Reviews tagging 'Religious bigotry'

Fractal Noise by Christopher Paolini

7 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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

highmarshal_azure's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Grief

Minor: Body horror, Gore, Violence, and Religious bigotry

artdec0's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Religious bigotry, and Injury/Injury detail

boglord's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective tense slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Drug use, Fatphobia, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Body shaming, Bullying, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Vomit, Religious bigotry, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Colonisation, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: Addiction, Confinement, and Excrement

actuallyahorsereads's review against another edition

dark sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

Is Christopher Paolini okay?

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

tortle's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

This book wants what Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer has.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fatphobia, Suicidal thoughts, and Violence

Moderate: Xenophobia and Religious bigotry

geny444's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.5

I came to read this after reading to sleep in a sea of stars. If you compare this book to hid other work, this will let you down. While not bad, this reads more like a short story about the daily life of a scientific crew. Interesting at times, but not thrilling.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail