false 49628 25 Cloud Atlas begins in 1850 with Adam Ewing, an American notary voyaging from the Chatham Isles to his home in California. Along the way, Ewing is befriended by a physician, Dr. Goose, who begins to treat him for a rare species of brain parasite. Abruptly, the action jumps to Belgium in 1931, where Robert Frobisher, a disinherited bisexual composer, inveigles his way into the household of an infirm maestro who has a beguiling wife and a nubile daughter. From there we jump to the West Coast in the 1970s and a troubled reporter named Luisa Rey, who stumbles upon a web of corporate greed and murder that threatens to claim her life. And onward, to an inglorious present-day England; to a Korean superstate of the near future where neocapitalism has run amok; and, finally, to a postapocalyptic Iron Age Hawaii in the last days of history. But the story doesn't even end there. The narrative then boomerangs back through centuries and space, returning by the same route, in reverse, to its starting point. Along the way, Mitchell reveals how his disparate characters connect, how their fates intertwine, and how their souls drift across time like clouds across the sky. 1871423 book 17 8 2004 Cloud Atlas total:6620|5:3177|4:2257|3:806|2:265|1:115| 6620 27976 10615 1294 3 19 false false Wed Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Mon May 14 13:56:56 -0700 2007 Mon Aug 20 14:52:01 -0700 2007 more...]]> 5 24 false false Sun Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2006 Wed Nov 28 01:33:57 -0800 2007 Wed Nov 28 01:37:53 -0800 2007 Jonathan Strange & Mr Norell. Actually, I have. What I meant to say is that I've read nothing so marvelously epic since then. As usual, my attempts to explain it to people have met with polite nods and chang...more...]]> 5 11 false false Sat Jul 28 09:50:54 -0700 2007 Thu Aug 02 18:50:53 -0700 2007 more...]]> 5 7 false false Mon Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Tue Dec 18 12:09:10 -0800 2007 Tue Jan 08 13:48:27 -0800 2008 more...]]> 5 9 false false Tue Apr 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sat Dec 08 21:43:09 -0800 2007 Mon Apr 07 07:52:49 -0700 2008 more...]]> 5 6 false false Wed Jun 11 09:23:46 -0700 2008 Wed Jun 11 09:24:04 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 6 false false Sat Apr 01 00:00:00 -0800 2006 Mon Jul 02 08:12:37 -0700 2007 Tue Jul 03 22:09:43 -0700 2007 This is a VERY long book. Mostly because it is several books in one. One of the professional reviewers compared it to a Russian nesting doll -- a very apt comparison. I enjoyed this book and intend to read it again in the future. It's difficult to ...more...]]> 5 6 false false Wed Nov 01 00:00:00 -0800 2006 Sun Sep 16 13:56:07 -0700 2007 Sat Dec 01 16:23:09 -0800 2007 Cloud Atlas was the most challenging book I read in 2006. It was also the most rewarding. A bravura literary performance if ever I saw one, Cloud Atlas weaves together six vastly different stories which are all, in a way, about story-telling. We start reading the journal of a nineteenth-century trav...more...]]> 5 6 false false Sat Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Tue Jun 19 22:43:23 -0700 2007 Wed Jan 02 16:48:10 -0800 2008 more...]]> 2 6 false true Tue Apr 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Thu Aug 14 04:33:10 -0700 2008 Tue Sep 30 05:11:36 -0700 2008 1
Cloud Atlas has a very good concept, but is only mediocre-ly executed, in my opinion. It contains six interlocking stories which have been recorded in various media. In each consecutive s...more...]]> 5 3 false false Sun Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Fri Jun 13 19:03:36 -0700 2008 Mon Jun 23 19:20:24 -0700 2008 David Mitchell before, so I didn't know what to expect from this book. What a treat it turned out to be! This is hands-down one of the best books I have ever read. I can't help but feel that Mitchell has ruined me for other authors. What he does with the english language is simp...more...]]> 4 4 false false Wed Mar 05 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Mon Jan 21 08:31:15 -0800 2008 Mon Jan 21 08:31:15 -0800 2008 Ghostwritten) on loan for several months. It was the opening, probably; Mitchell seems to begin with voices that I find mildly uninteresting, though I've only tried twice to read him.

Wh...more...]]> 5 3 false false Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2004 Sat Jan 05 19:41:23 -0800 2008 Sat Jan 05 19:50:59 -0800 2008
Revi...more...]]> 5 3 false false Thu Jul 12 16:21:03 -0700 2007 Sat Aug 18 07:29:27 -0700 2007 more...]]> 5 3 false false Wed Jul 02 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sun Apr 27 03:21:55 -0700 2008 Wed Jul 02 10:08:24 -0700 2008 more...]]> 5 4 false false Fri Sep 21 11:12:51 -0700 2007 Mon Jan 07 14:59:52 -0800 2008
This book is one cohesive novel, written as a series of six short stories. Each story takes place in a different location and time period, and is written in a completely different style, narrative tone, etc. They are each individual, self-contained stor...more...]]> 4 2 false false Wed Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Fri Aug 03 13:03:03 -0700 2007 Mon Aug 27 17:31:47 -0700 2007
The Pacific Journal of Adam Ewing - Set in the mid 19th century, this is the story of a lawyer from San Francisco, trying to make his way back from Australia to San Francisco. This story is told via Adam Ewing's entries in his journal.

Letters from Zedel...more...]]> 4 3 false false Thu Nov 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Mon Nov 19 12:24:11 -0800 2007 Thu Nov 22 07:57:12 -0800 2007 more...]]> 5 2 false false Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Thu Dec 18 22:51:13 -0800 2008 Mon Jan 12 15:33:45 -0800 2009 more...]]> 3 1 false false Sat Oct 28 00:00:00 -0700 2006 Thu Oct 02 10:12:43 -0700 2008 Thu Oct 02 11:16:34 -0700 2008 Cloud Atlas is an ambitious effort. Consisting of six separate (though loosely related) stories, written in different styles, each set in a different time and place, all cut-off midway (save the central sixth story told in its entirety), some mid-sentence, to be concluded in the s...more...]]>