6 stories held together by the thinnest of threads (Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell)

Member Name: funkimunki

Product:	Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
Date:	13/10/08 (72 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Some interesting takes on a future world

Disadvantages: Tenuous links!

I picked this book up from the library mainly because of the cover (shallow, I know!) and decided to take it home after reading that the book would be a tale of 6 inter-connected stories that span from the 19th century to the post apocalyptic future'. I feel my first warning should be that, whilst the book does indeed span the time it mentions, it's the smallest of threads that keeps these 6 stories connected.

The first story tells of Adam Ewing and his voyage from an island with Maori locals to his home town of California. He's ill, and there is a 'blackie' stow-away but apart from this, not a great deal else happens. The story stops mid sentence and we are on to a new chapter.

Robert Frobishner, an English society boy, has travelled to Belgium to work with a renowned composer, Ayrs. Arys is moody and irrational, with an unfaithful wife (as Robert Finds out). Robert happens to be reading a book but only has one half......can you guess which book it is? Yep, the one about Adam Ewing. Tenuous doesn't even begin to describe the connection! He's writing all of his experiences to his friend/lover (?) Rufus Sixsmith.

The further stories cover Luisa Rey who is a journalist uncovering a scandal at a nuclear power plant - Rufus Sixsmith happens to now be a nuclear physicist and Luisa gets hold of the letter that Robert wrote to Luisa - this is the next tenuous link.
Our next Chapter covers Timothy Cavendish, a publisher who has a manuscript from....Luisa Rey. Next is the turn of a future where people are created by a greed-fueled corporation where we meet Sonmi 451 whose story engaged me much more. The last story goes further into the future covering a time after a great devastation to earth. This was a difficult one to read due to the language being a form English that has been broken down and moved on (similar to Will Self's 'Book of Dave').

I won't go on too much but, safe to say, the 'inter-connected' stories are nothing of the sort, which is a shame really as, as separate stories, they have a certain appeal. All but the last two stories, about a genomed female and a time after 'the fall', were generally rather dull for me. The futuristic stories do provide some interesting thinking on are our current society and I found these much more interesting - I would have liked to know a lot more about these.

I persevered with this book as I was convinced that, at some point, there would be a light bulb moment where everything came together. It never happened and, as a result, left me rather disappointed

Summary: Dissapointing end to all 6 stories - a long read for little payback