Thank you to Netgalley and PanMacmillan And the author for giving me a digital copy to review. I love this book, it is a prequel but you could read this without reading the first book. In this book will follow Alex and find out about his grief after losing Layla. This book is really well written and I look forward to finding out more about this universe

Thank you to NetGalley and Pan Macmillan for supplying me with a digital copy to review.

An intense and at times interpersonally claustrophobic tale of a team in the pursuit of a goal so close, but also just out of reach.

I had not read the first book in the Fractalverse, To Sleep in a Sea of Stars prior, but as Fractal Noise serves as a prequel this never caused an issue.

The book is about the crew of the SLV Adamura that while surveying the planet Talos VII come across a 50 Km wide hole, but this is no natural phenomenon. The hole is so precise it indicates that only an intelligent lifeform could have created it for purposes unknown. The crew decides to investigate and a small team is selected to head down to the surface. They must trek on foot from the lander site to the pit, not wanting to risk contaminating the discovery or the local ecosystem. This journey will test the team's psyches and push them to breaking, as they deal with not only the unknown dangers of the planet but also the ghosts of their pasts that they bring with them.

We follow Alex Crichton, who after the tragic loss of his wife signed up for a survey expedition in a bid to escape his life prior. Pushed on by the memories of his dead wife and a need to try and understand an unforgiving universe. It will lead him to the barren and harsh surface of Talos VII and the possibility of first contact.

While the book deals with the grand ideas of intelligent life and the mysteries of the universe, the real story is more focused on the small team from the Adamura and what they are willing to do and sacrifice in the pursuit of what exactly the hole is and why it drives each of them. The use of the effect of the hole's - THUDS - on the format of the text was a nice way to underline the struggles both external and internal of Alex and create a structure of pacing as the tension builds.

Overall I give Fractal Noise 4 Stars.