David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas is a hugely ambitious novel that has been widely celebrated. In fact, it made it to the #6 position on my favorite books of the decade 2000-2009. It was a finalist for the Man Booker Prize as well as a nominee for the Nebula award.Cloud Atlas is a very fun book to read. I am not surprised that it is a favorite of authors. The book is split into six different stories, each of which is told in a different style, genre and voice.
In some sense, the book is really six novellas or short stories. What is fun as a reader is reading to find the connections between the stories. Generally, the main character in one story is usually seen as having had access to the story we have just read.
Although the six stories cover many different genres, at least two of them are clearly classifiable as science fiction, which is probably one reason that I enjoyed the book so much. Interestingly, the longest story (which is set in a post-apocalyptic world) is my least favorite part of the book and despite finding that section almost unreadable I still evaluated Cloud Atlas as one of my favorite books of the decade.
I believe that David Mitchell should be rewarded for his creativity and imagination at even attempting to create such a unique work as Cloud Atlas. Although it is not completely successful in every aspect, it is still a delightful reading experience that you should not miss!
Title: Cloud Atlas.
Author: David Mitchell.
Paperback: 528 pages.
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks.
Date: August 17, 2004.
OVERALL GRADE: A/A- (3.925/4.0)
PLOT: A.
IMAGERY: A.
IMPACT: A.
WRITING: A-.
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