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3.99 AVERAGE
3.99 AVERAGE
Reread April 2025: Such a ballsy project of a novel that only impresses more upon a second time through.
Listen, I realize I’m almost 20 years late to the party. But this book’s excellence defies my grasping attempts to describe it. A more “LiTeRaRy” man’s Hyperion by Dan Simmons on HGH. One of the most ambitious things I’ve read
Listen, I realize I’m almost 20 years late to the party. But this book’s excellence defies my grasping attempts to describe it. A more “LiTeRaRy” man’s Hyperion by Dan Simmons on HGH. One of the most ambitious things I’ve read
Overhyped. Excellent storytelling - I found each of these stories completely engrossing and found it hard to stop reading long enough to get off the bus or make dinner. And yet, I was hoping for a little more magic in the way they knit together. Each story feels very perfect and self-contained. I wish that they touched and influenced each other more than they do.
Still, I really enjoyed reading this and I may read it again.
Still, I really enjoyed reading this and I may read it again.
adventurous
challenging
hopeful
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
My best advice for reading this book: Get through the first 40 pages, because after you do you will throughly enjoy it. Once I got to the second 'movement' of the sextet and the narrators changed, I really started to get into the story line. While six narrators tell their stories in completely different time periods, styles, and voice, Mitchell does a beautiful job of connecting the 6 stories without it seeming hoke-y. I most enjoyed the Luisa Rey and Son-Mi-451, but that could just be my love of female protagonists.
I was coming into reading this book with the mindset that it would be a sort edgy sci-fi novel written with six different narrators, but it was so much more than that. Cloud Atlas is evocative and seamlessly written in way that I could only adequately compare it's structure to a perfectly balanced symphony. Read this book and you'll understand exactly what I mean.
I was coming into reading this book with the mindset that it would be a sort edgy sci-fi novel written with six different narrators, but it was so much more than that. Cloud Atlas is evocative and seamlessly written in way that I could only adequately compare it's structure to a perfectly balanced symphony. Read this book and you'll understand exactly what I mean.
Fascinating! Not so easy to get into, but I have not stopped thinking about it.
adventurous
challenging
emotional
funny
mysterious
reflective
tense
challenging
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
3.5/5
I have mixed feeling about this book. I thought the format David Mitchell chose was unique and challenging in a really great way. I enjoyed how the book revealed its form to the reader slowly, and only through a bit of persistence. There were six stories written in different styles, set in different times and places.
That being said, I did find some of the stories stronger than others. If each had been published alone, I'm not sure they would have stood on their own. I didn't love the writing style chosen for each of these stories--some were distracting and took the energy out of the narrative.
I also have concerns about how a white author chose to represent indigenous communities. I understand that some of the overt racism and descriptions of colonization were written on purpose to expose the flawed logic and horrific consequences inherent in them, but the perspective provided was often based on heavy-handed and two-dimensional stereotypes.
All in all, I'm fairly neutral. There were elements that kept my attention and elements that didn't. An imperfect attempt at an interesting concept.
I have mixed feeling about this book. I thought the format David Mitchell chose was unique and challenging in a really great way. I enjoyed how the book revealed its form to the reader slowly, and only through a bit of persistence. There were six stories written in different styles, set in different times and places.
That being said, I did find some of the stories stronger than others. If each had been published alone, I'm not sure they would have stood on their own. I didn't love the writing style chosen for each of these stories--some were distracting and took the energy out of the narrative.
I also have concerns about how a white author chose to represent indigenous communities. I understand that some of the overt racism and descriptions of colonization were written on purpose to expose the flawed logic and horrific consequences inherent in them, but the perspective provided was often based on heavy-handed and two-dimensional stereotypes.
All in all, I'm fairly neutral. There were elements that kept my attention and elements that didn't. An imperfect attempt at an interesting concept.