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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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**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.

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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
This is the most extraordinary book, I've never read anything quite like it. Once I realised what was going on (it took a few chapters) I thought it was brilliant, and a very clever use of narrative hooks to keep me interested to the end.
It's a very long book, but I was so immersed in the characters and unfolding stories that I was really sad when it ended.
The author also uses the unusual narrative arc of the story to make a lot of subtle comments about human society, religion and survival that I completely agree with ideologically as well.
I would recommend this to anyone. Keep listening beyond the first couple of chapters - it'll be worth it I promise!

Loved it!

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I haven't seen the movie, but had been intending to read this book forever. The new version with multiple narrators caught my eye. The book is in some ways 6 for the price of 1, each story easily stands alone, and each is a well-written genre story. Some of the stories segue together nicely, with lots of nice connections, and some stand apart without a lot of strong relationship.



The narration is excellent, using appropriate voices for each character rather than one reader trying to do 6 very different characters. The 6th narrator (Zachary) uses a dialect that is pretty hard to comprehend, I had to listen to some parts twice to figure out what was going on, but the dialect was obviously intentional.



The book sits somewhere between a philosophical book of ideas and a Matryoshka of genre shorts. If you treat it as the former, you might be disappointed. If you treat it as the latter, you'll be pleasantly surprised.

A worthy listen!

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If it hadn't been for the narrator of the first (and last) segments of this book - arguably the two most important, I would have given this audiobook 5 stars across the board. Excellent story - I quite like being confused! Some of the narrators are brilliant, notably Jeff Harding who I think did the future Hawaii section.
I very nearly gave up on this audiobook during the first section, it was sheer determination after having listened to Bone Clocks that kept me going. And I actually did give up listening during the last section, got the book out of the library and finished it that way. Those two parts are probably the most difficult parts to read as the language was rather olde worlde and stodgy but the reading was just dreadful. It reminded me of having to read Shakespeare round the class in school and not being able to follow the sense of it because of the stilted reading. It seemed that the reader had never encountered many of the more difficult words and struggled to say them let alone have them flow into sensible sentences.
That said, the rest of the narration made up for it. I just cannot understand how whoever was in charge let this go into production with such a poor beginning and end.

Excellent book - patchy narration

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A brilliant complex and convoluted series on intertwined tales. I imagine it bears listening to more than once as the stories are great on their own, but teasing out the links between them is also fun. The narraters were all excellent except the first (and last) who seemed to be reading as if in primary school with little understanding of the text. Stress on wrong words sentences paused at the wrong place... But after the lawyer on the ship the narration becomes excellent with a series of much better readers.

Absolute genius

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Firstly I must say I love the novel for many reasons - its perfect pastiches of literary genres, echoing repetitions, memorable scenes and the underlying social commentary; I've re-read it multiple times and it always drags me back - so this review will purely focus on the narrators, who I feel take you through the book very enjoyably. With one exception...

Adam Ewing (Garrick Hagon): As prior reviews have mentioned, this narrator doesn't seem well prepared. Sentences are oddly inflected, words mispronounced, papers can be heard shuffling and a sense of the character doesn't come through. It's a real shame and even worse since he's the first in line and the opening passage of archaic sea journals has put off many readers. See Tim Piggot-Smith's reading in the abridged version for an example of how to do this right.

But then comes Robert Frobisher (David Thorpe): such a rich and layered reading, every sentence is performed beautifully, as it should be; and the raffish, privileged, bipolar musical genius is brought fully to life. And with what heartbreaking results! Some say they want a book read, but this story is all about different viewpoints and so the differences must be felt.

Luisa Rey's narrator (Regina Reagan); smooth, sassy and ideal for this noir thriller told in the third person.

Timothy Cavendish (Steve Hodson): the clackety dentures and tone of pompous derision are wonderfully suited.

Somni-451 (Liza Ross): the robotic Archivist voice aside - they could have used an actor but it works okay and fits in with the genre - this is another measured performance, the frustrated but patient mentor making her point clearly.

Zachry (Jeff Harding): the centrepiece is a fantastic performance; folksy but wise and weathered, you can feel the hard life he's had, picture the dirt in his fingernails and most of all understand easily his pigdin, post-apocalypse future dialect. A masterful achievement.

So hats off to (almost) all concerned and give it a go if you're interested in literature or just fancy an adventure story... that's also comedic and fanciful. I'm more than sure these voices provide the perfect craft for this choppy thoughtful epic journey.

Characterful Production

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