At first I found this book hard to get into, and had just picked up the plot when the first section ended mid-sentence. I was actually mad about it, but decided to press on and ended up loving it. It’s an interesting book in terms of structure and format, loosely connecting ideas through generations and different geological locations without really explaining the link between them. That is up to the reader to decide if there is an important link or just random connections. There is a lot going on in this book and so it’s not really an easy read. Just when you think you have a handle on what’s going on, it all changes. But in fact, that’s what I liked best about it.

this is a very “round” book, almost symetric. i did like the different narratives-styles-time periods. and the way they felt loosely connected at the beginning but the connections become more clear as the book ends. the second part of “the orison of somni” was quite beautiful and dark – one of those sciFi special moments were i wanted to cry, seriously.
versatile writer. i does not take the reader by the hand with the narrative. i like that. very few explanations. more show don’t tell. nicely crafted.

Like Ghostwritten, I am not sure if I would recommend this book to a friend. It is written in such an interesting way, and all of the plots are brilliantly interwoven, but it also felt very very long. By the end of it I couldn’t wait to finish it so that I could start my next book. I like books that leave you upset when they are over, not longing to reach that final paragraph.

Saying that, I really loved the Somni 451 story, the Luisa Rey story, and the letters to Sixsmith.

[From now on, I’ll be recording and blogging my reading history using All Consuming.]

One of the books recommended before I left Australia earlier this year was David Mitchell’s first novel, Ghostwritten. The narratives making up the story traveled through Japan, China, Mongolia, Russia and paralleled the places I was visiting. I would have loved the book anyway, but it felt even more special to be reading about a place having just seen it, smelt it and felt it.

Whilst in Amsterdam last week, I took advantage of an amazing bookstore there and bought Cloud Atlas, Mitchell’s third novel. As with Ghostwritten, it took a while to get used to the different textures used in the novel, but once my reading adjusted, the different pieces of the book fitted together quite cleverly.

I connected most with the story An Orison of Sonmi~451 a dystopia of genetically engineered slaves, forced consumerism and widespread environmental devastation. There’s nothing quite like a well written tale of a bleak future to make me feel quite hopeless about what’s going on in the present, so maybe that explains why I’m currently feeling a bit gloomy.

Anxiety about the future and things I can’t control aside, Cloud Atlas was an amazing book.