Cloud Atlas - by David Mitchell

[€uroMeinke]

I just finished this one - and man what a read.

The "novel" itself is a series of 6 novellas each embedded in the next, each an object of the subsequent story, played out over time and genre. The odd structure made for some interesting reading dynamics, like I had to get to the middle of the book, to find out what all the stories were and how the built from one to another. It starts with a 19th century ships log, moves to a post WWI correspondence, a 70's spy thriller, contemporary first person narrative, to science fiction.

But aside from the structure it was a great read, the language is playful and full of references that had me laughing out loud at points, and had me engaged so that I was up reading till 3:30 AM on a school night.

Of course a great appeal to me, the themes borrow heavily from Nietzsche - Will to Power, Master & Slave Moralities, the Eternal Reocurance - and I think David Mitchell did a great job of capturing these ideas in fiction.

I'll stop here before posting any spoilers and see if anyone else has taken this one on and would like to talk more about it.