Reviews with content warning for Suicidal thoughts - Fractal Noise

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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bean_7088's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious 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? It's complicated

3.5

Would make an excellent Sci-fi episode.

Oof this was a hard one. I think I really wasn't in the mood for it? I could tell I would like it, but I had to keep pausing and going back and was distracted a lot.. which really ruins the tension.

I feel like if Sleep in a sea of stars was ever adapted into a show, this would make a really great episode or parallel B plot kind of thing.

I also realized that I don't much like the enhanced audio thing much? Aaaand Paolini is fond of Apenicies and whatever and they are torture in audio book. Not as bad at texting chats, but they suck. The whole last hour was just that.

Anyways, I didn't rate it because I didn't know what to do with it. I liked it, but my listening habits ruined it? So
Edit:jk, I hated seeing it without a rating. So I just gave it something appropriate for now.

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that_boi_eliza's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional 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

3.0

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daniparvu's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

2.0

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.

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lazyowl's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

3.5

I went into this book initially not realising it was part of an existing series. This precedes To Sleep in a Sea of Stars, which I've obviously not read. However I did not get the sense I was missing any key information and there wasn't anything that did not make sense.

We find out very early on that the MC is grappling with the death of someone. Although this is set-up as a story about searching for sentient lifeforms, I felt this was more about the struggle to find hope and the will to carry on in the wake of loss. It confronts the heartache of regret, words said and unsaid, all the things we can no longer put right once someone is gone.

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herceia's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

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

1.0

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.

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seasonedreadings's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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ne0n_ange1's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad 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? Yes

4.0

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