Going on long walks was all the rage (and one of the few things you could do) during the COVID pandemic. And it seems like their long walks have inspired numerous science fiction authors to come out now with books about great walks. In Ascension, Nicholas Binge sends a group of researchers up a mountain to explore the unknown and the strange. The mountain is missing in Fractal Noise - the unknown isn’t and the hike across the deserts of a newly discovered planet ends up being just as dangerous and strenuous as climbing the mountain in Ascension.
Fractal Noise is billed as a prequel to “To Sleep in a Sea of Stars” (2020), a space opera I read a while ago and quite liked. Fractal Noise was published in 2023 - after To Sleep in a Sea of Stars - and there is no real connection between the two stories. You can read them in any order - they really are stand-alone books just situated in the same universe.
In Fractal Noise, mankind has conquered the universe. However - similar to the situation found in Alastair Reynold's Eversion - while life appears to be plentiful, no signs of sentience have been discovered in the vastness of space. Against this backdrop, the crew of the research ship Adamura discovers something unusual: On a small planet in a faraway system they stumble across a perfectly circular and seemingly endlessly deep hole emitting both sound - fractal noise - and radio waves. Clearly this hole is not a natural phenomenon and it will be onto the crew of the Adamura to explore this discovery and to try to identify if the hole it itself represents some form of sentience, is part of an active network of devices, or is merely the leftover of a long-gone civilization.
Four crew members, including the main character, xeno-biologist Alex Crichton, land as close to the hole as possible, but are still set up for a walk across over 100km of rugged terrain to reach the edge of the hole as the noise emitted from the hole prevents any closer landing. The rest of the plot can be summarized as a great but ultimately pointless hike towards the unknown: Faced with wind, the increasing noise coming from the hole (wonderfully represented by “thuds” thrown in to the “thud” story at regular “thud” intervals), increasing radio interference (there are pages where h.lf ..e te.t is mi..i.g), weird turtle-like creatures, and pure exhaustion the research crew faces an existential threat.
For some of the crew that means turning back to faith and believing in some greater goal while for others the hike becomes a fight for survival even at the cost of their crew mates. For Alex Chrichton the journey becomes a way to honor the life of his partner Layla, a fellow exo-biologist who was killed by another planet’s apex predator not so long ago: Alex knows she would have done anything to get to the hole in the interest of science and - against his natural instincts - feels compelled to do the same and, oblivious to conflicts soon breaking out in the team, increasingly loses focus of reality, instead reliving flashbacks of his relationship with Layla as he pushes towards the hole.
Fractal Noise tries to be two things at once: An epic scifi adventure - the hike and the exploration of the origin and nature of the hole - and a character study exploring the conflict between faith and science, the will to survive against all odds, and Alex’ grief for his partner.
Unfortunately, while Fractal Noise is generally a solid story, the book does not excel in either of these categories.
As a scifi adventure, Fractal Noise is a story that is bound to be disappointing: As much as Paolini tries to shroud the future in mystery, it becomes clear relatively quickly that the book will not reveal the grand secrets of the universe. This is about the hike - any insights into the nature of the hole, its origins, and the universe at large will either be spurious or altogether missing.
On the other hand, Paolini’s exloration of human nature - expressed through the contradictions between the religious beliefs and the nihilism of crew members and the pain and suffering of Alex Chrichton feels quite flat: Violence between the crew is signaled pages ahead and as much as Paolini tries to create a connection with Alex, the main character largely stumbles through the landscape immersed in vivid flashbacks that leave no room for imagination but fail to create any meaningful connection to his main character. “Alex thought he was starting to go mad. Maybe he already was.” As readers, we merely see him go mad - but at no point did I feel for his character sinking deeper and deeper into a possibly pointless quest.
This isn’t as bad as it sounds: As a first contact adventure story, Fractal Noise fails to go much beyond a fairly obvious “this is all too much to grasp”. And as a metaphorical journey into the human mind, the story fails to produce any new insights. Fractal Noise is still an entertaining read, however, and Paolini has found a creative way to describe some of the maddening hardship the crew encounter on their journey. If you are looking for a bit more intrigue (although not a much more satisfying resolution) in a first contact story, then try Eversion - but if you have enough time on your hand, Fractal Noise is a nice enough read.