Reddit reviews Cloud Atlas

Thanks to an ordering mistake, I read a novel about this called The Cloud Atlas, not to be confused with that somewhat more famous book.

They were both pretty great.

Surprised I have seen NO mention of David Mitchell in this subreddit! I am about halfway through Black Swan Green, will have finished his complete collection this summer, his writing is unbelievable! New favourite author hands down..

1. Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
   
2. 9/10
   
3. Contemporary Fiction, Sci-Fi, Literature
   
4. David Mitchell is a literary genius!
   
5. Amazon
   
   they have made it into a movie! Here is the TRAILER

I would check out The Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell. It starts out historical moves forward into sci-fi and then goes backwards to historical again. It's hard to explain but it is a very rewarding read and one I pick up periodically just to reread again.

I also liked Girl In Landscape by Jonathon Lethem and Dune by Frank Herbert a lot and both have been good rereads.

Oh! And The Nightrunner Series by Lynn Flewelling which I inhaled.

The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay

Watership Down

Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell

The Cider House Rules by John Irving

Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky

Perhaps The Life of Pi, or this magnificent bastard, or maybe Lamb. Maybe, if you are up for a challenge, you could try either [Hardboiled Wonderland and the End of the World] and/or Cloud Atlas. Careful with Cloud Atlas, there is another book by the same title. The one you're looking for is written by David Mitchell. If that doesn't work, report back and we'll figure something else out.

• The Wind Up Girl
  
  El mundo luego del petróleo quedó algo así como una mezcla de Steam punk con rastros de hiper tecnología, todo basado en las calorías, la nueva fuente de energía.
  
  Muy buena novela.
  
  
  
  
• Cloud Atlas
  
  No tiene nada que ver con la (BOSTA de) película, olvídense de la peli, lean el libro, buenísimo, incluso conceptualmente, cómo está escrito.
  
  
  
• The Intel Trinity
  
  La historia de cómo y porqué Intel es lo que es. Muy, muy interesante.
  
  
  
  
• The Interstellar Age
  
  La historia del diseño, la creación y de las misiones Voyager, idealmente, se podría leer antes o después de ver The Farthest.
  
  
  
• The Years of Rice and Salt
  
  Una ucronia o historia alternativa.
  
  Europa no sobrevive a La Peste Negra, y Oriente termina "invadiendo las ruinas". Muere el cristianismo, y el mundo avanza basándose en las religiones orientales, fundamentalmente el islamismo y el budismo.
  
  Lenta, pero muy interesante.
  

The structure sounds like Cloud Atlas, although the plot doesn't.

A couple Some of the selections from r/SF Book Club that deal predominantly with the day to day lives of the characters spring to mind:

• The Dervish House by Ian McDonald
  
  
• The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi
  
  
• Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell (only one strand of the story is really SF)

which one?

http://www.amazon.com/Cloud-Atlas-Novel-David-Mitchell/dp/0375507256/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1347455200&sr=1-1&keywords=cloud+atlas

or

http://www.amazon.com/Cloud-Atlas-Liam-Callanan/dp/0385336950/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1347455200&sr=1-2&keywords=cloud+atlas

I've seen this book recommended so many times and I was just about to download it when whoops....

It's been a while since I've checked in. Last week I finally finished the Chaos Walking trilogy by getting around to reading the third book Monsters of Men. I absolutely loved this series and I seriously hope the author is planning on writing more. It was nice, he wrapped up the storyline but also left it a point that was basically the starting of another story. I really wanted to find out what happens next. This series is definitely one of my favorites of the year so far.

I've started on Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell. I'm trying really hard with this one but it just doesn't seem to be working for me so far. It isn't calling me to keep going back to it. I've had it on my shelf for quite some time now, and have been meaning to get to it, but haven't. When I saw the trailer for the movie, I got re-interested in it again and want to read it before the movie comes out. I've only gotten like 50 or 60 pages in though after a couple of days, so I am worried I might give up on it. It's definitely more difficult than some of the other books I have been reading so I think that might be giving me some trouble.

I am also working on Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld. I've been wanting to get into this one for a few months. I've been in a steam punk kind of mood and this one seemed interesting. It's a alternative version of the events leading up to and during World War I in Europe. It's fun but it's a lot more simple and easier than I was expecting. Shouldn't take long to finish this. I attempted to set a to-be-read list for the next couple of months to get to ones I really wanted to but already this one is making me deviate from it...

There are so many great books! The Brontes' work, Jane Austen, War and Peace, everything by Dostoyevsky....Sometimes it takes a while to get into certain of the great books, but they always pay off.

Also, in case you haven't read them, check out David Mitchell's early work--Ghostwritten, Number9Dream, and Cloud Atlas all are brilliant.

• My father enjoys Turtledove's alternative history novels
  
• Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell for a dystopian/post-apocalyptic
  
• Ghosts of Cannae by Robert O'Connel for history
  
• A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson for history
  
• A Fire Upon the Deep by Vinge for sci-fi
  
• The Quantum Thief by Hannu Rajaniemi for another sci-fi

There are a couple of post-apocalpytic novels I can think of that no one ever mentions, which are shorter on zombies and fireworks and longer on human relationships.

Into the Forest

Engine Summer, which is a really extraordinary book that I wish more people would read.

A couple more lesser-known ones:

False Dawn by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro.

Always Coming Home by Ursula LeGui

The Wild Shore by Kim Stanley Robinson

The City, Not Long After by Pat Murphy

And how could I forget Cloud Atlas by Douglas Mitchell. The post-apocalytpic nature is not really apparent until almost half-way through the book.

back to the beginning

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Current Selection#####

• Echopraxia by Peter Watts [Echopraxia]. Began September 3rd.
  
  
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  Past Selections#####
  

  
  

  2014######
  

  
  

• The Songs of Distant Earth by Arthur C. Clarke [Songs]. Began August 6th.
  
  
• 2312 by Kim Stanley Robinson [2312]. Began July 7th.
  
  
• The Crystal World by J. G. Ballard [crystal]. Began June 4th.
  
  
• The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon [Lot49]. Began May 7th.
  
  
• The Lilith's Brood Trilogy by Octavia Butler [lilith]. Began April 7th.
  
  
• Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie [Justice]. Began March 6th.
  
  
• [Invisible Cities] (http://www.amazon.com/Invisible-Cities-Italo-Calvino/dp/0156453800) by Italo Calvino [Invisible]. Began February 5th.
  
  
• Machine Man by Max Barry [Machine]. Began January 1st.
  
  

  2013######
  

  
  

• House of Suns by Alastair Reynolds [suns]. Began December 5th.
  
  
• Singularity Sky by Charles Stross [singularity]. Began November 4th.
  
  
• Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood [Oryx and Crake]. Began October 7th.
  
  
• The Gone-Away World by Nick Harkaway [gone-away]. Began September 3rd.
  
  
• The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin [dispossessed]. Began August 2nd.
  
  
• The Hydrogen Sonata by Iain M. Banks [sonata]. Began July 3rd.
  
  
• Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clark [rama]. Began June 3rd.
  
  
• Jack Glass by Adam Roberts [glass]. Began May 3rd.
  
  
• Of Men and Monsters by William Tenn [monsters]. Began April 3rd.
  
  
• Solaris by Stanisław Lem [solaris]. Began March 3rd.
  
  
• Altered Carbon by Richard K. Morgan [carbon]. Began February 1.
  
  
• The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson [diamond]. Began January 4th.
  
  

  2012######
  

  
  

• Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke [childhood]. Began December 1st.
  
  
• Ship of Fools by Richard Paul Russo (aka Unto Leviathan) [fools]. Began November 3rd.
  
  
• Dying Inside by Robert Silverberg [dying]. Began October 4th.
  
  
• China Mountain Zhang by Maureen F. McHugh [china]. Began September 4th.
  
  
• Labyrinths by Jorge Luis Borges [labyrinths]. Began August 4th.
  
  
• The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury [martian]. Began July 2nd.
  
  
• The Mote in God's Eye by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle [mote]. Began June 1st.
  
  
• Roadside Picnic by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky [picnic]. Began May 2nd.
  
  
• The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester [Destination]. Began April 2nd.
  
  
• Diaspora by Greg Egan [diaspora]. Began March 5th.
  
  
• Stories by Ted Chiang [Chiang]. Began February 3rd.
  
  
• Grass by Sheri S. Tepper [grass]. Began January 2nd.
  
  

  2011######
  

  
  

• Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny [lord]. Began December 5th.
  
  
• Zones of Thought Trilogy by Vernor Vinge [zones], [fire], [deepness], [children]. Began October 28th.
  
  
• Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami [Wonderland]. Began October 3rd.
  
  
• Ready Player One by Ernest Cline [rp1]. Began September 1st.
  
  
• Rule 34 by Charles Stross [Rule 34]. Began August 2nd.
  
  
• The Quantum Thief by Hannu Rajaniemi [quantum]. Began July 1st.
  
  
• Embassytown by China Miéville [Embassytown]. Began June 1st.
  
  
• The Dervish House by Ian McDonald [dervish]. Began May 2nd.
  
  
• The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. LeGuin [LHoD]. Began April 5th.
  
  
• A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr. [canticle]. Began March 1st.
  
  
• Inverted World by Christopher Priest [inverted world]. Began February 1st.
  
  
• The City & the City by China Miéville [the city]. Began January 1st.
  
  

  2010######
  

  
  

• Surface Detail by Iain M. Banks [surface]. Began December 3rd.
  
  
• Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell [cloud atlas]. Began November 3rd.
  
  
• Anathem by Neal Stephenson [anathem]. Began October 1st.
  
  
• Blindsight by Peter Watts [blindsight]. Began September 1st.
  
  
• The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi [windup]. Began August 1st.
  
  
• The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect by Roger Williams [MoPI]. Began July 15th.

I do! The Marriage Plot is on its way to me via Amazon. To balance out the highbrow, I also ordered Messy by the Go Fug Yourself girls.

The last book I finished was Cloud Atlas.

And I just remembered I have Steve Jobs' bio waiting for me in the Nook. Dammit, keep forgetting about that.

Anyone else forget about books because they're on an e-reader instead of sitting on the table, reminding you to be read?

Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell. Amazon

The book is six separate yet interwoven stories. I actually got more out of it in my second reading than the first. It spans times & places; each of the stories has a unique style that clearly distinguishes each. The change from one story to another can seem a little jarring until the second half of the book.

The book is highly worth reading, it's easily my favourite.

http://www.amazon.com/Cloud-Atlas-Novel-David-Mitchell/dp/0375507256

It's a book.

First and foremost, don't be ashamed of what you love. Tale of Two Cities is considered one of the greatest books ever because it is. It's a masterwork. And you shouldn't be ashamed of recognizing that.

Other people have suggested some great classics. You can't go wrong with those. But it sounds (to me) like you might be looking for something a bit more modern, and perhaps a bit more niche. So I'll make some suggestions along those lines:

The Thousand Autums of Jacob de Zoet, by David Mitchell

Let me admit this up front. I've been immediately buying everything this guy writes. I'm a fan. But dangit, he's been nominated for two Man Booker prizes. He can write.

The Thousand Autumns is set in 1800 in a small town in Japan, where Westerners are permitted to stay, but are forbidden to enter the rest of Japan. Jacob is a trader with the Dutch East India Company who comes to make his fortune so that he can marry his Dutch fiancee. When he arrives, he meets a Japanese midwife named Orito with a scar on her face. Jacob falls in love. But this book is not just a love story. Every character is richly drawn, and each has their own arc. Politics and culture feature prominently. It really is a beautiful book. And it shares some of the epic reach of Tale of Two Cities.

Having said that, I would heartily recommend anything by David Mitchell. Cloud Atlas is probably his best known book, and it's a wonderful group of inter-connected stories from different genres tied together by a central theme and with a unique structure. I've recommended that one to friends, and they all praised it.

The Wind Up Bird Chronicle, by Haruki Murakami

This one is a bit different, and definitely a bit more niche. Murakami is a Japanese writer who became sort of hip here in the U.S. a few years back. He writes with a style that I've heard described as "magical realism." It's is utterly realistic in its presentation, but then it will have a talking cat or an alternate dimension. His stories sort of feel like modern fables. And there's a sense of loneliness and fatalism in his books.

I'm not sure that any plot description is going to do a Murakami book justice, but I'll give a short one anyway. Toru loses his job, and wife his orders him to find their cat before disappearing herself. Wind Up Bird is mostly about the cast of characters and events in the subsequent journey.

I almost suggested 1Q84 instead of Wind Up Bird because it felt (to me) more similar to Tale of Two Cities. But 1Q84 is a very long book, and a very slow burn. When I was about 500 pages in, a friend asked me whether I was enjoying it, and I ended up talking about Murakami's style, and not this story. Because the story hadn't grabbed me yet. While I ended up enjoying 1Q84 more than Wind Up Bird, I'm not sure I can recommend that you slog through 1,000+ pages without being pretty sure you're going to enjoy his style. Wind Up Bird is a better -- and shorter -- introduction to Murakami, and it's considered his classic anyway.

Strong recommendation for David Mitchell's The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet (Dutch clerk in late 18th/early 19th century Dejima, lots of depth, gorgeous prose) and for Walter Moers's Rumo and his Miraculous Adventures (fantastical but oddly profound; I'd pick it up even if it doesn't sound like something you'd enjoy). I finished both of these very recently and they were amazing. They hopped right on my list of favourite books, if I'm honest.

Otherwise, I'd very much recommend my all-time favourites: Le Petit Prince (in French or English), Under Milk Wood, Cloud Atlas, and To Kill a Mockingbird (which is always worth a re-read, too).

I included Amazon links so that you know exactly which books I'm talking about, but please consider buying from local bookshops!

They have a similar warning on the Cloud Atlas novel.

Does anyone know any other times Amazon has had to put those warnings on their products?

Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell and Specimen Days by Michael Cunningham immediately come to mind.

READ THIS BOOK - it is one of the best books I've ever read. Just amazing vision and scope. I had no idea they were making it into a movie. Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell.

I FINALLY have free time to read. I started on Cloud Atlas at the suggestion of a friend, and... well, I'm not far into it, but the vocabulary is fantastically challenging. I'm reading it on my Kindle, and I have to look up ~1-2 words per paragraph. I like books that teach me new words :).

The book was made into a film, which I hope to see once I've finished reading the novel. The soundtrack is great!

I also really loved A Suitable Boy. I think it's brilliant.

For a completely contrasting look at India, I recommend the white tiger by Aravind Adiga.

I think The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao is absolutely brilliant, one of the best novels of the last decade.

White Teeth is another really wonderful book about multiculturalism and immigrant life that really stands out.

For a rip-roaring old-fashioned adventure yarn, you can't do better than
Sea of Poppies.

Finally for some superior storytelling and brilliant narrative experimentation try Cloud Atlas or Ghostwritten

Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell

Seconding Cloud Atlas

I think the book is quite dense, and I took a whole summer to read it (not known for my blistering reading speeds, however). There are several different genres in this book, and I think David Mitchell did an outstanding job bringing each of them to life.

That moment when a word's meaning finally clicks after 30 pages... ahhhhhh

I love reading books! One of my all time favorites is Cloud Atlas! Anything by Jeffrey Eugenides is good too! <3

Everyone has problems, and existentially, your suffering is always going to be the maximum for you. Or whatever.

But one Starbucks coffee a week isn't going to improve the quality of your life appreciably. And something like Plumpynut, Oral Rehydration Salts, or vaccines to wipe out polio and measles cost almost nothing, but literally can save someone else's life who did nothing but choose their parents poorly.

It really does make a difference to set aside a little bit of money each month to make an unequal world more equitable. Your choices do matter, even if it's only $20 a month or less.

Even if it's not UNICEF, make part of your budget & life making sure those in need & those serving them have the resources to save & improve lives.

“My life amounts to no more than one drop in a limitless ocean. Yet what is any ocean, but a multitude of drops?”

I was extremely disappointed when I realized this had nothing to do with the OTHER David Mitchell.

http://www.amazon.com/Cloud-Atlas-Novel-David-Mitchell/dp/0375507256