Welcome to my blog! I enjoyed my week’s break and have now uploaded this post about the books I have read. Regulars will know that I have been taking comfort in rereading some of the works of my favourite author, Guy Gavriel Kay. Last week, I decided that I was ready to try something new and so I chose this book…

The book was Fractal Noise by Christopher Paolini, #0 Fractalverse series. I read #01, To Sleep in a Sea of Stars, back in 2021 and found it interesting and intriguing, if extremely long, (here is my post about it) so I thought that this would be worth reading.

Here is the blurb…

“July 25th, 2234: The crew of the Adamura discovers the Anomaly.

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.”

This is my response on Goodreads…

Fractal Noise by Christopher Paolini
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Having read Paolini’s gargantuan book To Sleep in a Sea of Stars, I was pleased to come across another in the series. As this is a prequel I was interested to see what the author would do. Thankfully, this book is a lot shorter!

The plot is a classic travel story, but one set on a planet with an extremely hostile environment: a dry, rocky desert plain with a powerful headwind. A small group of astronauts attempt to walk, dragging their equipment, towards a gigantic alien created hole in the ground. The tension between the travellers, aggravated by accidents, mistakes, malfunctions and aggressive behaviour is very well written and builds steadily towards the final ending. The noise made by the hole punctuates the writing and the increasing volume suffered by the astronauts is shown by increasing the size of the font. I could easily imagine how dreadful something like that would feel!

There is some controversy about the cover (AI) which has affected some of the book’s ratings, which seems to me to be quite unfair to the author.

View all my reviews

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I have now returned to another GGK book, which I have almost finished. After that, I will choose a book from my library queue.

Happy reading to you all!

Love and best wishes,

Anne 

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