Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell

[Themasterandmargaritas]

Anyone else read it? I just didn't get it at all. How do all those stories tie in together?

Gave up on it! Sorry.

Its a while but I thing it is minor things like the russian gangsters get in trouble because the diabetic lawyer doesn't complete something. Good but v disturbing.

I had to read it twice TBH but the second time it made sense.
Not read it in a few motnhs so will se if I can remember. All the stories are linked but all set in different times, and theyall lead on from each other, so the first is set in one period and the next chapter is set decades before or after (can't remember which way)
So that roboty/clone girl who escaped is the face in the 'magic box' that the people who live like peasants have, which means that that is the far future.

Does that make sense? Will dig out book and have a browse to see if I can explain better. It really took the second read for my brain to 'click'

It was over-complicated but beautifully written in parts so I ended up liking it.

I liked it, some parts more than others. Particularly liked An Orison of Somni whatever, liked the story but hated the dialect of the after-the-end scenario.

In each story the person was reading (or watching) the previous story and they got interrupted at the point the story cuts off.

There's also some gumpf about a matching birthmark.

What's the deal with the birthmark? They are all descendants? But I don't understand the role of Adam Ewing, the American on the boat either?

The only bit I did get was the escaped enlightened clone and then the future with her as a 'god'.

I also liked the way the power station conspiracy tied into the gambling aristocrat musician.

But how do they tie together?

I felt rather unsatisfied and quite stuped when I finished it last night.

It's either very clever or we're very gullible.

I really enjoyed it, thought there was a lot of food for thought and that it was brilliantly written.

But didn't understand it! Perhaps I need to read it again.

They can't all be descendants - for a start Lusia Rey is a fictional story that someone has written, which means that the stories within her story (letters from Zedelthingy, and the Pacific Journal) are also made up.

I enjoyed the different stories and was gripped by it until towards the end when my interest waned and I didn't finish it. Think I was a few pages from the end but didn't see the point.

Yes true, but I don't think Luisa Rey had a birthmark did she?

I thought it was so boring. Well, the first 100 pages were.

I really loved it. In fact this thread has made me want to read it again - I also liked the orison of somni story.

I have a penchant for literature set in an imaginary future though.

I really enjoyed this, the connection is the birthmark? Did anyone else notice how one of the stories is the same concept as "Solent Green"?

Yama - the doctor on the boat was poisoning Adam Ewing on purpose, not 'curing' him at all. I think the native guy saves his life. If you read that far then you didn't miss anything.

Misswoowoo, I spotted that coming, I am always on teh lookout for a good 'Soylent' twist

I did like it but the first read just confused me, I enjoyed teh writing and the stories but didn't see how they added up until I went straight back and re-read it.

I HATED it, especially Sloosha's bloddy crossing.
Lots of really basic grammatical errors, too, that the characters in the novel would never have made.

I really liked it. I read Black Swan Green after Cloud Atlas, and two of the characters from Cloud Atlas popped up in it - Madame Crommelynck and Robert Frobisher.

I think David Mitchell is very talented.

Thanks Trillian. I knew about the poisoning. Glad the boy saves his life. I might actually pick it up again and read the last few pages.

doh. I have read black swan green, not cloud atlas.

I loved it and all his books so far, all in different ways, can't wait for the new release later in the year

the other things all parts/ stories were written in different styles and not always from a reliable narrator

even when it is an exercise in style it felt quite compelling

I thought it was pretty amazing when I read it

may dig it out again...

I liked it very much when I read it a few years ago, but I can remember absolutely nothing about it, even after reading this thread. Nothing. Must have been newborn baby brain or something. It's actually rather scary.

Sorry, am not contributing much to your thread here OP.

Sorry have just realied my comment was about ghostwritten also by DM. Haven't read Black swan green (atm can't read anything more complicated than Harry Potter) but am feeling all inspired to go and have another read of some of them.