Cloud Atlas Review

I really admire the project of this book; it’s so incredibly ambitious and innovative. I’ve seen its influence on a lot of other novels, it has kind of spawned a whole micro-genre with books like Greenwood and Sea of Tranquility. (In all honesty, I DNF’d both of those. But I loved The Vanished Birds which I think is a bit less regimented and comes together to be much more than the sum of its parts. Highly recommended.) 

Some of the stories resonated with me more than others. Frobisher was my favorite; I liked his whimsical dandyishness. To me, his descriptions of music were the most interesting use of language in a book that plays around with it constantly. Adam Ewing felt like the only one with a genuine emotional throughline. Luisa Rey was my least favorite because I just found it to be extremely boring. Sonmi I also didn’t much like, because it treats extremely common sci-fi tropes as crazy and unexpected. I would have liked to see more originality in the content of the section, not just offbeat stylistic choices. 

The characters throughout the book were pretty flat, with few moments managing to really tug at me. There’s a lot of texture when it comes to tone and style, I just wish that could have been applied to the characters and their relationships. I especially wish we could have gotten more about Frobisher and Sixsmith. I also wanted more elaboration on the Sonmi-based religion in Sloosha’s Crossing.

I didn’t love the whole comet birthmark connection. I would have preferred the author either fully go for the connection between the different lives, or leave it more subtle. It felt like a weird in-between that didn’t totally work for me, especially because it wasn’t always brought up in a naturalistic way. 

Overall, a mixed bag. But I did enjoy reading it, and even when I didn’t enjoy reading it, something kept drawing me back. Maybe it was the challenge of it. It’s certainly a book that takes effort from the reader, which I found fun.