It's Happening: Second Fractalverse Book Announced

[masterghandalf]

Literally just stumbled onto this on Tor.com this morning, and when I checked here I was a bit surprised to see that no one had posted this already, so I thought I'd go ahead and break the news. It looks like another Fractalverse book is indeed happening; behold Fractal Noise, coming May 16th, 2023. I'm honestly a bit surprised by this, since To Sleep in a Sea of Stars didn't seem to make all that big of a splash, but it looks like Paolini is determined to go ahead. At the very least, hopefully it will be sporkable. And apparently it's set before To Sleep, rather than a sequel.

There's also a summary, which sounds rather generic to me: 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.

Comments

[epistler]

The sheer cynicism of this is breathtaking.

Executive Editor Will Hinton said “To Sleep in a Sea of Stars opened up a whole new universe for Christopher Paolini to explore, and in Fractal Noise he takes us on a journey to the heart of its terrifying wonder, exposing entirely new and exciting dimensions to this world. I’ve always loved Christopher’s writing, but Fractal Noise really blew me away with his incredible storytelling gifts.”

Case in point. Either this guy has such appallingly bad judgement and taste that he has no business editing anything, let alone being highly placed in a major publishing company, or he's just spewing PR bullshit. Either way it's fucking pathetic and incredibly disrespectful to the reading public. I mean really - there's no way any sane person with the amount of experience they would need to get to this point in their career wouldn't know damn well that Paolini is unpublishable.

Also, "Fractal Noise" is one of the worst titles I ever heard.

[dryaddryagain]

"Also, "Fractal Noise" is one of the worst titles I ever heard."

He's been tweeting #FN, so my money was on Fractal Newt.

[epistler]

...okay, I admit it - it could have been even worse. 😒😫

[dryaddryagain]

Nononono, it could be AWESOME. It's like a newt but you zoom in on its foot and all the toes are more newts! How will our heroes deal??

[epistler]

*a low, menacing growl slowly fills the room*

[torylltales]

Also, "Fractal Noise" is one of the worst titles I ever heard.

It's actually very appropriate, just maybe not in the way Paolini wanted. Noise, in data, is meaningless information that is irrelevant to the data you're trying to decode or analyse. Fractal noise, which keeps repeating the same pattern on any scale, is practically indistinguishable from what we call "white noise".

AKA, a whole lot of meaningless nothing that drowns out the significant information.

That's my prediction for the book: a whole lot of meaningless nothing, where you cannot reasonably distinguish the significant from the insignificant.

[epistler]

Ha, good point. As the song goes,

"If looks could kill
I'd be in trouble by now
Time stands still
When you're around
I gave you all my time
You gave me all your lies
For you to just come around
To say goodbye
Now here we stand
With our hearts in our hands
Squeezing out the lies
All that I hear
Is a message, unclear
What else is there to decide?
All that I'm hearing from you
Is White Noise
Placing yourself
In a world of mistrust
Making excuses -
It's not you it's us
How can something unspoken
Seem so loud?"

https://youtu.be/QskZwT1psEc

[dryaddryagain]

I did a li'l search and could definitely buy him taking the idea from this: https://www.provideocoalition.com/fractal-noise-advanced-analysis-of-after-effects-most-versatile-plugin/

Fractal noise, as an algorithm or technique, is not unique to After Effects. The concept was developed for Hollywood in the early 80s by a remarkable guy called Ken Perlin. In many fields of computer graphics fractal noise is called “Perlin Noise”, and a quick Google search will reveal lots of information on the principle, and how it has been implemented in everything from blockbuster films to computer games. A famous early use of fractal noise was in the terraforming scenes in “Star Trek II”, and Ken Perlin eventually won an Oscar recognising his efforts in 1997. There are a number of websites dedicated to the history of computer graphics, and the landscapes generated with fractal noise for Star Trek II are among the earliest uses of CGI in Hollywood films.

Which seems to be just what you described, but I thought the Hollywood/Star Trek thingy was interesting.

Fractal noise is especially good at generating natural textures such as marble, fire, clouds, woodgrain, water, fabric and more. However it can also be used to generate displacement maps, bump maps and gradient wipes for advanced effects, and the range of textures, patterns and effects you can create is practically endless.