I loved 'Cloud Atlas'.

The variety of voices and characters impressed me, but not to the extent of alienating me by its 'cleverness'. I became lost in each story and couldn't wait to follow each character's progression. It was so difficult to leave each section and to start a new one, but then so easy to fall into the new one too.

Kia

Yes, Wax, definitely a great book. Frobisher was my favourite too, and the old rascally agent, Cavendish. Each time I go back to it, I find something more in it. But I must agree with Geoff that Ghostwritten is even better. It doesn't feel so planned and structured, and there are some amazing ideas in it.

But No 9 Dream I've started twice and am having trouble keeping on with it. It is a good story, or seems to be and is surprising and well written, but I haven't fallen for the MC yet.

New one, Black Swan Green, just out. Mmmmm.

Sharon

On the strength of Cloud Atlas, I'll definitely seek out Ghostwritten. I thought the writing was sharp and clever but also compellingly humble. It isn't often that a book raises so many differing emotions in me, but it certainly made me think about life, and that's always welcome.

JB

I'm a convert, having been reading Cloud Atlas on my bus journeys to and from jury service in Carlisle. The Robert Frobisher sections are wonderful, Luisa Rey also great. However, re. the book's structure I've been cheating - having read first Frobisher section, immediately skipped on to the second (too impatient to wait), then did the same with Luisa Rey. Did anyone else cheat in a similar way?

Frances

This must be sinking in. I had a dream I was reading this last night. Mind you, I also dreamt I was a soldier in WWII and woke up listening to Hans Christian Anderson. Strange night.

Strange nights are good nights aren't they, Colin? I dreamed I was standing by a tree which was where Stanislaus Lem's house used to be. Then it turned into a barky textured book with a face and punched me. Any one else got a wierd one? (Who called those men in white coats?)
Sharon

Ooh that is cheating, but can't say I wasn't tempted. I found the structure worked better read in the two halves as there was quite a clever play off about the varying bits of information. I wasn't that taken with the Timothy Cavendish bit at first, (***spoiler warning!***)found it very hammy and unbelievable, but then finding out it was a film-of-a-book-of-a-real-event-made sense.

I'm on nicotine patches at the moment, and they're notorious for giving one nightmares. The other night I dreamt me and my mate had stolen a Russian submarine loaded with uranium. There was a constant risk of radiation, the Russian army were after us, and then the sub got trapped under the ice of the arctic circle. It may sound quite adventurous (wicked! my housemate announced) but the whole thing was just creepy from start to finish.

Another one I had earlier this year was when these people came to me in a very vivid dream and asked me to fight the zombies in their patio. I defeated them in a kind of psychic battle, all these nineteenth century bodies just rotting and lying around on garden furniture at the back of this old mansion, and I awoke feeling very drained.

JB

Why am I not surprised you dream of zombies, Wax?

Bought Black Swan Green yesterday. Thirteen linked stories of a thirteen year old boy's life. Readable, but not sure about it yet.

Just bought Cloud Atlas yesterday; not that impressed with the first story (Adam Ewing) but, given JB's advice, I think i'll stick with it..

number9dream i thought was brilliant, apart from the ending, which i thought was less than brilliant...

interestingly, i was told by someone in the bizz that they doubt he would he have got his memoir-ish Black Swan Green publsihed if it was his first novel as 'coming of age' novels are out of fashion nowadays.. (i know we shouldn't try to pander to what's in fashion, but it might be a fair comment - when was the last new coming of age novel you read?)... the book has been getting a pretty underwhelming response so far in the uk, but apparently the yanks love this less experimental turn he's taken...

in fact, there's probably loads of cases where a writer wouldn't have got their third or fourth book published had it been their first... perks of having a great opening book i guess: you can write whatever shite you want after and it'll get published (not saying DM has done this, btw)

best coming of age novel EVER... the catcher in the rye, of course...!

I loved Catcher in the Rye. I only read it for the first time a year or so back. I tried the modern equivalent, Vernon God Little and got bored after page 10 - possibly earlier. I think it was the profanity that got me. I hate profanity. It really fucks me off.

I think you're right about the likeliehood of a coming of age book being published by a first time author. DM said something once about Black Swan Green being the kind of autobiographical stuff that is usually in a first novel, and there is stuff he might not have got away with then here, but it does deserve to be published. It's simplicity is deceptive in the way Curious incident of the dog is.

It's great on the layers of power from playground bullying up through corporate versions to international war games.

I found the structure slightly annoying because although there's a through narrative, and there's no mucking about with the timeline, the chapters are individual stories and I was often left with the feeling of a thread unfinished. The threads do get finished off later in other stories, but in the background, so there's no dramatic resolution.

I can't give you a full example without spoilers, but if you read it, the chapter Spooks is a prime example of this strategy. The outcome, which traditionally you'd be expecting in the next chapter, is conveyed a couple of chapters later in a couple of lines.

But it absolutely reeks of the era it's set in and of the period of adolescence it covers. I'm persuading my sixteen-year-old to read it because I think he would enjoy it, where I would never suggest he read Cloud Atlas. I could see it being read in schools; the narrator has the authentic quality of that age group, but also has the foreshadowings of the adult he'll become.

Very readable, worth a go. Let me know how you get on with it if you do read it. Sharon

Catcher in the Rye is marvellous and sad. I loved it too. Curious Incident was also a top read, so maybe I'll have a look for that book Sharon.

JB

I've decided to give Cloud Atlas another go.

Just reached page 10 and find I'm looking about for other books

Just reached page 10 and find I'm looking about for other books

Skip to Frobisher, Colin!

Frances

Never mind Colin. Horses for courses and all that. It wasn't meant as a test, I just liked it that's all, but it did take me up until the second 'novella' to relax and get into it. It isn't all set in history.

JB