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evanmcomer's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
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
5.0
This is a book that is hard to classify. Is it literary fiction? Historical fiction? Science fiction? All three? Regardless of what you call it, the characters are richly written, and the three stories are each compelling in their own right. This is a 600 page book that, at times, reads like a thriller. About two-thirds of the way through, I learned something that made me want to cry. And at the end, I found myself wanting to hug this book and read it again. The central theme is so brilliantly summed up by this line: “The world as it is is enough.” This is probably the easiest five-star review I’ve given all year.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Child death, Colonisation, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Grief, Islamophobia, Medical content, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Religious bigotry, Self harm, Sexism, Slavery, Suicide, and War
hollyd19's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.25
Usually I find the descriptors “genre-bending” & “ambitious” entirely annoying, but both are truly apt for this epic saga across time and space, spanning from 1400s Constantinople to decades from now aboard a spaceship headed to a new planet after we’ve thoroughly wrecked this one. A collection of protagonists propel the narrative with a translated Ancient Greek story serving as the connective tissue between each.
Author Anthony Doerr is immensely creative, and I was surprised at how well he gathered the threads of each story in a way that felt thoughtful without being overt. Each storyline has complicated human characters and well-developed sense of place. Admittedly, the beginning felt a little disorienting, jumping between an impressive number of characters in such a way that was initially hard to track. But if you stick with it, the convergence is worth it. More than once, I exclaimed out loud as a new revelation unfurled.
Cloud Cuckoo Land dances between themes of fragility & resilience, hope & despair, bravery & fear. One endorsement mentioned the term “stewardship,” and that really struck a chord once I finished the book. Each character has something they are cupping tenderly like a fallen bird, trying to usher it through a complex and crumbling world.
My main critique of this book is the handling of the neuro-diverse character.While Seymour is never explicitly called autistic, he is coded as such. All of his concerns about the environment are entirely valid and the manipulation he experiences which leads him to the villain role is handled insensitively & even somewhat harmfully. I wish that Doerr had been more thoughtful here.
Author Anthony Doerr is immensely creative, and I was surprised at how well he gathered the threads of each story in a way that felt thoughtful without being overt. Each storyline has complicated human characters and well-developed sense of place. Admittedly, the beginning felt a little disorienting, jumping between an impressive number of characters in such a way that was initially hard to track. But if you stick with it, the convergence is worth it. More than once, I exclaimed out loud as a new revelation unfurled.
Cloud Cuckoo Land dances between themes of fragility & resilience, hope & despair, bravery & fear. One endorsement mentioned the term “stewardship,” and that really struck a chord once I finished the book. Each character has something they are cupping tenderly like a fallen bird, trying to usher it through a complex and crumbling world.
My main critique of this book is the handling of the neuro-diverse character.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Animal cruelty, and Animal death
Moderate: Bullying, Death, Grief, Homophobia, Religious bigotry, and War
Minor: Confinement, Dementia, Excrement, Gun violence, and Pregnancy
thebakerbookworm's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-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
4.0
This book has a lot of moving parts, many narrators and timelines, and listening to the audio, it did take me a while to get into it. I was confused for a lot of the first half. We have five different perspectives: Konstance, sometime in the future where she's spent her whole life on a spaceship; Zeno and Seymour, both from Idaho and living in the modern present day; and then young Anna and Omeir, in fifteenth century Constantinople, as it's about to fall. On top of all that, we also have a story within a story going on. The narrative jumps around from each of them a lot, and it definitely took me a while to get my bearing.
That being said, once I got a good grasp of the story, I was invested. There's excellent storytelling going on here, almost mesmerizing. I was most interested in the future and present timelines—everything about the spaceship and Konstance was fascinating, and Zeno stole my heart. I love a book where disjointed storylines suddenly make sense at the end, when you see how the thread of connection was running through them the whole time, and that's exactly what happened here. The last third of this book really made me love it.
It's hard to describe this book and what it made me feel, but I think it's best described as an ode to storytelling and how stories can connect us across space and time. I do perhaps wish some different editing choices were made in the first half, but if you can trudge through it, the ending is definitely worth it.
Thanks so much to Libro.fm, Simon Audio, and the author for my ALC!
That being said, once I got a good grasp of the story, I was invested. There's excellent storytelling going on here, almost mesmerizing. I was most interested in the future and present timelines—everything about the spaceship and Konstance was fascinating, and Zeno stole my heart. I love a book where disjointed storylines suddenly make sense at the end, when you see how the thread of connection was running through them the whole time, and that's exactly what happened here. The last third of this book really made me love it.
It's hard to describe this book and what it made me feel, but I think it's best described as an ode to storytelling and how stories can connect us across space and time. I do perhaps wish some different editing choices were made in the first half, but if you can trudge through it, the ending is definitely worth it.
Thanks so much to Libro.fm, Simon Audio, and the author for my ALC!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Bullying, Death, Grief, Hate crime, Homophobia, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Violence, and War
unphilosophize's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
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
4.0
This book is so much different than Doerr’s first.
I love the way the narratives intertwined
Zeno’s story was by far my favourite
Comp to cloud atlas in feel. Also aspects of station eleven
I feel I need to think about this book more
I love the way the narratives intertwined
Zeno’s story was by far my favourite
Comp to cloud atlas in feel. Also aspects of station eleven
I feel I need to think about this book more
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Bullying, Death, Grief, Homophobia, Islamophobia, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Racism, Religious bigotry, Violence, and Xenophobia
Moderate: Animal cruelty and Animal death
Minor: Dementia
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