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3.99 AVERAGE
3.99 AVERAGE
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I loved how it tells six different stories that are all connected, even though they're set in totally different times and places. Each one was super interesting, and the way the characters’ actions affect each other across time is really cool. The twists and themes about fate and freedom kept me hooked. It’s one of those books that makes you think, and I couldn’t stop reading it. Definitely recommend!
challenging
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
dark
funny
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
I have many thoughts surrounding the 529 pages I just read. I have many different opinions, and they seem to differ from one moment to the next.
If you haven’t read this book, this review contains half-spoilers; I offer my opinion and give a brief, cryptic account of the plot. I wouldn’t read beyond my review of Sloosha’s Crossing though. I would also recommend reading it. (Anything that I wouldn't have wanted to know while reading the book I have blanked out.
(also my bad, most of my formatting as been cut out from the move from google docs to GoodReads so i apologise- i corrected the important stuff though)
...
The Pacific Journal of Adam Ewing
As I review each half of these short stories, I would like to share a quote that I thought was interesting or different. But I listened to this on audiobook and I’m not going to lie, I fell asleep. I got the idea that this Adam Ewing fellow is an American travelling around the Pacific, where he meets Doctor Henry Goose. I think Adam fell ill and this Henry Goose and he travel about. In the meantime, Adam Ewing saves a stowaway from death. I realise this factor is quite important.
For me personally, Adam Ewing’s journals were not that riveting. Or maybe I was just tired.
...
Letters from Zedelghem
“How vulgar, this hankering after immortality, how vain, how false. Composers are merely scribblers of cave paintings. One writes music because winter is eternal and because if one didn’t, wolves and blizzards would be at one’s throat all the sooner.”
I immediately claimed Robert Frobisher as my favourite character - not just because Ben Whishaw portrays him in the film (which I am anticipating watching). His first letter to his lover Rufus Sixsmith starts with him smashing the vases in a hotel room in pursuit of a melody. He has run away from his family in England and is a musician. In Austria (I think it’s Austria anyway), he goes to find famed, decrepit musician Vyvyan Ayrs, and he begins transcribing Ayrs’ music and sleeping with his wife.
The Letters from Zedelghem have a clear narrative and are generally just more fun than Adam Ewing journals, and it’s cool when they link together: “A half-read book is a half-finished love affair.” I also gathered from the acknowledgements that it’s based on another book - this isn’t the review you’d want to read if you’re interested in the historical context. I just think Robert Frobisher was cool.
...
Half-Lives: The First Luisa Rey Mystery
“A radio whispers sweet nothings in the back office.”
The Lusia Rey mystery seemed like a typical mystery novel for a while, but I was drawn to the gritty details, engaging plot and electric characters (which I suppose were cliche on paper), developed similarly to Robert Frobisher’s. I think this and the Letters were my favourites. The story follows heroine Luisa Rey as she tries to expose a large company for dangerous activities on a power plant, with the help of Dr Sixsmith, a physicist, who wrote a sought-after, illegal report that would bring down the company. It’s gripping in a plotline-focused way that Zedelghem wasn’t, not that the Letters weren’t good; they were great, but their characters and their voices carried the narrative while it was the events that made the Lusia Rey Mystery fun. I think I preferred the first half to the second, and I’ll explain why later.
Also, there was a small plot point slightly unelaborated on that she and Robert Frobisher shared a birthmark. Not much happens about that, though he is mentioned: that his music group, the Cloud Atlas Sextet, had produced underrated, obscure music in the ‘30s. Luisa Rey orders one of his records.
...
The Ghastly Ordeal of Timothy Cavendish
“The spirit was willing but the flesh was weak.”
In which Timothy Cavendish, publisher, is on the run from three men asking for his money in the aid of his brother. His brother tricks him and in his exhaustion, Cavendish signs into a nursing home. The first half documents his fruitless attempts to escape.
At this point, I was still mentally recovering from the Luisa Rey mysteries. However, the link here is that Cavendish is given the foreread Lusia Rey Mystery as a manuscript to publish at his company. At this point, I came to the (possibly incorrect conclusion) that during each story, the previous becomes increasingly more fictional.
...
An Orison of Somni~451
“No other version of the truth has ever mattered to me.”
These are transcripts of interviews after, I assumed, this Somni~451 character has been arrested. Set in a distant future, a well-designed world and it sets the scene quite well. I quite liked it. It’s not up there with Letters from Zedelghem, but it was better than Timothy Cavendish’s endeavours, and the worldbuilding was exquisite. It ended with Somni watching a film with a friend, (films called ‘disneys’) called The Ghastly Ordeal of Timothy Cavendish. My only qualm was that the names were a bit complicated. But I could get over it, it wasn’t that big a deal.
“Time is what stops history happening at once; time is the speed at which the past disappears. Film gives those last words a brief resurrection.”
...
Slooshas’ Crossin’ an’ Ev’rythin’ After
“In our busted world the right thing ain’t always possible.”
There were points in this story, rather often, I was wondering what on earth I was reading. I think having this story in the middle, therefore is the longest, making it the most difficult to stomach. It was set in almost a post-apocalyptic future, after the futuristic (as we imagine it - yet flawed) future Somni was set in collapsed. The link there was that the protagonist, Zachary, worships Somni as a goddess.
I think that while some people like the tone and the creativity, I just thought it was difficult to read. It ended though, but I can’t really remember how - a horse might’ve fallen off a bridge and Zachary and the Prescient travelled to the other side or something. See, the middle didn’t really grip me that much. There were action scenes, I appreciate that, but I’m more of a James Bond action person than a co’ntry and west’rn apostrophes ev’rywher’ horseback ridin’ action person.
...
An Orison of Somni~451
“All revolutions are the sheerest fantasy until they happen; then they become historical inevitabilities.”
So, we’re back to the Orison of Somni~451! Someone told me that this book works like a figure of eight, which is cool, but they hadn’t read it. I see it more as a mirror.
In this story, Somni has effectively become human and is the figurehead for this rebellion: “You say you’re ‘depressed’ - all I see is resilience. You are allowed to feel messed up inside and out. It doesn’t mean you’re defective - it just means you’re human.” Almost Hunger Games style. Through this chapter we see how their government lies to the people and in a way, it’s almost heartbreaking as Somni’s eyes are opened to the truth. You feel bad for her. The story ends with her arrest, which results in her telling her story to an interviewer, an Orison.
Overall, I was quite intrigued by this story. I liked the way it was written, I liked Somni and the world-building was great - yet the future was sad. Maybe there was a political message, but hey, this is just a book review (that’s already too long).
“All revolutions are the sheerest fantasy until they happen; then they become historical inevitabilities.”
...
The Ghastly Ordeal of Timothy Cavendish
“It is true, reading too many novels makes you go blind.”
In which Timothy Cavendish teams up with two or three other people and tries to escape the nursing home. Not much else to say really. Though, Cavendish observed that Luisa Rey was Robert Frobisher reincarnated which I was not sure about, nor a fan of.
“What wouldn’t I give now for a never-changing map of ever-constant ineffable. To possess, as it were, an atlas of clouds.”
...
Half-Lives: The First Luisa Rey Mystery
“Lying’s wrong, but when the world spins backwards, a small wrong may be a big right.”
ANYWAY, two out of the three Sixsmith reports are destroyed but it all ends well. I saw this part of the story get a bit more far-fetched. Yes, it backed up Cavendish’s Frobisher-Rey theory. I wasn’t a fan. I would have preferred it if they were descendants or something, but alas. Mitchell is the author and not me.
....
Letters from Zedelghem
“The End is what we want, so I’m afraid that the End is all down well going to get. There. Set that to music. Timpani, cymbals and one million trumpets, if you would be so kind. Paying the old bastard with my own music. Kills me.”
I was elated to return to Zedelghem again. It, however, is not going well for Frobisher again. There’s some stuff that happens, Meanwhile, I think there was an anti-war message in this chapter, an Inspector Calls style allegory, and not through Robert’s character alone: “Wars do not combust without warning. They begin with little fires over the horizon. Wars approach. A wise man watches for the smoke, and prepares to vacate the neighbourhood… Thus it was ever, so ever shall it be. War, Robert, is one of humanity's two eternal companions.” I collected so many quotes from the last eight letters alone.
Finally, I cried while reading his letter.
...
The Pacific Journal of Adam Ewing
“Until we convert these accursed ants, these islands’ll never be truly ours.”
I read Brideshead Revisited and that had undertones of religion, as did the Pacific Journal. There was a little bit of action near the end of the story and it all ended well. I think the last twenty-five, fourty pages dragged slightly, with the 500 pages between them my opinions on Adam Ewing’s journals did not change. Alas, I finished them in the end and didn’t fall asleep.
…
I think like anyone, these stories are subject to different opinions because of the merging of styles and the bridging of genres. I may have grumbled my way though The Pacific Journals and Sloosha's Crossin' but I actually really enjoyed the book as a whole. Overall, it’s quite a feat and structurally, there are obviously a lot of things I’ve missed. I’m glad I read Cloud Atlas, as I think it’s an important book of our time and the future and the past.
If you haven’t read this book, this review contains half-spoilers; I offer my opinion and give a brief, cryptic account of the plot. I wouldn’t read beyond my review of Sloosha’s Crossing though. I would also recommend reading it. (Anything that I wouldn't have wanted to know while reading the book I have blanked out.
(also my bad, most of my formatting as been cut out from the move from google docs to GoodReads so i apologise- i corrected the important stuff though)
...
The Pacific Journal of Adam Ewing
As I review each half of these short stories, I would like to share a quote that I thought was interesting or different. But I listened to this on audiobook and I’m not going to lie, I fell asleep. I got the idea that this Adam Ewing fellow is an American travelling around the Pacific, where he meets Doctor Henry Goose. I think Adam fell ill and this Henry Goose and he travel about. In the meantime, Adam Ewing saves a stowaway from death. I realise this factor is quite important.
For me personally, Adam Ewing’s journals were not that riveting. Or maybe I was just tired.
...
Letters from Zedelghem
“How vulgar, this hankering after immortality, how vain, how false. Composers are merely scribblers of cave paintings. One writes music because winter is eternal and because if one didn’t, wolves and blizzards would be at one’s throat all the sooner.”
I immediately claimed Robert Frobisher as my favourite character - not just because Ben Whishaw portrays him in the film (which I am anticipating watching). His first letter to his lover Rufus Sixsmith starts with him smashing the vases in a hotel room in pursuit of a melody. He has run away from his family in England and is a musician. In Austria (I think it’s Austria anyway), he goes to find famed, decrepit musician Vyvyan Ayrs, and he begins transcribing Ayrs’ music and sleeping with his wife.
Spoiler
During his time at Zedelghem, Frobisher finds the first half of the Adam Ewing journals - he observes that Ewing is being poisoned by Dr Henry Goose, so well done, Frobisher, I hadn’t noticed.The Letters from Zedelghem have a clear narrative and are generally just more fun than Adam Ewing journals, and it’s cool when they link together: “A half-read book is a half-finished love affair.” I also gathered from the acknowledgements that it’s based on another book - this isn’t the review you’d want to read if you’re interested in the historical context. I just think Robert Frobisher was cool.
...
Half-Lives: The First Luisa Rey Mystery
“A radio whispers sweet nothings in the back office.”
The Lusia Rey mystery seemed like a typical mystery novel for a while, but I was drawn to the gritty details, engaging plot and electric characters (which I suppose were cliche on paper), developed similarly to Robert Frobisher’s. I think this and the Letters were my favourites. The story follows heroine Luisa Rey as she tries to expose a large company for dangerous activities on a power plant, with the help of Dr Sixsmith, a physicist, who wrote a sought-after, illegal report that would bring down the company. It’s gripping in a plotline-focused way that Zedelghem wasn’t, not that the Letters weren’t good; they were great, but their characters and their voices carried the narrative while it was the events that made the Lusia Rey Mystery fun. I think I preferred the first half to the second, and I’ll explain why later.
Spoiler
However, spoiler alert, she ends up falling off a bridge. I was shocked and then confused and then hurt. And then confused again, because she had half of her story to go still. Alas, I had to wait to find out.Also, there was a small plot point slightly unelaborated on that she and Robert Frobisher shared a birthmark. Not much happens about that, though he is mentioned: that his music group, the Cloud Atlas Sextet, had produced underrated, obscure music in the ‘30s. Luisa Rey orders one of his records.
Spoiler
But I suppose she dies, so what becomes of it?...
The Ghastly Ordeal of Timothy Cavendish
“The spirit was willing but the flesh was weak.”
In which Timothy Cavendish, publisher, is on the run from three men asking for his money in the aid of his brother. His brother tricks him and in his exhaustion, Cavendish signs into a nursing home. The first half documents his fruitless attempts to escape.
At this point, I was still mentally recovering from the Luisa Rey mysteries. However, the link here is that Cavendish is given the foreread Lusia Rey Mystery as a manuscript to publish at his company. At this point, I came to the (possibly incorrect conclusion) that during each story, the previous becomes increasingly more fictional.
...
An Orison of Somni~451
“No other version of the truth has ever mattered to me.”
These are transcripts of interviews after, I assumed, this Somni~451 character has been arrested. Set in a distant future, a well-designed world and it sets the scene quite well. I quite liked it. It’s not up there with Letters from Zedelghem, but it was better than Timothy Cavendish’s endeavours, and the worldbuilding was exquisite. It ended with Somni watching a film with a friend, (films called ‘disneys’) called The Ghastly Ordeal of Timothy Cavendish. My only qualm was that the names were a bit complicated. But I could get over it, it wasn’t that big a deal.
“Time is what stops history happening at once; time is the speed at which the past disappears. Film gives those last words a brief resurrection.”
...
Slooshas’ Crossin’ an’ Ev’rythin’ After
“In our busted world the right thing ain’t always possible.”
There were points in this story, rather often, I was wondering what on earth I was reading. I think having this story in the middle, therefore is the longest, making it the most difficult to stomach. It was set in almost a post-apocalyptic future, after the futuristic (as we imagine it - yet flawed) future Somni was set in collapsed. The link there was that the protagonist, Zachary, worships Somni as a goddess.
I think that while some people like the tone and the creativity, I just thought it was difficult to read. It ended though, but I can’t really remember how - a horse might’ve fallen off a bridge and Zachary and the Prescient travelled to the other side or something. See, the middle didn’t really grip me that much. There were action scenes, I appreciate that, but I’m more of a James Bond action person than a co’ntry and west’rn apostrophes ev’rywher’ horseback ridin’ action person.
...
An Orison of Somni~451
“All revolutions are the sheerest fantasy until they happen; then they become historical inevitabilities.”
So, we’re back to the Orison of Somni~451! Someone told me that this book works like a figure of eight, which is cool, but they hadn’t read it. I see it more as a mirror.
In this story, Somni has effectively become human and is the figurehead for this rebellion: “You say you’re ‘depressed’ - all I see is resilience. You are allowed to feel messed up inside and out. It doesn’t mean you’re defective - it just means you’re human.” Almost Hunger Games style. Through this chapter we see how their government lies to the people and in a way, it’s almost heartbreaking as Somni’s eyes are opened to the truth. You feel bad for her. The story ends with her arrest, which results in her telling her story to an interviewer, an Orison.
Overall, I was quite intrigued by this story. I liked the way it was written, I liked Somni and the world-building was great - yet the future was sad. Maybe there was a political message, but hey, this is just a book review (that’s already too long).
“All revolutions are the sheerest fantasy until they happen; then they become historical inevitabilities.”
...
The Ghastly Ordeal of Timothy Cavendish
“It is true, reading too many novels makes you go blind.”
In which Timothy Cavendish teams up with two or three other people and tries to escape the nursing home. Not much else to say really. Though, Cavendish observed that Luisa Rey was Robert Frobisher reincarnated which I was not sure about, nor a fan of.
“What wouldn’t I give now for a never-changing map of ever-constant ineffable. To possess, as it were, an atlas of clouds.”
...
Half-Lives: The First Luisa Rey Mystery
“Lying’s wrong, but when the world spins backwards, a small wrong may be a big right.”
Spoiler
How in the world of worlds did Luisa Rey survive that? I literally read a bit where she fell off a bridge.ANYWAY, two out of the three Sixsmith reports are destroyed but it all ends well. I saw this part of the story get a bit more far-fetched. Yes, it backed up Cavendish’s Frobisher-Rey theory. I wasn’t a fan. I would have preferred it if they were descendants or something, but alas. Mitchell is the author and not me.
....
Letters from Zedelghem
“The End is what we want, so I’m afraid that the End is all down well going to get. There. Set that to music. Timpani, cymbals and one million trumpets, if you would be so kind. Paying the old bastard with my own music. Kills me.”
I was elated to return to Zedelghem again. It, however, is not going well for Frobisher again. There’s some stuff that happens,
Spoiler
including poor Robert thinking Aryr’s daughter, Eva, has fallen in love with him. Without that confirmation, he goes and falls in love with her. Things don’t get any better from Frobisher leaves Zedelghem, and returns to have his heart broken.Finally, I cried while reading his letter.
Spoiler
Its ending was so tragic. I don’t have enough words to describe how sad Robert Frobisher’s ending was.Spoiler
“Don’t let ‘em say I killed myself for love, Sixsmith, that would be too ridiculous. Was infatuated by Eva Crommelynck for a blink of an eye, but we both know in our hearts who is the true love of my life."...
The Pacific Journal of Adam Ewing
“Until we convert these accursed ants, these islands’ll never be truly ours.”
I read Brideshead Revisited and that had undertones of religion, as did the Pacific Journal. There was a little bit of action near the end of the story and it all ended well. I think the last twenty-five, fourty pages dragged slightly, with the 500 pages between them my opinions on Adam Ewing’s journals did not change. Alas, I finished them in the end and didn’t fall asleep.
…
I think like anyone, these stories are subject to different opinions because of the merging of styles and the bridging of genres. I may have grumbled my way though The Pacific Journals and Sloosha's Crossin' but I actually really enjoyed the book as a whole. Overall, it’s quite a feat and structurally, there are obviously a lot of things I’ve missed. I’m glad I read Cloud Atlas, as I think it’s an important book of our time and the future and the past.
adventurous
dark
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
It took me an embarrassing amount of time to put together what was even happening in this stacking doll format of a story. Some of the most eloquent writing I have read in a long time. So many lines burned themselves into my brain. Easily the best book I've read this month.