Written by Christopher Paolini and narrated by Jennifer Hale, this offering into the genre of science fiction includes mysterious planets, alien life forms, and the acceptance of life's difficulties. An intergalactic team on the ship Adamura discoveries a peculiarity in the form of a perfectly symmetrical hole emitting sound on an unexplored planet. There are also giant 'turtles' attending the hole. Some life form that seems to be guarding it, nourishing it, or for some other, unknown reason.

A small, diverse group of explorers descend to investigate. The four who journey to the pit all have different opinions of the trip and bring different pasts that affect their reasons for learning about the giant hole. The story is told primarily from the viewpoint of Alec, who recently lost his wife and is struggling to find a reason to continue living. The team argues every step of the way on their journey. Each member of the group fights an internal struggle with personal demons. Some members of the party lose their battle.

I listened to the audiobook and, while Jennifer Hale did an excellent job of narration, the added sound effects were somewhat distracting.

First off, the audiobook was fantastic. Jennifer Hale is a phenomenal narrator.
On to the book itself, I didn't love this one as much as To Sleep in a Sea of Stars. Part of my problem with this book was that I went into it with the wrong expectations. I was expecting more of To Sleep, and it is a very different book, very different vibes.
It's a very small, contained story. It was a little slow for me, I didn't think it was all that exciting up until the end. The last 25% I was pretty invested and didn't want to stop listening. But the journey before the destination was a little rough for me.
None of the characters were likable, I didn't like any of them. A lot of the drive of the story is these characters being kind of pitted against one another, and I didn't have one that I wanted to root for. I think that maybe that was the point, but it wasn't fun for me to read. I want characters I can latch on to. They don't have to be good people, I just want to like them.
I did think that this book had some kind of cool horror elements that I wasn't expecting. They were well executed and I really liked that aspect of the story. At some points it gave me a little of a Stephen King-vibe in the sense that there's all these outside horrors and terrors but are the villains really the people all along?
Overall, I do think that I would recommend this, but you have to be looking for this specific kind of book. Don't go into it looking for a big space opera adventure. That's what I thought I was getting more of and it's not that at all. It's definitely a book I plan to revisit later on, now that I know what it is, and I think I could get more enjoyment out of it next time. I really did enjoy listening to the audio because the narration was excellent. It's a book I would give a second chance to, but this time it just didn't land for me unfortunately.

This is a content review --commentary about the cover will not be included. I don't think review bombing is the right answer, and that is all I will say.

When a massive hole too perfect to be created naturally appears on the surface of the planet Talos VII, the research team studying the planet may be on the precipice of the ground breaking discovery of intelligent life among the stars. There appears to be no life detectable on the surface of Talos VII, so who put the hole here? What is it's purpose? And most importantly...are they still around? The next logical move is to send a research team down to investigate the mysterious maw surface-side, only to find out it is some kind of massive speaker, pounding out EMP (electro-magnetic pulse) blasts into space that would immediately disable any vehicles sent to the hole. Fractal Noise follows Alex, a xenobiologist, as he and a team of 3 others traverse the unforgiving surface of Talos VII --but that's not the only thing they are up against...

Fractal Noise is a prequel novel (classified as Fractalverse #0.5) to Paolini's bestseller To Sleep in a Sea of Stars which debuted in 2020 as Paolini's first adult novel. I didn't really have any expectations going into this, but I did not expect the tense and stressful existential crisis and grief that was waiting for me. There is a lot to be said about how we as people cope after the loss of someone dear to us, and the way those things can haunt us --questions of higher power and what comes next, morality, and what all of it means in light of other intelligent species. Fractal Noise is wider commentary on these types of issues than just a new planet space opera.

This novel, while not very long, is not a particularly light read. I found that after I finished it I had to take a little time to recover. The world building was very interesting, and the repetitive blasts from the hole added to the building tension between teammates and internal struggles. I really enjoyed the novel overall, and got through it in one day. Thank you to Macmillan Audio for the advance copy of the audiobook, and Tor Publishing group for the physcial edition. Jennifer Hale is phenomenal and all the additional sound effects and acting make it an incredibly immersive and engaging audio experience, I highly recommend it.

Fractal Noise is a pretty straightforward science fiction novel and one that I sincerely enjoyed reading. If you like science fiction, this one is one for you. Since it is the prequel of To Sleep in a Sea of Stars you don't need to be worried about reading that absolute unit of an 800 page book first to enjoy this one, and can easily use this one as a stepping stone into the Fractalverse.

Fractal Noise releases TODAY 5/16/23

Check me out on Instagram @books_boards_and_brews and @themarriagestoriespod
Book Review:
Fractal Noise (Fractalverse #0.5)
Written by Christopher Paolini
Read by Jennifer Hale
Book 112/200
Genre: Sci-Fi
Format: Audiobook, ARC
Pages: 240
Published: 2023
Rating: 8.5/10

Thank you to NetGalley, Macmillan Audio, and Christopher Paolini for this audio-arc in exchange for an honest review.

Back-Cover Blurb:
On the seemingly uninhabited planet Talos VII:a circular pit, 50 kilometers wide.
Its curve not of nature, but design.
Now, a small team must land and journey on foot across the surface to learn who built the hole and why.
But they all carry the burdens of lives carved out on disparate colonies in the cruel cold of space.
For some the mission is the dream of the lifetime, for others a risk not worth taking, and for one it is a desperate attempt to find meaning in an uncaring universe.
Each step they take toward the mysterious abyss is more punishing than the last.
And the ghosts of their past follow.

Fractal Noise is an exciting return to Paolini's Fractalverse. The first entry, "To Sleep In A Sea Of Stars" was a bit of a mixed bag. It had some neat ideas, but the pacing was all over the place. It probably could have done with a few hundred fewer pages. Fractal Noise, on the other hand, significantly benefits from the shorter page count. Fractal Noise is a tight and exciting Sci-Fi tale that had me gripped throughout. This story about scientific exploration, quickly becomes a story of survival in a hostile environment. It definitenly reminded me a bit of the movie "Pitch Black" and I really enjoyed this read. Jennifer Hale did a fantastic job narrating the audiobook and was a fantastic choice for this book.

Thank you NetGalley, Tor and Macmillan for an ARC of this audiobook for an honest review.

This book shows why sci-fi is my favorite genre. The plot of this book is about a 4 person crew on a desolate alien planet going to investigate a giant black hole. That's the plot, but that's not what the book is really about.
It's about the journey, it's about the characters and the personal trauma they bring with, it's about religion/philosophy, and why we keep moving forward in the face of such hardships, major wounds, exhaustion, being worn down by the wind and the constant noise.
The writing is fantastic and the audio brings it to life with great narration, character accents, music, and the constant Thud of the fractal noise.
I can't wait to meet the author this Saturday!

Thank you to Drew Kilman at MacMillan for reaching out with an audio ARC NetGalley widget! I can't even express how excited I was about a prequel to To Sleep in a Sea of Stars and I was disappointed when I wasn't able to get an eARC copy. Thank you again! As always, my thoughts are my own and my review is honest.

Alex, a xenobiologist reeling from the recent loss of his wife, finds himself on a ship that is about the make first contact with... something. Something that left a perfectly round hole where no other signs of life exist. When Alex volunteers for the landing party, he has no idea what's about to unfold or what danger awaits him and his three landing party members.

Oh, and by the way: THUD.

The perfectly round hole is pulsing with an eerie, increasingly deafening thud.

I can't speak to any added material in the print/eBook edition, but if you listen to the end of the audiobook, you'll be treated to a brief interview with Paolini about the origin of this book and his writing process. This story was conceived long ago, way before To Sleep got its publishing deal, but it's clear that this is the spark that eventually turned into some of the alien elements in the lengthy 2020 novel. You won't see any familiar characters, and you won't get any firmly defined answers, but you'll be left with a sense that you've been given a glimpse under the hood at what happened before Kira encountered the Soft Blade.

The audiobook is narrated by Jennifer Hale, once again, and once again her performance is spectacular! Hale is a master of character voices, so each character sounds very distinct in a way that few other narrators achieve. One could be forgiven for thinking more than one narrator read the dialogue! The Fractal Noise audiobook also features a small collection of songs composed and sung by Hale, and even at the rushed speeds I'm used to listening to audiobooks on, they sounded beautiful.

If To Sleep in a Sea of Stars was one of the best books you've read this decade like it was for me, this one probably won't compare, but it has a lot of merit in its own right. This is a dark, gritty horror story set in space with a tantalizing element of mystery woven in. It's suspenseful, gory, heartbreaking, and captivating. It's a solid 4 stars for me, and I absolutely recommend this to both fans of To Sleep and to fans of dark SFF in general.

This book can be read independently of To Sleep in a Sea of Stars, as well. It doesn't matter it you read it first, second, farther into your Fractalverse journey, or if you never read the rest of the series. If this is your introduction to Paolino as a science fiction author, though, please don't stop here!

An important note before I go: The average rating on Goodreads, and I imagine other places once retail listings go live and accept reviews, is artificially low. The print publisher, Tor, has chosen to use AI generated artwork for the cover, and advocates are review-bombing the book with 1-star ratings. While I'm not the biggest fan of AI art replacing illustrators like myself either, and I know Paolini didn't want an AI cover, leaving fake 1-star reviews on a book only hurts the author (who had no say in the final cover.)

If you liked The Martian by Andy Weir and Life of Pi by Yann Martel, I would strongly recommend checking out Fractal Noise by Christopher Paolini! It is a spiritual journey encapsulated in a hard science fiction story about a man who has just lost his partner—and with her, his will to live—setting out on a mission with crew-members who hate each other.

I would particularly recommend the audiobook produced by MacMillian Audio and read by Jennifer Hale. Although the book itself was beautiful and included illustrations at section header of the story, the audiobook was incredibly immersive due to the sound effects. I doubt I would have enjoyed and been as immersed in the story as I was had I not primarily listened to the audiobook due to the incredible sound effects included on the track. A large part of the story centers around a recurrent noise, and it was much more impactful being able to hear this sound!

Before concluding, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the AI generated art on the cover. Although I personally believe AI generated art is unethical, I think that sci-fi—a genre which commonly explores the ethics of technological advancement—provides the perfect means of discourse on this topic. Science fiction has often predicted futures with AI, and books like Fractal Noise have the unique capacity to explore how we preserve humanity going forward.

Thanks to Tor and NetGalley for providing me the arc in exchange for an honest review!

I might edit my review to add some spoiler-filled analysis once the book has been out for a bit because I already look forward to discussions about the themes in this book!

An excellent, gripping thriller, that takes some clever artistic liberties, and with a dash of genuine creativity - that seems to have come from the author’s dreams (as per his note in the Afterword section at the end), manages to weave a story that holds your attention. For the most part.

The plot deals with First Contact, and while the book is not quite a “Project Hail Mary”, it is more similar to what a better written “Sphere”, the Crichton classic, would be. After a brief introduction to the crew of the main star ship, the story nestles down with four main characters, who each have their own crosses to bear while trying to make their mission a success. In all fairness though, they don’t really have a good, or basically any, definition of what success would look like for such a mission. They are supposed to explore the anomaly, that later gets named The Beacon, but they are not technologically equipped nor mentally prepared to handle an actual First Contact.

It is good then, that the actual writing is relatively light on actual alien tech and contact. There is the satisfying sprinkle of futuristic technology throughout the narrative, and while there are parts that seem a bit incredulous, the end result is tenable. Most impressive is the outright brutal experience of the exploration itself, that - rather fittingly - gets increasingly fantastic, cruel, unreal and self-destructive as the team continues to approach the anomaly over and across its seven concentric ringed zones. They all begin to lose their grip on reality and rationality, as they progress towards the hole.

At this time, I must admit I heard rather than read the book, and the audiobook is brilliantly produced and executed, complete with a novel soundtrack that includes the ominous “thud”, that is peppered - thankfully not at each 10.6 seconds (!), but - at various cleverly well timed points throughout the narrative. That sound too becomes progressively louder and more ominous as you approach the inexorable climax, and ratchets up the tension even further.

Another excellent aspect of the audiobook is radio static that’s added to the soundtrack whenever the characters have their audio transmissions disrupted and distorted, and that makes for an absolutely brilliant listening experience. I’m sure it’s written that way, but the smart sound production manages to convey an actual conversation that is warbled and you are able to understand only every fifth word… and that too not entirely or clearly. At times, all the words in the transmission are overlaid with static, so that you hear only static. You are aware the conversation is getting cloaked there, but you can’t make out any of the actual words - think of a badly tuned AM radio station! Sheer pleasure!

Having heaped all those praises though, I must point out there are sections of the story that seemed to drag a bit - like the theological arguments between Pushkin and Talia. While I can see how it lays the groundwork for what comes later, I felt it took a little too much space. Also, while it is clearly a cathartic journey of grief for Alex, the story lets him wallow a little too much, so that eventually he has our sympathy - and not much else.

All in all though, in my opinion the audiobook version more than makes up for any and all of those shortcomings, and will leave you haunted and restless. I bet you’ll imagine hearing the “thud” long afterwards.

Definitely recommended!

Thanks to NetGalley, Tor Books and the Author for providing an advance copy of the audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

I was provided an audio ARC of this book via the publisher through Netgalley, all opinions are my own. Thank you to Macmillan Audio for providing me an audio ARC. Jennifer Hale once again did an amazing job with the narration. Her ability to voice each of the characters uniquely shows her talent for voice acting, and we get a glimpse of her musical talent as well in this book as she sings in this installment. If you aren't a fan of sound effects in this book, this might not be the book for you. This has a thudding noise that is present throughout the book that I thought added to the storyline, because it makes sense to what's happening on the planet and to the characters. In my opinion it really did add to the experience, but it is also going to annoy some readers and be a turn off. There is a point to the thudding an it puts you in the moment and emotional state with the characters. There is also some music and other sound effects as the chapters transition, which some listeners love and others very much dislike.

This is a prequel novel to To Sleep in a Sea of Stars, which you do no have to read first. I feel you can read them in either order, they are set in the same universe but not so closely connected that you have to read one before the other. I loved To Sleep, and I think if you enjoyed that you will like Fractal Noise as well. This also has a bit of The Martian vibes to it, but there is a group of characters isolated on the planet not just one person. While this is a sci-fi, space opera it is so much more than that. It explores grief, existence, faith, and one's ability to keep going when it doesn't feel like there is anything left to live for. It is so much more than a science fiction story on a far away planet that might hold untold secrets. I thought the world building was done well and the character dynamics really came through. I do wish we had gotten a little more back story on the characters, but we mainly get to know them from main character Alex's point of view and Alex himself.

This follows xenobiologist Alex and a crew of scientists as they investigate a strange anomaly on Talos VII, an uninhabited planet. The anomaly appears to be a giant hole in the ground emitting a pulse every 10 seconds. The larger ship can't land for safety reasons so the smaller crew lands and loads up their gear with a plan to walk to the hole, taking samples as they would on any other mission to discover what they can about the planet. The closer they get the 4 person crew suffers setback after setback, but they are determined to reach their goal. With every step closer they get the more dangerous the mission becomes.

As with To Sleep there is a nice glossary that Hale narrates at the end to help you with terminology
that would probably be more helpful in the written text but it was nice to listen to after the fact to put some things in context. The author also recorded a nice note about the book and the writing process for this book. I always enjoy when those are included as an added bonus.

Overall I enjoyed this journey and exploration into the mysteries of the universe. I'm looking forward to Paolini's future works in this universe and others.

I’ve been anxiously awaiting the release of Fractal Noise by Christopher Paolini, eager to explore more of the Fractalverse. Set in the same world as New York Times and USA Today bestseller To Sleep in a Sea of Stars, and once again narrated by the talented Jennifer Hale, this prequel (of sorts) examines the first alien anomaly humankind finds among the stars.

Set twenty-three years before the events of TSIASOS, Fractal Noise is a stand alone novel that explores the excitement and fears that come with the possibility of first contact. For one man, examining the alien anomaly is a desperate attempt to find meaning in an uncaring universe.

Having lost the love of his life to a brutal attack by native fauna on a colonized planet, xenobiologist Alex Crichton is trying to escape his past in the far reaches of the stars, doing the bare minimum to make it day by day. When the anomaly forces him to choose between hiding from his duties as the crew’s expert or joining the landing team and becoming a reliable member of a team once again, only the knowledge that his late wife would absolutely want to be part of the landing team pushes Alex onward. Everything he does is in her memory. Throughout the book, we catch glimpses of their lives together, and it’s a vivid torment to Alex throughout his brutal experience on the planet’s surface.

In the author’s comments at the end of the book, Mr. Paolini said he didn’t want Fractal Noise to be nihilistic, and that he focused his rewrites on making it less so; I’m not sure he succeeded. From beginning to end, Fractal Noise has a very depressing, dark mood to it in which the characters and the readers are forced to wonder what the point of it all is. There are also religious debates throughout which created tension, but felt a bit forced.

Fractal Noise is ultimately a story about a man struggling with apathy in the wake of loss. Grueling circumstances and physical pain force Alex’s mind to relive his past, and we follow two timelines through to their inevitable conclusions. While the ending did surprise me, it didn’t give me enough resolution to make it matter. Alex decides to save Chen, but does the chemist recover? Does Alex recover, or choose to kill himself after all? Whether they all died or all lived, I couldn’t see a happily-ever-after from this one, but once two team members died, it all became too dark to see any kind of light from any kind of ending. And as it was, the ending was indeed very hazy gray, being neither positive nor negative. I wish I could say Alex’s choice to live - to save Chen - was a high point, but it’s only an attempt. We don’t know if he succeeds.

In the end, while I loved Ms. Hale’s narration, I’m not sure the book is one I’ll ever reread. I read TSIASOS four times - once again before reading Fractal Noise - but this story doesn’t have the same engagement. I will read future Fractalverse novels, however, in the hope that Mr. Paolini will return to the humor and wonder of TSIASOS.

3.5 stars
First off, the audiobook for this book is fantastic. The narrator is amazing, does great accents, and really made the book come alive. There were sound effects and everything. And once the group got down onto the planet, they heard a big thump every 10 seconds or so, and every once in a while the audiobook would do a big thump which was kind of menacing and made my heart race.
The characters were all ok, no one really stood out as being a favorite. The main character Alex had lost his wife. I don't particularly like the "poor me, my spouse has died" route with a character. I can't say this is not how I would act if my spouse died, but I felt like it didn't have much to do with the story besides making Alex very indifferent to everything except wanting to be on the 4 person crew to find out what was in the hole because that's what Layla would have wanted to do. The other 3 people on the small mission on planet were ok as well. Talia and Pushkin were very outspoken and then Alex and Chen were quiet. We don't really get to know anyone else because most of the story revolves around the 4 person crew that goes on the planet.
Like I said most of this story is based on the planet Talos VII. The crew of the Adamura finds this anomaly on the planet, a very big perfectly round hole that they can't see the bottom of. They decide to investigate by sending the 4 person crew down, but they cannot be sent close to the hole because of the conditions on the planet, so they have to touch down far away and walk. A lot of this book is just them trying to get to the hole. There are some action packed scenes though. The ending is also quite action packed and really kept my attention.
Definitely one to pick up if you have read To Sleep in a Sea of Stars or generally like space sci-fi!

3.5 stars rounded up

This was an experiment and I was the subject.

Hypothesis! Can a bad story be saved by a good audiobook narrator?

This is a question I’ve often asked and this was an attempt to answer it. To be fair: I don’t know if this story is fundamentally bad. That’s up to someone else to argue. I do know that I genuinely don’t enjoy the way Paolini writes sci-fi. I’m so much less interested in the head-heavy, technical-lore-leaning, human-centric crew, geez-I-want-to-make-you-care-about-the-science version of science fiction.

I also think Jennifer Hale is one of the most talented voice actors on planet earth, and I’d listen to her read a grocery list. This is not an exaggeration: I’ve spent 500+ hours of my life listening to her voice. She is the only reason I made it through To Sleep In a Sea of Stars and afterwards I said: thanks but no thanks. I know I don’t like these books, and I don’t read books I don’t like.

And then Macmillan Audio got her again. For this dang prequel!!!

If you’re looking for a review for like, the plot? The writing style? Please check down the hall. I don't think it's fair for me to offer commentary on something I knew from the start wasn't for me. I'm not gonna be the guy who hates crab and then goes to the crab restaurant and orders crab and goes "mmmmmm yeah so I didn't like this crab."

I’m here to provide one type of feedback: Jennifer Hale is such a talented narrator that not only did I pick up this book, but I finished it and gave it 4 stars. I've told everyone I know about it. This is more than high praise. This is a literal recommendation. I picked up a book I DIDN’T WANT TO READ just because Hale was the narrator. TOR: sign her to everything you possibly can!!!!

Additional audio feedback: this book is essentially about a noise (a fractal noise, if you will) and the way the audiobook version created and utilized the noise was 100/10. Extremely creative. I also felt like I was going insane. Gold star to the production team.

Thanks to Macmillan Audio and Netgalley for access to this audio ARC!!

I originally got this book because of how much I liked To Sleep in a Sea of Stars, but I was sorely disappointed. This book had a slow start for the first 20%. Only afterwards did it finally pick up and I saw some familiar elements from the first book. After that, the plot picked up and it was hard to put down in a sort of sadistic way. While the ending was a whirlwind that was nothing short of confusing, it was quite entertaining. Though it didn't look like it from the beginning, I found myself enjoying the ending and the final message. As a whole, I found this book to be quite different from its predecessor and I would only recommend it if you have the heart to sit through some lengthy setting descriptions and a lot of context.

I loved To Sleep in a Sea of Stars so I jumped at the chance to read another Paolini science fiction.
It was quite different but I liked it. Rather than the space action we got in To Sleep, Fractal Noise is a quieter but no less entertaining story.
The crew is exploring a strange new planet and it’s a journey to the center of the fractal noise signal that starts to affect the crew.
Jennifer Hale is incredible as our narrator, bringing life to the great cast of characters.
Loved it!

Christopher Paolini wrote another wonderful book! Fractal Noise was a carefully crafted Sci-Fi masterpiece with symbolism and depth that kept me hooked until the end. In fact, I finished days ago and I’m still processing the story. There’s a lot to contemplate with this book, and a lot of enjoyment in the pages with a propulsive plot and tension between the characters as they face many challenges.

The ending is powerful…but you’ll have to read to know what happens.

I listened to the audiobook, which was very well done. I listened at 1.5x speed (1.75x is my normal, but with all the world building and detail, I savored this one at a slower speed). Paolini read his own acknowledgements at the end, so definitely don’t skip that!

Thank you NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for this advanced audio copy. I really enjoyed this book!

You're likely interested in reading Fractal Noise because of the main plot of the novel, which is exploring a planet with a strange giant hole. But you should know that under the surface, this is a book about grief and mourning. It's about the pain and sheer amount of time it takes to get over the death of a loved one while cleverly juxtaposing that with the trauma of walking days with heavy equipment and significant injuries over an unforgiving landscape just to look more closely at a hole.

I listened to the audiobook, so the "noise" mentioned in the title is created with a low throbbing sound effect. At first you don't notice it, then it begins to increase in frequency and you start to see how the exploration crew could be so drastically affected by this sound alone. The noise also seems to describe the constant chatter in our minds. What we think about when we have a lot of time by ourselves. Do we relive happy memories or let the ghosts of our past haunt us?

Overall, an interesting story and a great narrator. At times I wanted more space stuff and less time in the main character's head, but, in the end, it worked.

I really wanted to love this book because I LOVE The Inheritance Cycle and deeply enjoyed To Sleep in a Sea of Stars.

Let me start by saying I’m a huge fan of both Paolini and Sci-Fi, so to find myself bored and almost depressed by this book in the first 30% was very disappointing, but I refused to give up because something amazing must be in the horizon… there wasn’t. This book is slow, depressing, and encapsules everything that someone would hate about going to space, without any of the fun or wonder from exploring new places.

The book was still very well written, Paolini is a talented author after all, and the audiobook had amazing narration, although I still find it odd that we were in a male head the whole time and the narration was a female voice, but she did a stupendous job. The sound effects also helped the story along so I’m not sure how much boring reading this on paper would have been.

At the end of the day I expected more and I leave wanting Murtagh more than ever, because fantasy is were his strengths lay, or so I hope.

Fractal Noise (Fractalverse #0.5)
by Christopher Paolini
An amazing story from a remarkable author. Per his own account the book comes from a second part of a dream. The gripping struggle of man against nature, teaches readers many lessons of theology, science, and relationships. I am glad that he added the relationship trials in the story about love loss, and grief. The personals struggles of the four characters on the alien planet shows their conflict against the unending trial of the surface, to their inter personal relationships. This shows our personal struggle between parts of our selves, each struggling figure a part of one persons personality in conflict in thought and deed. The book is a remarkable catharsis of grief, and finding your own hope. Christopher stated in the notes that he would not create a book that would take hope from the reader. This story although tragic shows how we find balance and personal focus from facing our own beliefs, finding balance, and working for a goal, even if its just one step at a time.
I see this book as a great book to share with middle schools students, showing theology, and diverse philosophical debates without causing conflict of the students religion or family beliefs. Paolini has created a universe that shows the scientific, theological and political struggles we all have without invalidating our current world politics, and theology.
The audible book is phenomenal form the reader presentation, to the music, to the repetitive haunting sound of the surface of the planet.

Despite my familiarity with Christopher Paolini's works, I still find myself surprised by the unexpected twists and turns in his stories. This was particularly true for Fractal Noise, which shares the same universe as To Sleep In A Sea Of Stars. While I was initially anticipating a politically charged and action-packed adventure, the novel instead delves into more philosophical themes, pondering our purpose in the universe, our interactions with other sentient beings, and our place in the cosmos. Despite this shift in tone and focus, I was thoroughly captivated by Fractal Noise from start to finish.

At first glance, Fractal Noise may give the impression of a seemingly straightforward tale, centered around the discovery of a sizable and unnaturally perfect hole on an apparently deserted planet and the strange signal that seems to be emitting from it. However, it really seems to me like the story is more about the characters themselves than anything else.  Within the pages of Fractal Noise, Christopher Paolini has created a story where the depth and complexity of Alex and the other characters truly shine, propelling the story forward. As they are forced to land far from the enigmatic hole and undertake a demanding journey on foot, the characters become the driving force behind the plot. This character-driven approach really makes Fractal Noise stand out when compared to a lot of the science fiction books I've read so far this year.

I must confess though that I might be slightly biased in expressing my enjoyment of this book. I opted for the audiobook format and was pleasantly surprised to discover that it was narrated by the extraordinary Jennifer Hale. For those unfamiliar with her work, Jennifer Hale stands as one of the most exceptional voice artists of the past 25+ years, lending her talents to portray some of the most iconic characters in television and video games. Her narration of Fractal Noise was nothing short of fantastic. In fact, knowing that she was the narrator alone would have been reason enough for me to choose this book.

In summary, my overall experience with Fractal Noise was immensely enjoyable. From the compelling storyline to the remarkable narration by Jennifer Hale, every aspect of the book left a lasting impression on me. I found myself completely absorbed in the characters' journeys and captivated by Hale's exceptional talent as a narrator. Without hesitation, I would highly recommend this book to anyone in search of a captivating read or a mesmerizing audiobook experience. It is a great addition to the genre and I can't wait to read more in Paolini's Fractalverse.

 I received a free copy of this in exchange for an honest review.

Fractal Noise (Fractalverse #0.5)
Fractal Noise by Christopher Paolini
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

After loving To Sleep in a Sea of Stars, it was really something of a no-brainer to want to head toward a prequel.

Ah, but this is where I'm forced to warn you that you must manage your expectations a bit. If you wanted another To Sleep in a Sea of Stars, you might be slightly disappointed.

If, on the other hand, you wanted the tragic expedition, with all the feel of a number of classic novels that deal with danger, perseverance, and the desire to DISCOVER something truly great, then this is a very fine SF novel. This is a first contact novel without true resolution, a lot of mishaps and a long trudge within an unknowable alien find, and wonderful characterizations.

Again, it isn't TSiaSoS, but IF you were of a mind to simply trust the author, reading this one first and then moving onto the primary novel WOULD give a lot of depth and slow-build to both.

I definitely recommend. The primary novel transitions perfectly. Or rather, read both together for the sense of a VERY long, excellent story.