Fractal Noise is a 2023 Science Fiction novel by Christopher Paolini, set in the same universe as his 2020 To Sleep in a Sea of Stars, albeit 23 years earlier. It is not quite a prequel, since no characters from TSIASOS appear in this book, but instead fills out one of the many, many Cryptic Background References found in the first novel.
The story follows Alex Chrichton, a xenobiologist suffering from depression, PTSD, and survivor guilt over the recent death of his beloved wife Layla at the claws of the native wildlife of Eidolon, as he signs up for a survey mission aboard the corporate-owned starship Adamura in a vain attempt to outrun his trauma. While mapping the remote Theta Persei system, Adamura stumbles onto an alien megastructure (later dubbed the "Great Beacon") on the planet Talos VII, which happens to be the first unequivocal evidence of a nonhuman civilization. Determined to be the first to study the artifact, Captain Idris organizes an expedition to the planet's surface, although because of adverse weather, they have to land 100 kilometers away from the Beacon and make the rest of the way on foot. Spurred by the memories of Layla (herself a xenobiologist), Alex, along with three others, volunteers to make the grueling trek through the alien landscape, hoping to find some peace for his mind in the process.
The novel contains examples of following tropes:
- Arc Number: Sevens are once again scattered throughout the text, from the 7 zones of distinct environmental conditions surrounding the hole to the 14 alien "turtles" that come to dispose of Pushkin's body and the 7 of them who observe Alex as he reaches the hole during the ending.
- Arc Words: "Thud", referring to the seismic wave produced by the Great Beacon's discharges every 10.6 seconds. The text plays with it typographically, always inserting line breaks before and after every single occurrence of this word to highlight the pervasiveness of the effect. Furthermore, as the expedition nears the Beacon, the thuds get ever more overwhelming, represented by the gradually increasing font sizes the word is typed in, before it is eventually replaced by giant asterisks in the direct proximity of the hole, as the vibrations are more shockwaves than sound at that point.
- Bolivian Army Ending: The novel ends with Alex reaching the edge of the hole, severely injured and alone, and turning back towards the lander. It is left unclear whether he is actually able to return with his injuries, despite his newfound will to live, or whether Chen is still alive at that point.
- Bottle Episode: Compared to To Sleep in a Sea of Stars, this novel is positively tiny. Instead of light years-long FTL jumps, the bulk of the story concerns the ground team's 100 km trek from the landing site to the hole on Talos VII. The page count is also about a third of the previous book, and according to the
Word of God, the story originally started out even smaller, fitting in 15 pages, tops. - Contrasting Sequel Main Character: Alex Chrichton and Kira Navarez are both xenobiologists who come into contact with alien artifacts while surveying a remote planet. However, where Kira is extremely emotionally resilient, managing to process the grief over her fiance's violent death while learning to work with the Soft Blade, becoming a part of Falconi's crew, and ultimately saving humanity, Alex is a man who is broken by his wife's death and so willfully isolates himself from other human beings until after he reaches the Great Beacon.
- Cryptic Background Reference: The Great Beacon of Talos VII was originally mentioned in TSIASOS as the first time humanity has encountered an alien artifact.
- Culture Clash: A bulk of the book's dialogue comprises of the endless arguments between Talia, a religious zealot who views the survival of humanity as her divinely inspired mission, and Pushkin, a hyper-individualistic materialist and hedonist, who firmly refuses to care about anything but himself. Both eventually snap, resulting in their deaths.
- Doomed Contrarian: The Zarian geologist Pushkin starts raising objections (first to Captain Idris, then to Talia) before the crew even discovers the Beacon. It's no surprise he eventually snaps, murders Talia (admittedly in retaliation for her shooting him earlier), and is shot dead by Alex in self-defense.
- Extreme Doormat: Chen, the ground team's chemist, is extremely indecisive and usually either goes with whatever the strongest personality near him tells him to do or defers to someone else.
- Foreshadowing: Alex risks his life and limb (literally) to save Pushkin's life when a "turtle" wrecks his rebreather — despite the facts that a) he quietly hates Pushkin, b) Pushkin had brought it upon himself and endangered the others, and c) he isn't even grateful for the rescue later! This serves as a first indication of Alex's true nature that would eventually pull him out of his grief and depression: he cannot let other people suffer or die, no matter how much he suffers himself.
- In-Universe Catharsis: Just before he reaches the edge of the Beacon, Alex finally watches the recordings of Layla's final moments, taken by her sensory implants, which he has been dreading for months. Contrary to his expectations, Layla's final thoughts were not of rage and terror, but of how beautiful the universe is. This (and the sight of the Adamura passing in orbit overhead) helps him overcome the urge to end his life by jumping into the 30 km deep hole, and to instead realize that there are still things he cares about in this world, such as not letting people (read: Chen) die because of his momentary weakness. With that realization, he turns back towards the lander — cue one final thud, The End.
- Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: One has to question Captain Idris' qualifications, given how he decides that the best team to send exploring an alien megastructure consists of a religious zealot in charge, a hedonistic Commander Contrarian, a traumatized guy with health issues, and an Extreme Doormat, of whom only the last one has no history of massive psychological trauma.
- There Are No Therapists: Apparently, despite all the technological advancements humanity has made (including making themselves The Ageless with STEM shots), no effort whatsoever has been put into systemic psychiatric welfare, as Alex is left to deal with his trauma effectively on his own, Talia never received proper treatment after surviving under a genocidal regime for years during her youth, and whatever Pushkin claims to have lived through also appears largely untreated. All of which comes to bite them in their collective asses when things start going wrong on the expedition.
- The World Is Just Awesome: Layla's final words as she lay dying from the injuries inflicted by a tigermaul, turn out to have been a serene observation of how beautiful her home planet of Eidolon is, despite being a Hungry Jungle Death World that ultimately killed her.
