Take a photo of a barcode or cover
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Very stressful read. I had to put it down for a few weeks. It's
THUDS
the way that things
THUDS
get interrupted often is what really got me
THUDS
the way that things
THUDS
get interrupted often is what really got me
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Murder
.jpg)
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I loved this book! It was tense and dark and emotional. It was told partially through flashbacks to a previous time and present day events. I thought the crew that was listed in the book was diverse and interesting and sort of fully formed people. But mostly the ground crew that was on the strange planet was who you got to know and I felt like they were all very fully formed people and that's always great. The narration for this was really good. They had some music that was done and some sound effects that I think really added to the book. I was really happy about the constant building of tension throughout the book. I don't think this book really had an ending per se, more of a possible continuation. Although, that makes sense as this is technically a prequel to "to sleep in a sea of stars." So that does make more sense when you think of it that way. Either way, strong characters, really tense Interesting plot and an amazing narration and musical score. Musical score was unexpected but still very good.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness, Violence, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Bullying, Medical trauma
adventurous
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I liked this book, I wanted to like it more. Spoiler alert:
The whole book is the journey to the freaking hole. Also Alex’s character is a little one dimensional imo.
The whole book is the journey to the freaking hole. Also Alex’s character is a little one dimensional imo.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Murder
Minor: Violence
dark
emotional
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I have far too many unanswered questions finishing this book. Some are okay; some are even necessary... but most of them, in this case, should've been answered. This book is very bleak and somehow also not as emotional as it could've been so it left me feeling dazed and confused. I'm sure someone will love it, but it's not for me. That said, based on reading other reviews, I recommend listening to the audiobook of this one rather than reading.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gore, Suicidal thoughts, Murder
Moderate: Drug use, Violence
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
If you want to be stressed for ten hours I recommend this audiobook!
Such a grueling journey to the alien hole. Whenever something would happen, I would be screaming in my head GO BACK GO BACK GO BACK but they just kept going onward. As a plus, the audiobook had music and sound effects (such as radio static over the comms) which made the book that much better of an experience.
Like To Sleep in a Sea of Stars, this book is well-researched and it feels like the characters are really professionals in what they do.
I was really satisfied with the character development of the main character in the end, but was dissatisfied with the others. I felt like I wanted to know more about the others’ backstories in more depth in relation to their decision-making. I wanted to know exactly what happened to them that wounded them. I also wanted to know more about the world and have at least an inkling of an answer in the end. So, though I enjoyed this, I didn’t enjoy it as much as To Sleep.
Such a grueling journey to the alien hole. Whenever something would happen, I would be screaming in my head GO BACK GO BACK GO BACK but they just kept going onward. As a plus, the audiobook had music and sound effects (such as radio static over the comms) which made the book that much better of an experience.
Like To Sleep in a Sea of Stars, this book is well-researched and it feels like the characters are really professionals in what they do.
I was really satisfied with the character development of the main character in the end, but was dissatisfied with the others. I felt like I wanted to know more about the others’ backstories in more depth in relation to their decision-making. I wanted to know exactly what happened to them that wounded them. I also wanted to know more about the world and have at least an inkling of an answer in the end. So, though I enjoyed this, I didn’t enjoy it as much as To Sleep.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Grief
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The only reason I finished this was bc I love Paolini as an author. The Inheritance Cycle is my favorite series. However, I would have stopped at about a third of the way through if I didn't have this weird loyalty to him. I almost stopped anyway at several points beyond that. I gave it a 1 because the story was actually pretty interesting to me when the main character, Alex, wasn't in his woe-is-me mood (which was very often. Too often. Almost unbearably often.).
My main complaint with this book is how utterly upset and despondent Alex is for the entire book. We get it, your wife died and you're sad. You're really about to make your attitude everyone else's problem? I also have complaints about the character of the people he's traveling with. At this point, you think they'd send a better-vetted group out on missions like this.
The struggles in the book were very real, but I was almost too distracted by Alex's feelings to feel any compassion for any of their situations. That was frustrating during the read bc I really wanted to feel for them, but just couldn't.
This book is a close look at humans in extreme and unknown conditions, and for that, the book is a 2. I was missing anyone or any thing, thought, or feeling to root for. I could have had about fifty pages less of self-pity.
My main complaint with this book is how utterly upset and despondent Alex is for the entire book. We get it, your wife died and you're sad. You're really about to make your attitude everyone else's problem? I also have complaints about the character of the people he's traveling with. At this point, you think they'd send a better-vetted group out on missions like this.
The struggles in the book were very real, but I was almost too distracted by Alex's feelings to feel any compassion for any of their situations. That was frustrating during the read bc I really wanted to feel for them, but just couldn't.
This book is a close look at humans in extreme and unknown conditions, and for that, the book is a 2. I was missing anyone or any thing, thought, or feeling to root for. I could have had about fifty pages less of self-pity.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Grief
Moderate: Violence, Medical trauma, Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Suicidal thoughts
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Death, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Murder
Minor: Panic attacks/disorders
dark
emotional
informative
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
the visuals are GORGEOUS and really visceral. I am excited to learn more about the world in future books cause what the fuck is happening with that giant antenna
Content Warnings
Moderate: Gore, Violence, Blood
Minor: Vomit
challenging
dark
emotional
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
“Suffering was its own form of absolution.”
Not gonna lie—switching from an 880 page sci-fi epic to a 300ish grief journey, while traveling to a mysterious beacon hole on a new planet, was not the turn I expected for Paolini within the Fractalverse. Yet Fractal Noise is not about this weird hole; it's the journey to get to it, similar to Frodo's to Mount Doom. The journey wreaks havoc on the protagonist and his peers, but they were already broken before the trip began. Overall, FN is a relatively basic grief story, but once you throw in this planetary hole and possible aliens, the chaos starts to set in.
“What possible evidence do you have that this universe is anything but cruel and heartless?”
Alex Crichton is an interesting choice as a lead. His internal monologue is incredibly negative, and he’s constantly berating himself for his life changing mistakes. Plenty of readers will find him off-putting for those reasons. You would think a xenobiologist would be the strictest scientist on an expedition to find alien evidence, but we see pretty early on that his grief has made his work subpar. It’s hard to root for him, and if this book had been any longer, I probably would have begun disliking him. Alex doesn’t realize it at the time, but this trip will bring some version of healing—for better or for worse, you’ll have to read to find out. When leads are stripped to their very bones, physically and emotionally, I think their reactions and decisions are the most fascinating and that’s what we have here.
“It was unfair… that you no longer got to name your own discoveries. Not if you were working for a company or government, that was.”
Lastly, I want to touch on the physical formatting of this book. Paolini disrupts the flow of the book to not only physically jar our senses like the characters but also write a better story. You will notice very quickly the relevance of the “thud.” As you delve deeper, the thud's frequency increases, mocking not only the characters sanity but the readers too. You’ll be annoyed: why is this thud taking page space when I could be learning other things about the characters, the environment? The thud even cuts off characters/their thoughts mid-sentence to physically represent the disruption. In college, I lived near a military base that would do drills where we could feel the ground shake once every month or so, and that slight vibration of the ground immediately became my point of connection to the thud in Fractal Noise. It made me think of a metronome on steroids because it is not only affecting your ears but also the physicality of your body. When I mentioned the psychological changes to the characters earlier—the thud is the worst and biggest problem for the physical terrain because the repetition and intensity affect the characters.
“Alex thought he was beginning to understand why so many religions started in the desert. The emptiness of the land did something to a person’s brain, focused it on the strangeness of one’s inner life.”
I’m hoping someone can give a good breakdown between Fractal Noise and To Sleep in a Sea of Stars because I do not remember how these books connect. It’s been too long since I read the latter, so I essentially treated these books as separate entities. For time purposes, Alex’s experience takes place in 2234 whereas Kira’s is twenty-three years in the future in 2257. I assume the alien relic in TSIASOS is from the same civilization that brought us this giant hole that is sending a message out into space, but again, my memory is not the best for this series. That’s the closest I can come up with in terms of how they connect. Also, I want to know if Alex or any of his experiences/crew members are ever mentioned in TSIASOS. I’ll probably have to comb through my copy for their possible names, but I’d LOVE for someone to find the answer for me haha.
“Everyone’s life is on the line… Do you know what will happen if they attack us? We’ll lose. Humanity will lose. All gone. Dead. Planets blasted bare. Men, women, children, and the screaming, the screaming.”
Now I have plenty of spoilery thoughts to include in this review, so I’ll be posting those here after its release date.
“It’s all so beautiful.”
Thank you to Tor Books for sending me a review copy! All thoughts and opinions are my own.
Not gonna lie—switching from an 880 page sci-fi epic to a 300ish grief journey, while traveling to a mysterious beacon hole on a new planet, was not the turn I expected for Paolini within the Fractalverse. Yet Fractal Noise is not about this weird hole; it's the journey to get to it, similar to Frodo's to Mount Doom. The journey wreaks havoc on the protagonist and his peers, but they were already broken before the trip began. Overall, FN is a relatively basic grief story, but once you throw in this planetary hole and possible aliens, the chaos starts to set in.
“What possible evidence do you have that this universe is anything but cruel and heartless?”
Alex Crichton is an interesting choice as a lead. His internal monologue is incredibly negative, and he’s constantly berating himself for his life changing mistakes. Plenty of readers will find him off-putting for those reasons. You would think a xenobiologist would be the strictest scientist on an expedition to find alien evidence, but we see pretty early on that his grief has made his work subpar. It’s hard to root for him, and if this book had been any longer, I probably would have begun disliking him. Alex doesn’t realize it at the time, but this trip will bring some version of healing—for better or for worse, you’ll have to read to find out. When leads are stripped to their very bones, physically and emotionally, I think their reactions and decisions are the most fascinating and that’s what we have here.
“It was unfair… that you no longer got to name your own discoveries. Not if you were working for a company or government, that was.”
Lastly, I want to touch on the physical formatting of this book. Paolini disrupts the flow of the book to not only physically jar our senses like the characters but also write a better story. You will notice very quickly the relevance of the “thud.” As you delve deeper, the thud's frequency increases, mocking not only the characters sanity but the readers too. You’ll be annoyed: why is this thud taking page space when I could be learning other things about the characters, the environment? The thud even cuts off characters/their thoughts mid-sentence to physically represent the disruption. In college, I lived near a military base that would do drills where we could feel the ground shake once every month or so, and that slight vibration of the ground immediately became my point of connection to the thud in Fractal Noise. It made me think of a metronome on steroids because it is not only affecting your ears but also the physicality of your body. When I mentioned the psychological changes to the characters earlier—the thud is the worst and biggest problem for the physical terrain because the repetition and intensity affect the characters.
“Alex thought he was beginning to understand why so many religions started in the desert. The emptiness of the land did something to a person’s brain, focused it on the strangeness of one’s inner life.”
I’m hoping someone can give a good breakdown between Fractal Noise and To Sleep in a Sea of Stars because I do not remember how these books connect. It’s been too long since I read the latter, so I essentially treated these books as separate entities. For time purposes, Alex’s experience takes place in 2234 whereas Kira’s is twenty-three years in the future in 2257. I assume the alien relic in TSIASOS is from the same civilization that brought us this giant hole that is sending a message out into space, but again, my memory is not the best for this series. That’s the closest I can come up with in terms of how they connect. Also, I want to know if Alex or any of his experiences/crew members are ever mentioned in TSIASOS. I’ll probably have to comb through my copy for their possible names, but I’d LOVE for someone to find the answer for me haha.
“Everyone’s life is on the line… Do you know what will happen if they attack us? We’ll lose. Humanity will lose. All gone. Dead. Planets blasted bare. Men, women, children, and the screaming, the screaming.”
Now I have plenty of spoilery thoughts to include in this review, so I’ll be posting those here after its release date.
“It’s all so beautiful.”
Thank you to Tor Books for sending me a review copy! All thoughts and opinions are my own.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Mental illness, Violence, Grief, Murder, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Body horror, Cursing, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Medical content, Gaslighting