David Mitchell: A Cloud Atlas

I've never been a huge science fiction fan and Cloud Atlas, while nominated for the Arthur C. Clarke award, didn't really read like science fiction...well some of it didn't anyway and I guess that's where it gets complicated.

This book is unlike any other book I've ever read. It actually consists of six stories, all nested together and has been compared to the Russian dolls that all fit inside one another. With the exception of the middle story, each story is cut off part way through (one of them mid-sentence) only to be picked up again later:

1 2 3 4 5 6 6 5 4 3 2 1

I found it challenging to have to start a new story, with a new voice, and a new perspective each and every time and there often wasn't a lot connecting the stories together. I really enjoyed it though, perhaps because it was so challenging. It was so unique in its approach to story telling that I was compelled to keep going, even when I found some of the language to be difficult. A couple of the stories were set in the future or post-apocalyptic times and the language had obviously evolved (or regressed) to a point where it no longer sounded like English. I would have to re-read sentences in my head in order to really understand them and at times I found this taxing. The plot was interesting though and even though the stories were being interrupted you still felt a real connection with the characters.

I have to be honest and say that I'm not sure I really got it. There was certainly a connection between all the characters and this was hinted at throughout but at the end I didn't really understand what that connection was. I have been on a few websites looking for the greater literary significance which I have obviously missed and it appears that there isn't any. Reincarnation is obviously a thread that runs throughout the 6 stories and there are hints that the different characters may actually be the same soul but it's not very clear and it doesn't really play into the story either way. I felt sort of happy that I wasn't missing any obvious statements but a little disappointed that there weren't any to miss.

It's good to read a different genre and this book was different in almost every way. I liked it and although I will most-likely never become a sci-fi junkie it's good to give the old brains cells a stretch every once and awhile.