Reviews with content warning for Suicidal thoughts - Fractal Noise

Reviews tagging 'Suicidal thoughts'

Fractal Noise by Christopher Paolini

26 reviews

bibliomania_express's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Fractal Noise by Christopher Paolini is a prequel to To Sleep in a Sea of Stars, and I was not at all prepared for what this book would be.

This is a book about pain, grief, hope, religion, love, and humanity's unceasing desire to know. I don't think I've ever read a book like this where I so viscerally felt the atmosphere. Paolini's writing brings the barren sand of Talos and its rhythmic "thud"s vividly alive. As Alex descends into himself, I could feel his fragmenting mind and the progressively louder THUDs.

I'm impressed that this book, while full of pain and gore and anger, ultimately has a lot of say about hope and coming out of grief. That sometimes answers are impossible, reasons unknowable, and everything we think we know wrong, but we keep going, keep trying, and keep caring about each other. Alex is set against himself, his team, and the physical environment, and yet he persists - sometimes foolheartedly, sometimes irrationally.

I think what makes this book so good is that Alex's interal struggle is reflected in the physical struggle to reach the beacon, coupled with the debated about human nature and religion in the face of potential alien lifeforms. The inherent contradictions of it all play out against the backdrop of an unwaverily empty and monotonous world.

This book needs major trigger warnings for death of a spouse, depression, grief, suicidal ideation, religious zeal, physical assault, death, body horror, blood, and medical content.

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artdec0's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No

4.25

CONTAIN SPOILER To Sleep in a Sea of Stars

note: i’m only 3% in reading To Sleep in a Sea of Stars

i HATEE how Fractal Noise ended bc I fell in love with Alex and the whole group premise was i believe a very realistic one if something similar would happen. the fact that we don’t get to see Alex’s progress after the whole thing and the chemist guy (i don’t remember his name) if he got his leg healed and could walk in the two days long park or not 😭 AND I expected to find the answer in the 907 pgs book but to find out that discovery hole of Talos VII happened 20+ years ago 😂💥🔫

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colossuscrunch's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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astrangewind's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Fractal Noise is an example of what science fiction should be. Any techno-babble is defined properly in the appendix, and the story doesn't rely on the reader's understanding of math. The science felt realistic and interesting without being overly jargony. The writing style makes the book accessible and interesting.

The plot follows a group of scientists as they make their way towards a big ol' hole on an unoccupied planet, and... that's it. The entire book starts from being in orbit, moves to landing, and then to trekking across the inhospitable plains of a foreign planet. Despite that, I found Fractal Noise to be un-put-down-able. The characterization, the interesting parts of the science, Alex's struggle with himself and losing his wife, the underlying philosophical themes, and the mystery of the hole were compelling.

I loved that there was an appendix to define in-universe terms, but there is a major spoiler in there ("The Great Beacon"), which bugs me. At the very beginning of the book, a lot of characters are introduced to the reader with some identifying characteristic or another, but most of these characters are not even remotely relevant for the remainder of the book, and it was a lot to follow. Also, the beginning of the book had some weird fatphobia towards Pushkin. (The protagonist referred to people on his planet as "starving gorillas.") I think the book would've been just as good without it.

Besides those things, which are largely nitpicks, I greatly enjoyed this book and would recommend it to anyone, even people who aren't science fiction fans.

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lesejaguar's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

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fathom_mage's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

The smallest novel by Christopher Paolini gives us a peak into humanity's first interaction with extraterrestrial life. This book is incredibly sad and depressing from cover to cover yet still a fantastic look into the fractalverse world.

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