Review by vergilTfallen -- Containment Breach
Posted: 17 Jun 2019, 12:02
[Following is a volunteer review of "Containment Breach" by Wm. A. Yandell.]
1 out of 4 stars
Share This Review
There is a lot to say about Containment breach, sadly not much of it is very good. The story is a mess of troupes and clichés with a few good original ideas sprinkled in and is told with an impressive lack of description and detail. The characters, good and evil, both make me want to slap some common sense into them while the story drags them around for a series of contrived conflicts. More than anything, I sadly have to say, the style falls painfully flat.
The story follows scientist Walter Smithton, a bioengineer, and his team of fellow scientists. Walter and crew are called on, rather forcefully, to resolve a bioengineered threat that has overtaken an orbital station and now threatens to spread across earth and claim the lives of all humanity. It has promise, even if it is basic but the way it is told is very poor. The story swaps between a first person and third person narrative, sometimes in mid scene, which is jarring and painful to read. It leaves no mystery to the story and often has us rereading the same information from different POVs with nothing new added. There are many logical problems in the story itself, too many for me to address in a simple review. The fact that nearly ninety percent of the story is told as dialogue does not makes things any easier.
Wm. A. Yandell tells the nearly the entire story with either Walter’s manic thoughts or choppy words between characters, and they all talk with the same robotic, expressionless diction. He does at least put a ‘he said, she said’ after every line, otherwise you may not know who was talking as they all sound the same. With a few exceptions during a good scene or two, the dialogue itself is weak. Often characters will repeat back lines to each other, repeating information in long windy explanations so we, the foolish reader, can understand the brilliant scientist. The dialogue and lack of description of any of their environment or deep development only gets worse as you examine the characters.
The cast of the novel lack any real personality. Our protagonist, Walter, is as brave as the plot requires him to be. His obsession and paranoia could have made a good plot line, but it is not explored. Walter has no character. He is what the plot requires rather than reacting to the world around him. Even when he does react it makes little sense and is not consistent in any way. One moment he is a coward, the next a brave daring man with brass balls, and then back to being an emotionless egg head.
His crew, Jack the family man, Steve the egotist and Marci the new girl, are about as bland as those short descriptors I just gave them. The only other noteworthy character is Bush. Bush acts as our human villain, that’s not a spoiler because he is about as subtle as a flying hammer made of bees playing the drums. He is evil, murderous, literally described as having a mind of pure evil and somehow given full authority to do just about anything he wants. Despite not being in the military or ever given a rank or any idea why he is allowed to get away with all this. His presence is less of an uplifting change and more of a series of whys and hows. I still don’t understand his motivations, methods, or how he ever had authority to begin with. He exists to be a bad guy because he is a evil. And that is boring.
Containment breach feels like a weak sci-fi movie pitch. The characters make no sense, the plot leaves you wondering why any of this happened and questioning why you should care, and it is presented in a long weak dialogue that sounds like Dora the explorer is trying to explain the plot to us. Overall, I have to give it a 1 out of 4. I can’t say it has anything making it worth the time to read. If you really want some cheap sci-fi then find a straight to cable sci-fi movie. At least you get to see something cool there.
******
Containment Breach
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Like vergilTfallen's review? Post a comment saying so!
1 out of 4 stars
Share This Review
There is a lot to say about Containment breach, sadly not much of it is very good. The story is a mess of troupes and clichés with a few good original ideas sprinkled in and is told with an impressive lack of description and detail. The characters, good and evil, both make me want to slap some common sense into them while the story drags them around for a series of contrived conflicts. More than anything, I sadly have to say, the style falls painfully flat.
The story follows scientist Walter Smithton, a bioengineer, and his team of fellow scientists. Walter and crew are called on, rather forcefully, to resolve a bioengineered threat that has overtaken an orbital station and now threatens to spread across earth and claim the lives of all humanity. It has promise, even if it is basic but the way it is told is very poor. The story swaps between a first person and third person narrative, sometimes in mid scene, which is jarring and painful to read. It leaves no mystery to the story and often has us rereading the same information from different POVs with nothing new added. There are many logical problems in the story itself, too many for me to address in a simple review. The fact that nearly ninety percent of the story is told as dialogue does not makes things any easier.
Wm. A. Yandell tells the nearly the entire story with either Walter’s manic thoughts or choppy words between characters, and they all talk with the same robotic, expressionless diction. He does at least put a ‘he said, she said’ after every line, otherwise you may not know who was talking as they all sound the same. With a few exceptions during a good scene or two, the dialogue itself is weak. Often characters will repeat back lines to each other, repeating information in long windy explanations so we, the foolish reader, can understand the brilliant scientist. The dialogue and lack of description of any of their environment or deep development only gets worse as you examine the characters.
The cast of the novel lack any real personality. Our protagonist, Walter, is as brave as the plot requires him to be. His obsession and paranoia could have made a good plot line, but it is not explored. Walter has no character. He is what the plot requires rather than reacting to the world around him. Even when he does react it makes little sense and is not consistent in any way. One moment he is a coward, the next a brave daring man with brass balls, and then back to being an emotionless egg head.
His crew, Jack the family man, Steve the egotist and Marci the new girl, are about as bland as those short descriptors I just gave them. The only other noteworthy character is Bush. Bush acts as our human villain, that’s not a spoiler because he is about as subtle as a flying hammer made of bees playing the drums. He is evil, murderous, literally described as having a mind of pure evil and somehow given full authority to do just about anything he wants. Despite not being in the military or ever given a rank or any idea why he is allowed to get away with all this. His presence is less of an uplifting change and more of a series of whys and hows. I still don’t understand his motivations, methods, or how he ever had authority to begin with. He exists to be a bad guy because he is a evil. And that is boring.
Containment breach feels like a weak sci-fi movie pitch. The characters make no sense, the plot leaves you wondering why any of this happened and questioning why you should care, and it is presented in a long weak dialogue that sounds like Dora the explorer is trying to explain the plot to us. Overall, I have to give it a 1 out of 4. I can’t say it has anything making it worth the time to read. If you really want some cheap sci-fi then find a straight to cable sci-fi movie. At least you get to see something cool there.
******
Containment Breach
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Like vergilTfallen's review? Post a comment saying so!