FRACTAL NOISE by Christopher Paolini – Review

I received this book for free from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Fractal Noise by Christopher Paolini
Series: Fractalverse #0
Published by Tor Books on May 16 2023
Genres: Adult, Science fiction
Pages: 304
Format: Finished hardcover
Source: Publisher
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The nitty-gritty: Four scientists undertake a dangerous mission to uncover the mysteries of a curious hole, in Christopher Paolini’s tense survival thriller.

Sometimes going into a book with no expectations is a good thing, and that was my experience reading Fractal Noise, a prequel of sorts to Paolini’s To Sleep In a Sea of Stars. I have not read that book yet, so I treated Fractal Noise as its own beast—and ended up really enjoying it. AI cover art aside (if you’re not familiar with the controversy surrounding the cover, go read some of the silly comments on Goodreads), this is a thrilling survival story that had me wincing and biting my nails.

Alex Crichton is part of a survey team on the Adamura, and as the ship’s xenobiologist his job is to study any alien lifeforms the team might encounter. His heart isn’t really in his job, though, since he recently lost his wife Layla, who was attacked and killed on their home planet of Eidolon by a tigermaul, a ferocious cat-like creature.

But while the team is surveying a planet called Talos VII, a strange anomaly is spotted. It appears to be a perfectly round hole in the planet’s surface, something that could not have occurred naturally. Even stranger, the ship’s AI informs them that she’s noticed bursts of high frequency radio waves coming from the hole every ten point two seconds. Captain Idris is curious about the hole and suggests they send a small team down to investigate it, and six crew members are assigned to the operation, including Alex.

But when the crew arrives on Talos VII, they realize their task won’t be an easy one. The hole is miles from the landing site, and they’ll have to traverse it on foot. Fierce winds sweep the planet, making it hard to walk, and in order to survive, they’ll need to take automated sledges with them to carry all their survey equipment, food rations and emergency supplies. And making matters worse is the fact that the four crew members who will be making the journey together don’t even like each other. 

As they set off on their seemingly impossible journey to reach the hole, Alex and his crewmates encounter large, boulder-like creatures that Alex dubs “turtles,” hundreds of them crisscrossing the planet’s surface around the hole. With tempers on edge and harsh weather conditions, they try to avoid the turtles and focus on their goal. But when one of them is severely injured during a turtle attack, they must decide whether to keep going or not. Press on and possibly be the first to make a momentous discovery? Or play it safe and head back to the lander? If only they could agree on what to do…

Fractal Noise is basically a survival story in space, so if you enjoy those types of tales, where the characters meet challenge after challenge as they try to make it to their goal (in this case, the hole), you’ll most likely enjoy this too. I found the idea of a huge, mysterious hole on an unexplored planet fascinating, and I loved the way Paolini described the trek and created tension by stretching out the journey in excruciating ways. The reader feels every step the characters take, and although this could have made the story painfully slow, it actually added a lot of tension and kept me glued to the page. Paolini also repeats the word “thud” throughout their journey, the sound emanating from the hole, and the font gets larger and larger the closer they get. I thought it was a great way to show their progress.

Paolini uses Alex’s state of mind to add an emotional layer to his story. Alex is clearly depressed and is suffering a great deal after the sudden death of his wife, and he also feels guilty because the two were fighting when Layla was killed. Although he doesn’t normally take risks, he thinks Layla would approve of the way he’s doggedly trying to learn the mysteries of the hole, so he feels as if he’s honoring her memory. We learn more about their rocky relationship in flashbacks and the reasons they were fighting, and I ended up having a lot of sympathy for Alex. I also loved the idea of Alex inheriting Layla’s memory implants—which recorded every second of her life—and he struggles with the idea of watching them, afraid of reliving moments that will bring back his crushing depression.

As for negatives, I have to admit the characters really got on my nerves. Alex is accompanied by a Russian named Pushkin, who is rude to everyone. I really hated him! Then there’s Talia, who is chosen as the leader of the team. Little by little, we begin to realize that Talia is a religious zealot with a very specific agenda, and it becomes clear that she doesn’t belong on this mission at all. Chen is the fourth member of the team, a quite man who has a hard time making decisions. I found it hard to believe that a ship’s captain would put these four together on an important and very dangerous mission, especially since they didn’t get along in the first place, but I guess we wouldn’t have the same story if he hadn’t.

The story starts to go off the rails near the end, the closer the crew gets to the hole. Paolini throws in some unexpected violence, and I thought it worked well, showing the worsening mental state of the characters. The ending is rather open-ended, and the author lets the reader fill in the blanks, which I quite liked. He also includes a glossary of terms and a timeline at the end of the book, which I suspect ties in with the events of To Sleep in a Sea of Stars. Color me intrigued, I’m so curious to go back and catch up with this series! Don’t let the haters stop you from reading this book, it was really good.

Big thanks to the publisher for providing a review copy.