Cloud Atlas is impressive as a work of literature, each story is well done and written in a variety of styles. I particularly enjoyed Sonmis and Zacharies stories which were the most connected of the 6. The connection between the others was quite loose, vague, and abstract. I was hoping some complex connection between the stories would appear but it didn't really, and having read people's reviews online I don't think I missed anything. I wasn't a great fan of splitting the stories in half's with such small connections, it felt like reading 5 books at once a d forgetting the first one by the time you get back to the 2nd half.