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Cloud Atlas

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Cloud Atlas

By: David Mitchell
Narrated by: Garrick Hagon, Jeff Harding, Steve Hodson, Regina Reagan, Liza Ross, David Thorpe
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About this listen

Cloud Atlas, David Mitchell's best-selling Man Booker Prize-shortlisted novel which was also one of Richard & Judy's 100 Books of the Decade, has now been adapted for film. The major motion picture, directed by Lana Wachowski, Tom Tykwer, and Andy Wachowski, stars Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Susan Sarandon, Jim Sturgess, Ben Whishaw, Jim Broadbent, Hugo Weaving, Doona Bae, James D'Arcy, Zhou Xun, Keith David, and Hugh Grant.

The novel features six characters in interlocking stories, each interrupting the one before it: a reluctant voyager crossing the Pacific in 1850; a disinherited composer blagging a precarious livelihood in between-the-wars Belgium; a high-minded journalist in Governor Reagan's California; a vanity publisher fleeing his gangland creditors; a genetically modified dinery server on death row; and Zachry, a young Pacific islander witnessing the nightfall of science and civilisation.

The narrators of Cloud Atlas hear one another's echoes down the corridor of history and their destinies are changed in ways great and small.

Mitchell's other novels are Ghostwritten, Number9Dream, Black Swan Green and The Thousand Autums of Jacob de Zoet, all published by Sceptre.

©2005 David Mitchell (P)2007 RNIB Publishing Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Fiction Thought-Provoking Inspiring

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I think the different narrators did well with a difficult book. The book itself is a bit over ambitious and doesn't quite deliver but it was entertaining enough.

Cloud Atlas

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From the opening of the book and through the various stories, the way the characters and the theme develop is cleverly manipulated by the author. Each story is left hanging as the book follows a hyperbolic curve and joins the tales again to their conclusion towards the end of the novel.

Well written, superbly narrated and subtly compelling; this is a must listen for all ages.

Wonderful Ride with Multiple Twists

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This is a complex, interweaving of several different stories set in various times in history that are interlinked. Wonderfully written and well worth taking time to listen to.

A complex story, wonderfully written

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As someone who always considered reading an actual book to be the best way to consume an author’s work, I have to stand down finally. Cloud Atlas is a marvellous creation of polyphony and I would have admired it anyway... but the narrators chosen for the differing characters couldn’t have been more perfect.
The part which most dazzled me - and it truly took my breath away - was the opening section of Sonmi-451’s story as a ‘fabricant’ in a server in an underground Korean diner in the distant-ish future. The language she uses is a chillingly innocent bastardisation of ours - for instance sunrise is “yellow-up” - and her limited consciousness and pliability is a product of all the dystopian tropes we’re familiar with, and then some. But it was the synthetic quality of her voice and the voice of the ‘archivist’ recording her singular experience that made it come so powerfully to life, as it were.
If you’re up for a long listen (and you need to pay full attention while you do) then this is an immensely satisfying choice. Thank you, David Mitchell, for such an excellent book, and thank you, Audible, for bringing it to my attention.

Astonishingly inventive; fantastically narrated

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Some of the stories were really captivating, particularly the Orison of Sonmi and the Luisa Rey mystery. however, I found Sloosha's crossing unlistenable due to the very artificial accent, it gave me a headache so I skipped the story. I also cringed at the poorly pronounced Spanish names in Luisa Rey's story. Lots of room for improvement.

Some amazing stories +narration, and some not so

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Excellent quality production! Thank you to all the voice actors! The story is of course mind blowing

Mesmerising

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Still don’t understand the link between the various stories, or why it’s structured the way it is (perhaps a gimmick?) but the audible performances are superb and the stories in themselves quite interesting.

6 completely different stories…

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Typically time shifting, story intertwining and interconnecting story telling. Some wonderfully time defining language used. A very good book.
However, in the Audio book the Narration is adequate at best but often poor. You get the impression the recording is the first time the Narrators have read the book through, especially the first section. Jerky, amateur and frankly spoils the story irrepairably.

A very good and Intriguing book, poor Narration

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I loved this vast and powerful novel - so creative in its approach, it had me hooked although was admittedly a little difficult to get into. Stick with it - you will reap the rewards!

Stunning!

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I came across this book from watching the movie I usually don't try out good films for books because you usually love one or the other . but I was enthralled by the story, Enchanted by the mystery and simply swept away by the beauty of an epic tail of love, struggles and Destiny.

there are no words only Beauty

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