the Children of Occam series, to which I say "what the ? does that mean" It has no reference I recall from the first book and I did not diven anything from this work. It might be there but I stopped reading about 70 pages in.

Cantrell sets up a short prologue that picks up exactly where Containment left off. Then he starts a whole new thing that I can't relate to the first book in the least. He gets bogged down in a lot of technical description of large floating cities and humans born in space whose descendants were stranded on a space station long ago. I get the impression they now reside on the planet Coronia, but is that in our solar system? I don't know I was confused.

The book has a lot of good ratings and fans, some even comparing Cantrell to Bradbury or Asimov. As for me, I don't get it and I love Bradbury and Asimov.

[Katherine Coble · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 Stars.

This book took me almost 3 months to read. Seeing as how I finish most books in 72 hours or abandon them after 50 pages, that should tell you a lot about this book. It's an intriguing story nestled inside a whole lot of very dense technical information. It's a rote dystopian drama that would be worth 2 stars on its own, coupled with a lot of speculative hard science and mathematics. Somehow the two together work to create a densely readable...well, let's call it a philosophical treatise wrapped around an elementary drama.

It took 3 months to read because I found I couldn't read it as I was falling asleep and there were 6 weeks of battling a systemic kidney infection where I simply couldn't process it at all. The book takes _processing_. That's a good thing. I like books that challenge and teach me and I feel like this book was ultimately meant to do that. It seems the author wanted to chew over these ideas and the bit of story is the spoonful of sugar.

The other author I enjoy who routinely writes this way is Neal Stephenson. As with Stephenson's _Anathem_, there are large sections of this novel which are more like going to class. I recommend it, but only if you're willing to put in the time.

[Larry Gross]

Truly excellent High Science Fiction

Both this book and the first are a phenomenal look at a possible future as we humans struggle with our own species remarkable knack for innovation and exploration as well as our penchant for suspicion and violence.

Some other reviewers I've read have complained about what they perceive as the author's inexplicable descent into explanations about the technology at seemingly inappropriate times and that these "descents" take away from an otherwise compelling story. I heartily disagree. I believe these explanations are integral to the telling of the story. It allows for a much greater suspension of disbelief and an impressive look at a well though out universe. The technology is remarkably consistent and each of the anachronisms are described and explained in a way that, to me, makes it obvious that Cantrell has considered his world deeply and doesn't fall into the trap many authors create trying to hastily explain away something "creatively" because they've backed themselves into a corner.

I only hope we get a further look at the next phase of this story with the Coronians and the interdependence between them and the rest of humanity going forward. Truly fascinating.

[Eoin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a lot better than the previous one, however, there was still a lot of jargon and science thrown in. There were pages of explaining the science behind it, for example, they spend PAGES on how hexagons are the best shapes for building with. Unfortunately in the middle of some of the science, there will be a bit of information you will need to remember for later otherwise you will be confused. Also, just something that just kind of annoys me, I don't like when the characters are in the first book are not the main characters in the second book.
The reason I still gave it 4 stars is because these are just minor things and I don't mind the science and I thoroughly enjoyed the book.

[Caitlin · Rating 2 out of 5]

I received a copy of this book through Goodreads Firstreads. And I wish I had enjoyed it more than I did. As it was, it felt as though there were two books going on here: the science fiction and the science history book. The world Cantrell builds is incredible and incredibly detailed, but very often the action and excitement of the story get stagnated in long swathes of explanation. If the information/exposition had ben more fully integrated into the story, I might have given Equinox a four or five star rating.

[s]

very surprising

When I began this book, I had to stop to look over Containment again to be sure I was reading the sequel I thought I was. This part of the Children of Occam (incidentally, I have no idea what that means, unless I've totally forgotten a hugely relevant part of Containment) tells a story so much larger in scale than Containment that it quite astonished me. I really enjoyed it and am looking forward to reading more (if this is "book 2", there must be more, right?).