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Cloud Atlas

The epic bestseller, shortlisted for the Booker Prize

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Cloud Atlas

By: David Mitchell
Narrated by: David Thorpe, Garrick Hagon, Jeff Harding, Liza Ross, Regina Reagan, Steve Hodson
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Summary
 **Pre-order UTOPIA AVENUE, the spectacular new novel from David Mitchell.**


CLOUD ATLAS, David Mitchell's bestselling Man Booker Prize-shortlisted novel which was also one of Richard & Judy's 100 Books of the Decade, has now been adapted for film.

The major motion picture, directed by Lana Wachowski, Tom Tykwer, and Andy Wachowski, stars Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Susan Sarandon, Jim Sturgess, Ben Whishaw, Jim Broadbent Hugo Weaving, Doona Bae, James D'Arcy, Zhou Xun, Keith David and Hugh Grant.

The novel features six characters in interlocking stories, each interrupting the one before it: a reluctant voyager crossing the Pacific in 1850; a disinherited composer blagging a precarious livelihood in between-the-wars Belgium; a high-minded journalist in Governor Reagan's California; a vanity publisher fleeing his gangland creditors; a genetically modified dinery server on death-row; and Zachry, a young Pacific islander witnessing the nightfall of science and civilisation. The narrators of CLOUD ATLAS hear each other's echoes down the corridor of history and their destinies are changed in ways great and small.

Mitchell's other novels are GHOSTWRITTEN, NUMBER9DREAM, BLACK SWAN GREEN and A THOUSAND AUTUMS OF JACOB DE ZOET, all published by Sceptre.

www.sceptrebooks.com
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(P)2007 RNIB Publishing©2005 David Mitchell Fantasy Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Science Fiction Fiction Thought-Provoking
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Critic reviews

Mitchell's almost comically ambitious novel is indeed a kind of cumulus: a wild and woolly condensation of ideas, styles and far-flung milieus whose only true commonality is the reincarnated soul at its center. The book's six nesting narratives - from 1850s New Zealand through 1930s Belgium, groovy California, recent-ish England, dystopian Korea and Hawaii - also often feel like a postmodern puzzle-box that whirls and clicks as its great world(s) spin, throwing off sparks of pulp, philosophy and fervid humanism (100 best books of the 21st century)
A magnificent tour de force
A novel of breathtaking ambition and scale, spanning continents, oceans and centuries
Funny, exciting, imaginative and energetic
A virtuoso performance . . . deeply impressive
The way Mitchell inhabits the different voices of the novel is close to miraculous . . . No other British novelist, to my mind, combines such a darkly futuristic intelligence with such polyphonic ease (Robert Macfarlane)
His most accomplished achievement to date . . . a novel in the biggest, most exhilarating sense
Gloriously inventive and dazzlingly virtuosic
A thrilling ride of a story
Tremendous . . . one of the most shamelessly exciting books imaginable
Stunning . . . One of those rare books that manages to be enormously clever while resisting the temptation to show off
Reassuringly excellent
Engrossing
Mitchell writes as though at the helm of some perpetual dream machine, can evidently do anything, and his ambition is written in magma across this novel's every page
This isn't just one brilliant book, it's a collection of six completely different brilliant books
Mind-bogglingly good
One of those how-the-holy-hell-did-he-do-it? modern classics that no doubt is - and should be - read by any student of contemporary literature (Dave Eggers)
Astonishing . . . essential fiction for the 21st century
Not just dazzling, amusing, or clever but heartbreaking and passionate, too. I've never read anything quite like it (Michael Chabon)
An intense, arcing colossus of a book whose narrative links, supplied by the voices of six main characters, are spun out into a unified theory of everything: history, human evolution, science, the will to power. The voices span epochs, continents, and genres . . . Mitchell has rightly commanded attention for the sheer breadth and energy of his composition . . . I am moved by (his) talent
It takes only a few pages of any part of this masterful feast of a novel to make you want to read the rest
David Mitchell may well be possessed of genius . . . As well-plotted, entertaining narrative, Cloud Atlas succeeds on many levels. As political and cultural fable, with an unerring humanist sense of the dangerous will to power that lies at the dark heart of man, it's visionary
All stars
Most relevant
I want to listen to this again and again and again. It spans decades and lifetimes and its underlying message is just as big. Very powerful. I will definitely listen to it more than once.

I want to listen again

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Would you try another book written by David Mitchell or narrated by the narrators?

I found this book strangely disappointing. I just couldn't get interested. This is unusual for me!

Would you recommend Cloud Atlas to your friends? Why or why not?

I'm afraid I couldn't recommend this book to a friend

perhaps it was just me...

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I think the different narrators did well with a difficult book. The book itself is a bit over ambitious and doesn't quite deliver but it was entertaining enough.

Cloud Atlas

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Is there anything you would change about this book?

After reading Bone Clocks, which I loved, I was a bit disappointed with Cloud Atlas. The individual stories were interesting and had great characters however the minimal thread between the stories and the fact he never pulled the stories together more at the end was very disappointing.

What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?

Two stories in this book really gripped me and I wanted more of them, the storyline of the fabricant protagonist set in a future Korea and the story of the Valleys man set in a future Hawaii. Both of these stories left me wanting more.

Which character – as performed by the narrators – was your favourite?

The actor that read the Valleys man looking back over his life was amazing.

Was Cloud Atlas worth the listening time?

Overall I would have to say no. Some of the stories were gripping, but the slim ties between them wasn't enough for me.

A bit disappointing after reading Bone Clocks

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This book was actually easier to follow as an audible book than it would have been to read as the use of different voices for the 7 linked stories helped to differentiate the characters.



Essentially we go forward through the 7 linked stories of the 7 characters, the first starts in Polynesia in approx early 19th century, the next is set in 1930's Europe. Some of the characters and stories are set in the future. We work forward through the 7, leaving each character at a 'cliffhangar' moment, then work back through the 7, filling in the denouement of the story. Thus we come to see that the stories and the characters are superficially linked but also themeatically linked.



Discover the theme for yourself. This is a book well worth listening to, it is also quite different and unusual in structure and theme. Stick with it as it can appear 'gimmicky' but when you reach the end you do see that there are deeper themes and meanings.

A Great Listen

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