I've just finished reading David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas which my step-mum lent to me ages and ages ago. The story is divided into six nested chunks spanning several hundred years of human history from the colonisation of Polynesia through to some dark distant post-apocalypic Hawaii, needless to say with plenty of trills and flourishes along the way. People keep going on about russian dolls when describing the structure but I think it's more like working your way round a cheese board. You get 5 first-halves, the 6th story complete and then the remaining 5 second-halves. It did take me quite a while to get through the first segment and other reviewers seem to agree that it's a touch weak - but then I picked up momentum and tore through the rest.
To my mind the "Sonmi" story had a few too many recycled sci-fi ideas in it and I did find myself a bit ahead of the plot at times. Then again I suppose I do like my post-apocalytica. I absolutley loved the "Timothy Cavendish" story with it's British railway and nursing-home nightmares and was positively screaming at the end of the first Luisa Ray segment. I also really enjoyed the sense of detail and knowing of place which permeated throughout from Bruges to Hull. Oh and watch out for "Old Georgie".
All in all it does add up to a grim tale and reminds us that we are slaves to civilisation. But hey there is always a way to escape if you can navigate right.
