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beriboo's Reviews (411)
I first heard about this book through a friend of a friend who told me that this was possibly his favorite book. About 3 days late a co-worker came over to me with the book and told me I would love it so lent me her copy.
Based on these two encounters I probably started reading the book expecting too much out of it, because, for me, it did not really deliver.
I'll give a quick summary so that my comments make a little sense, but will try not to give too much away!!
Cloud Atlas focuses 6 main characters, who come from different parts of the world and different Centuries too. It's all about how their lives entwine together, and has the constant underlying theme of the human race's need for power.
I found the first part with the first character, quite difficult to get into, maybe it was because I knew that I wouldn't be with this character long or because the idea of the book doesn't really kick in until later on. Half way through the second part I was intrigued and then in the third part I was hooked.
Despite there being so many characters in the book, David Mitchell does an excellent job at allowing the reader to really get to know each of them, and all of the main characters are so different, but written so well.
I loved reading each of their adventures and then finding out how they all connected, and once you go past the post apocalyptic story and start going backwards being re-introduced to all of the different characters, you are just so engrossed in all their stories and so eager to find out what's happened since we left them. I thought the 'story in a story' process of how they linked back with each other was very clever too.
Basically I feel the negative points of the book are far less than the positive.
During the post-apocalyptic part, I found myself being really annoyed with the way it was wrote phonetically. I know that sounds silly but I was struggling to understand what was being said, and was frustrated that i wasn't sure what accent this was supposed to be, so in my head it was a cross between a hill billy and a 2 year old.
Also the way in which all the characters are connected, I didn't twig at first, I thought they were all distant relatives/descendants in some way. So when it was said out right I felt a bit deflated and almost let down by a book I thought was talking about one thing, but actually had a hidden meaning. My fault, according to my friend of a friend that bit was pretty obvious!
In all it is a good book, the 3 starts are probably more a reflection of my disappointment after thinking I was about to read a book that would become a favorite, and it not living up to my expectations!
Based on these two encounters I probably started reading the book expecting too much out of it, because, for me, it did not really deliver.
I'll give a quick summary so that my comments make a little sense, but will try not to give too much away!!
Cloud Atlas focuses 6 main characters, who come from different parts of the world and different Centuries too. It's all about how their lives entwine together, and has the constant underlying theme of the human race's need for power.
I found the first part with the first character, quite difficult to get into, maybe it was because I knew that I wouldn't be with this character long or because the idea of the book doesn't really kick in until later on. Half way through the second part I was intrigued and then in the third part I was hooked.
Despite there being so many characters in the book, David Mitchell does an excellent job at allowing the reader to really get to know each of them, and all of the main characters are so different, but written so well.
I loved reading each of their adventures and then finding out how they all connected, and once you go past the post apocalyptic story and start going backwards being re-introduced to all of the different characters, you are just so engrossed in all their stories and so eager to find out what's happened since we left them. I thought the 'story in a story' process of how they linked back with each other was very clever too.
Basically I feel the negative points of the book are far less than the positive.
During the post-apocalyptic part, I found myself being really annoyed with the way it was wrote phonetically. I know that sounds silly but I was struggling to understand what was being said, and was frustrated that i wasn't sure what accent this was supposed to be, so in my head it was a cross between a hill billy and a 2 year old.
Also the way in which all the characters are connected, I didn't twig at first, I thought they were all distant relatives/descendants in some way. So when it was said out right I felt a bit deflated and almost let down by a book I thought was talking about one thing, but actually had a hidden meaning. My fault, according to my friend of a friend that bit was pretty obvious!
In all it is a good book, the 3 starts are probably more a reflection of my disappointment after thinking I was about to read a book that would become a favorite, and it not living up to my expectations!
