Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'

Fractal Noise by Christopher Paolini

18 reviews

astrangewind's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Fractal Noise is an example of what science fiction should be. Any techno-babble is defined properly in the appendix, and the story doesn't rely on the reader's understanding of math. The science felt realistic and interesting without being overly jargony. The writing style makes the book accessible and interesting.

The plot follows a group of scientists as they make their way towards a big ol' hole on an unoccupied planet, and... that's it. The entire book starts from being in orbit, moves to landing, and then to trekking across the inhospitable plains of a foreign planet. Despite that, I found Fractal Noise to be un-put-down-able. The characterization, the interesting parts of the science, Alex's struggle with himself and losing his wife, the underlying philosophical themes, and the mystery of the hole were compelling. 

I loved that there was an appendix to define in-universe terms, but there is a major spoiler in there ("The Great Beacon"), which bugs me. At the very beginning of the book, a lot of characters are introduced to the reader with some identifying characteristic or another, but most of these characters are not even remotely relevant for the remainder of the book, and it was a lot to follow. Also, the beginning of the book had some weird fatphobia towards Pushkin. (The protagonist referred to people on his planet as "starving gorillas.") I think the book would've been just as good without it. 

Besides those things, which are largely nitpicks, I greatly enjoyed this book and would recommend it to anyone, even people who aren't science fiction fans. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Gore, Death, Medical content, Violence, and Drug use

Minor: Murder, Colonisation, Fatphobia, and Suicidal thoughts

lesejaguar's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief

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

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

Minor: Excrement, Confinement, and Addiction

eliaa's review

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.25

really loved this, only marked down bc of the dead wife backstory fridging and bc I don’t rly like how it ended, but really strong over all

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Murder, Gore, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Self harm, Suicide attempt, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Panic attacks/disorders, Gun violence, and Grief

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Physical abuse, Cursing, Body horror, and Blood

Minor: Domestic abuse and Drug use

amyreh's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Violence and Suicidal thoughts

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

arlettep's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Grief, Gore, and Gun violence

emakay's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Murder, Violence, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Suicidal thoughts, and Blood

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

bean_7088's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Violence, and Death

Spoilers

it's a falling apart space expedition with alien tech that makes them go a little loose in the head, throw in some angry crew and you also get murder! Whoo!