Mitchell's almost comically ambitious novel is indeed a kind of cumulus: a wild and woolly condensation of ideas, styles and far-flung milieus whose only true commonality is the reincarnated soul at its center. The book's six nesting narratives - from 1850s New Zealand through 1930s Belgium, groovy California, recent-ish England, dystopian Korea and Hawaii - also often feel like a ... Read morepostmodern puzzle-box that whirls and clicks as its great world(s) spin, throwing off sparks of pulp, philosophy and fervid humanism
100 best books of the 21st century
New York Times
Remarkable . . . it knits together science fiction, political thriller and historical pastiche with musical virtuosity and linguistic exuberance
Guardian
An impeccable dance of genres . . . an elegiac, radiant festival of prescience, meditation and entertainment
The Times
His wildest ride yet . . . a singular achievement, from an author of extraordinary ambition and skill
Independent on Sunday
David Mitchell entices his readers onto a rollercoaster, and at first they wonder if they want to get off. Then - at least in my case - they can't bear the journey to end
A. S. Byatt
Guardian
A magnificent tour de force
Time Out
A glorious puzzle for the reader . . . Mitchell's storytelling in Cloud Atlas is of the best
Independent
An impeccably structured novel of ideas in many voices
Literary Editor's Best Books
Observer
A novel of breathtaking ambition and scale, spanning continents, oceans and centuries
Independent
Funny, exciting, imaginative and energetic
Evening Standard
A virtuoso performance . . . deeply impressive
Daily Telegraph
The way Mitchell inhabits the different voices of the novel is close to miraculous . . . No other British novelist, to my mind, combines such a darkly futuristic intelligence with such polyphonic ease
Robert Macfarlane
Sunday Times
His most accomplished achievement to date . . . a novel in the biggest, most exhilarating sense
Observer
Gloriously inventive and dazzlingly virtuosic
Independent on Sunday
A thrilling ride of a story
Observer
Tremendous . . . one of the most shamelessly exciting books imaginable
Spectator
Stunning . . . One of those rare books that manages to be enormously clever while resisting the temptation to show off
Daily Mail
Reassuringly excellent
Times Literary Supplement
Engrossing
Financial Times
Mitchell writes as though at the helm of some perpetual dream machine, can evidently do anything, and his ambition is written in magma across this novel's every page
New York Times Book Review
This isn't just one brilliant book, it's a collection of six completely different brilliant books
Sunday Independent
Mind-bogglingly good
Elle
One of those how-the-holy-hell-did-he-do-it? modern classics that no doubt is - and should be - read by any student of contemporary literature
Dave Eggers Astonishing . . . essential fiction for the 21st century
Independent
Not just dazzling, amusing, or clever but heartbreaking and passionate, too. I've never read anything quite like it
Michael Chabon An intense, arcing colossus of a book whose narrative links, supplied by the voices of six main characters, are spun out into a unified theory of everything: history, human evolution, science, the will to power. The voices span epochs, continents, and genres . . . Mitchell has rightly commanded attention for the sheer breadth and energy of his composition . . . I am moved by (his) talent
Prospect
It takes only a few pages of any part of this masterful feast of a novel to make you want to read the rest
Evening Standard
David Mitchell may well be possessed of genius . . . As well-plotted, entertaining narrative, Cloud Atlas succeeds on many levels. As political and cultural fable, with an unerring humanist sense of the dangerous will to power that lies at the dark heart of man, it's visionary
Irish Independent
As mind-bending in its ideas as it is accessible on the page . . . It pretty much resists hyperbole simply by being better than you'd ever dare hope
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