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Cloud Atlas

David Mitchell

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Feb 15, 2015 Elizabeth McDonald rated it it was amazing

Shelves: science-fiction, audiobook

Cloud Atlas is an intricate unwrapping experience of nested stories. Others have very accurately compared it to a set of matryoskas, those Russian wooden dolls that nest one inside the next. The book consists of six narratives taking place in different time periods, starting with the oldest. Each story breaks off abruptly in the middle, and the next begins. After the sixth story (which is uninterrupted), the stories pick up again in reverse order. Though the stories are very different in tone, t ...more

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Sep 30, 2010 Snail in Danger (Sid) Nicolaides marked it as to-read

Shelves: fantasy-fiction

Ah, it seems that the Wachowski Brothers bought the rights to this. That, plus a recent book review in the Guardian, is probably what's brought it to folks' attention after six years. I prefer to see movie versions before reading the books, when possible, so I think I'll hold off on this.

This reminds me faintly of Pynchon somehow (she says, from the limited experience of having taken a look at Mason & Dixon and then put it down), and it also seems to occupy similar territory to Sexing the Cherry ...more

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Dec 05, 2009 Tiffany rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 1001-books, 1001-books__fromlist, group_read

As Wikipedia puts it, Cloud Atlas "consists of six nested stories, whereof each is read (or observed) by a main character of the next. The first five stories are each interrupted at a pivotal moment. After the sixth story, the other five stories are closed, in reverse chronological order, and each ends with the main character reading or observing the chronologically previous work in the chain." (This reminded me of If on a Winter's Night a Traveler, so I was particularly looking forward to it.) As Wikipedia puts it, Cloud Atlas "consists of six nested stories, whereof each is read (or observed) by a main character of the next. The first five stories are each interrupted at a pivotal moment. After the sixth story, the other five stories are closed, in reverse chronological order, and each ends with the main character reading or observing the chronologically previous work in the chain." (This reminded me of If on a Winter's Night a Traveler, so I was particularly looking forward to it.) I kept thinking how talented Mitchell is (or at least seems to me) to be able to change the tone so many times within one book.

With that comes comparisons to other works (whether that's a good thing or a bad thing, I don't know): Ewing's journal-on-a-ship story (the first and eleventh chapters) reminded me of Melville's Typee (which is even referred to towards the end of the second part of this narrative), and the dystopian world of "An Orison of Sonmi~451" (chapters five and seven) reminded me of The Giver.

I loved Robert Frobisher's letters in the second/tenth story. I loved the epistolary style for the narrative, as well as Frobisher's style of writing, using musical language to describe the world around him. Towards the end (or maybe middle) of the first go-round with this particular story, I started to dislike Frobisher a bit: he is a scoundrel! He's dishonest and sleeps around, and yet I still overall liked the character, scoundrelines and all. I did wonder, though, how we were able to read the letters *he* wrote to Sixsmith, but never the letters Sixsmith wrote back to him. In the next story, of course, we find out it's because (view spoiler).

I also enjoyed the Luisa Rey story. I liked the intrigue of (view spoiler). That one definitely kept me turning the pages, and even gasping out loud a few times!

The Timothy Cavendish chapters (4 & 8) weren't bad, but they weren't great. The second time we visit him was better for me than the first time. I liked when we first meet him and find out his background, but once he's (view spoiler), I stopped caring as much. But when we return to the story after going through the other stories, the plot picks up again and, like the Luisa Rey story, even had me gasping out loud or giggling.

The middle story, "Sloosha's Crossin' an' Ev'rythin' After," was hit-and-miss for me. I didn't like the first part, with the exception of finding out how this story related to the story before it ("An Orison of Sonmi~451"), but the second part picked up.

Overall, it was a good book. It wasn't as deep and profound and difficult as I thought it would be, but I mostly enjoyed the six different stories. I also liked trying to figure out how the stories related to each other, and the commonalities, such as the ship Prophetess, which Adam Ewing travels on in the first/eleventh chapters, and Luisa Rey sees in the marina as an example of a well-restored ship in the ninth chapter. ...more

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Sep 23, 2011 Rachel rated it it was amazing

Shelves: dys-u-topia

2011 review: First off, I think Mitchell is a genius with language. The gimmick of this book is that the first half contains the beginnings of six stories, and the second half contains the endings of the stories, all of which are connected and progress through time from 19th-century notary to post-apocalyptic shepherd. The best thing about the gimmick is that it gave Mitchell and excuse to show off his talents for writing in different styles, including the highly industrialized future nation wit ...more

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May 08, 2011 Ruth Soz rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: novels

This book was given to me as part of World Book Night 2011, which I have to say is a really cool idea!
As for the book itself; I loved the concept. I have never encountered a book that was written in this manner and I found it to be incredibly clever. I found a few of the 'voices' captivating and they swept me up in the story. However, some of them left me wondering if I was missing important connections. At times I found I had to concentrate really hard to make sure I didn't miss nuances that ke ...more

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Apr 06, 2020 Chrissie rated it really liked it

Shelves: project-clear-out

Ooof. I'm not entirely sure how to rate this one.

Most of it was great. But the cornerstone story.....I just.....couldn't read it. I mean, I eventually read it, but the only reason I managed to get through it was because I really wanted to know how the rest of the stories ended. Maybe it was the made up dialect? I don't know, but it almost ruined an otherwise great book for me. At least 3/4 of the time I spent reading the book was on that one part.

I thought the ending did a good job of bringing e ...more

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Nov 09, 2010 Esther rated it really liked it

Shelves: fantasy, author-male, england, __given-away, europe, zz-2015, zz-2015-from-my-own-shelves, world

This book received 4 stars from me mainly because I enjoyed Mitchell’s writing. If the book had been all about Sonmi-451 it would have been 5 stars but the other narratives I found a bemusing mixture of amusing and annoying.
In addition the book didn’t really hold together as a single entity and felt more like a series of short stories. As a story it was all middle, no beginning or end. I could appreciate what the author was trying to do but it didn’t really appeal to me.
If you have the patience ...more

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