Fractal noise by Christopher Paolini

On book reviewing websites across the internet, Fractal Noise by Christopher Paolini has a long list of mixed reviews. Some reviews rate the book highly and provide effusive praise. Other reviews give the novel a low rating. However, unlike most books, the reasons listed are not on the grounds of plot, pacing, world building or even writing style. These poor reviews are mostly about the cover.

Fractal Noise made history by becoming one of the first novels with an AI-generated cover image (or, at least, one of the first novels where this fact has been publicly admitted to by the publishers). Before the book was even released, savvy readers realised that there was something unusual about the cover image. There was also no credit given to a cover designer. Surmising that the cover must be AI-generated, the readers forced a reluctant admission and apology from Tor Publishing Group. However, the cover remained unchanged due to the book’s publishing schedule. This has unfortunately led to sustained backlash against Fractal Noise, something that the novel, compelling and well-written, does not deserve.

Fractal Noise is a prequel to Paolini’s 2020 novel To Sleep in a Sea of Stars, which dealt with humanity’s first contact with an alien race. To Sleep in a Sea of Stars is a story of action and wide-ranging catastrophe. Readers may have been expecting something similar from Fractal Noise. However, in contrast, this prequel is a novel of slow-building dread and tension.

In the year 2234 in a remote planetary system, the crew aboard the spaceship Adamura discovers an anomaly, a huge circular pit on a barren world, that is clearly not of natural or human origins. A group of crew members, including a geologist, astrophysicist and xenobiologist are tasked with landing and journeying on foot towards the anomaly, to determine what it is and why it is there. It is a slow and difficult journey that is made all the worse by the increasing sense of unease the group feels, the closer they get…

Themes: Science Fiction, Thriller, Space, Aliens, Journeys, Grief.

Rose Tabeni