Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell

This is an intriguing and interesting book. The book is skilfully written in six very different styles, from thriller to sci fi. I found the book very difficult to read for the first two thirds and could easily have given up if it wasn’t for other people saying it was worth persevering. I don’t tend to like books that have a different point of view in each chapter (Jodi Picoult books seem to be the exception) and this book took this to extremes. Each section had a different character often centuries apart and I found it difficult to accept the sudden changes in story; sometimes part way through a sentence. However the second half of the book tied everything together and was ingenious and enjoyable in the different ways it did.

My favourite character was Sonmi ~451 (the fifth character), who is a clone developed to work in a fast food restaurant and having read her section I was much more interested in finishing the book. The book also made me think a lot about the things we do as humans, from slavery to apocalypse. Adam Ewing talks about building a world we want to inherit and how each person’s efforts will add to a large accomplishment. I think this is a great message to take away from the book.

I still don’t know if I enjoyed the book. It was a certainly a struggle, especially for the first part, but I recognise it is an clever and inventive book. I think I will enjoy the book more the second time I read it, but suspect this could be some years in the future.


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