Cloud Atlas (novel)#Film adaptation

{{Short description|2004 novel by British author David Mitchell}}

{{Infobox book

| name = Cloud Atlas

| title_orig =

| translator =

| image = cloud atlas.jpg

| caption = First edition book cover

| author = David Mitchell

| cover_artist = E. S. Allen

| country = United Kingdom

| language = English

| series =

| genre = Science fantasy, drama

| published = 2004 (Sceptre)

| media_type = Print (Hardback & Paperback)

| pages = 544 (first edition, hardback)

| isbn = 0-340-82277-5

| isbn_note = (first edition, hardback)

| dewey= 823/.92 22

| congress= PR6063.I785 C58 2004b

| oclc= 53821716

| preceded_by =

| followed_by =

}}

Cloud Atlas, published in 2004, is the third novel by British author David Mitchell. The book combines metafiction, historical fiction, contemporary fiction and science fiction, with interconnected nested stories in different writing styles that take the reader from the remote South Pacific in the 19th century to the island of Hawaii in a distant post-apocalyptic future. Its title references a piece of music by Toshi Ichiyanagi.

It received awards from both the general literary community and the speculative fiction community, including the British Book Awards Literary Fiction award and the Richard & Judy Book of the Year award, it was also short-listed for the Booker Prize, Nebula Award for Best Novel, and Arthur C. Clarke Award. A film adaptation directed by the Wachowskis and Tom Tykwer, and featuring an ensemble cast, was released in 2012.

Plot summary

The book consists of six nested stories; each is read or observed by the protagonist of the next, progressing in time through the central sixth story. The first five stories are each interrupted at a pivotal moment. After the sixth story, the others are resolved in reverse chronological order.

=The Pacific Journal of Adam Ewing (Part 1)=

In the mid-19th century Chatham Islands, American lawyer Adam Ewing keeps a journal while his ship is repaired. He witnesses a Māori overseer flog enslaved Moriori Autua. Aboard the ship, Ewing’s only friend, Dr. Henry Goose, diagnoses him with a fatal parasite. Meanwhile, Autua stows away in Ewing’s cabin. After Ewing informs the Captain, Autua proves himself a skilled seaman and is allowed to work for passage to Hawaii.

=Letters from Zedelghem (Part 1)=

In 1931 Zedelghem, near Bruges, disowned and penniless English musician Robert Frobisher writes to his lover, Rufus Sixsmith. He becomes amanuensis to aging composer Vyvyan Ayrs, expanding Ayrs’s melody into Der Todtenvogel, which earns critical praise. Encouraged, Frobisher begins composing his own music. He has an affair with Ayrs’ wife, Jocasta, while her daughter Eva remains wary. He secretly sells Ayrs’ rare books, discovers the first half of The Pacific Journal of Adam Ewing, and asks Sixsmith to find the rest. As summer ends, Jocasta thanks him for reviving Ayrs’s creativity, and Frobisher agrees to stay until the following year.

=Half-Lives<nowiki>:</nowiki> The First Luisa Rey Mystery (Part 1)=

In 1975 Buenas Yerbas, California, journalist Luisa Rey meets elderly Rufus Sixsmith in a stalled elevator and tells him about her late father, a war correspondent. Sixsmith warns her that the Seaboard HYDRA nuclear plant is unsafe, then is later found dead in an apparent suicide. Suspecting foul play, Luisa believes the plant’s executives are eliminating whistleblowers. From Sixsmith’s hotel room, she retrieves Frobisher’s letters. Plant employee Isaac Sachs gives her a copy of Sixsmith’s report, but before she can go public, assassin Bill Smoke rams her car—containing the report—off a bridge.

=The Ghastly Ordeal of Timothy Cavendish (Part 1)=

In early 21st-century London, 65-year-old vanity publisher Timothy Cavendish sees a sales boom after his client kills a critic. Threatened by the client’s brothers, he seeks refuge, but his brother Denholme tricks him into entering an abusive nursing home, which Cavendish initially mistakes for a hotel. A failed escape attempt leads to public punishment. He mentions reading Half-Lives: The First Luisa Rey Mystery. As he settles in and begins plotting an escape, he suffers a stroke.

=An Orison of Sonmi-451 (Part 1)=

In 22nd-century Nea So Copros, a Korean state rooted in corporate culture, an Archivist records Sonmi-451’s testimony via an orison, a holographic recording device. Sonmi-451 is a clone, or "fabricant," working as a waitress at Papa Song's, part of a society where vat-grown clones serve as cheap labor. Their awareness is suppressed through a chemical-laced food called "Soap," and after twelve years, they are promised retirement in Honolulu.

Sonmi is rescued by Professor Mephi and student Hae-Joo Im, who help her gain self-awareness and attend university. She watches The Ghastly Ordeal of Timothy Cavendish, but the session is interrupted when a student announces Mephi's arrest. Authorities are ordered to interrogate Hae-Joo and kill Sonmi on sight.

=Sloosha's Crossin' an' Evrythin' After=

On post-apocalyptic Big Island, the peaceful Valley Folk worship the goddess Sonmi. Zachry Bailey blames himself for his father's death and brother’s enslavement by the cannibalistic Kona tribe. Members of a technologically advanced society called Prescients occasionally visit, and Zachry is wary of one named Meronym, who asks him to guide her up Mauna Kea. After she saves his poisoned sister, he agrees. At the ruins of the Mauna Kea Observatories, Meronym explains the orison Zachry found and reveals Sonmi’s true story.

On their return, the Kona ambush the Valley Folk. Zachry and Meronym escape, and she takes him to a safer island. Years later, Zachry’s son recalls this tale, suggesting it may be true—he now possesses Sonmi’s orison.

=An Orison of Sonmi-451 (Part 2)=

Hae-Joo Im reveals that he and Mephi are part of Union, a rebel group opposing the corporate government. Disguised, Hae-Joo takes Sonmi to a ship where she witnesses how retired fabricants are slaughtered and turned into Soap, with leftovers used in the food served at such establishments as Papa Song's. Union aims to awaken all fabricants and thus depose the country's corpocracy. They ask Sonmi to write abolitionist Declarations, which she does. She is later arrested in an elaborately filmed government raid.

Sonmi tells the Archivist she believes the government orchestrated her journey to stoke fear of fabricants. Her final wish is to finish watching Cavendish’s story.

=The Ghastly Ordeal of Timothy Cavendish (Part 2)=

Having mostly recovered from his mild stroke, Cavendish teams up with fellow nursing home residents—Ernie, Veronica, and senile Mr. Meeks—to escape. They seize a resident's son's car and celebrate at a pub, where staff nearly recapture them. In a rare lucid moment, Mr. Meeks rallies the drinkers, sparking a brawl that secures their escape. Cavendish later reveals his secretary blackmailed the gangsters. Back home, he reads the second half of Luisa Rey’s story and plans to publish it, whilst also writing a screenplay about his experience.

=Half-Lives<nowiki>:</nowiki> The First Luisa Rey Mystery (Part 2)=

Rey escapes her sinking car but loses the report, and Sachs dies in a plane explosion orchestrated by Smoke. After Seaboard acquires her newspaper, Rey is fired. Smoke booby-traps a copy of the report at a bank, but Joe Napier—head of plant security and an old friend of her father—rescues Rey. Rey finds another copy aboard Sixsmith’s yacht, Starfish. Smoke and Napier kill each other in a shootout. Rey exposes the corrupt corporate leaders, and Sixsmith’s niece later gives her the final eight letters from Frobisher to Sixsmith.

=Letters from Zedelghem (Part 2)=

Frobisher continues assisting Ayrs while composing his Cloud Atlas Sextet. He falls for Eva, believing she shares his feelings, despite his affair with her mother. Jocasta, suspicious, threatens him. Ayrs increasingly plagiarizes Frobisher’s work and threatens to accuse him of raping Jocasta if he resists. Despondent, Frobisher rents a hotel room to finish his sextet and dreams of reuniting with Eva, only to learn of her engagement to a Swiss man. Ill and disillusioned, he completes his sextet and writes one final letter to Sixsmith with the sextet and The Pacific Journal of Adam Ewing enclosed. Frobisher then sits in a bathtub and ends his life.

=The Pacific Journal of Adam Ewing (Part 2)=

The ship makes port at Raiatea, where he observes missionaries oppressing the indigenous peoples. On the ship, Ewing falls further ill and realizes that Dr. Goose is poisoning him to steal his possessions. Autua saves Ewing after he is thrown overboard, and Ewing resolves to join the abolitionist movement.

Background and writing

In an interview with The Paris Review, Mitchell said that the book's title was inspired by the music of the same name by Japanese composer Toshi Ichiyanagi: "I bought the CD just because of that track's beautiful title." Mitchell's previous novel, number9dream, was inspired by music by John Lennon. Both Ichiyanagi and Lennon were husbands of Yoko Ono, and Mitchell has said this fact "pleases me ... though I couldn't duplicate the pattern indefinitely."{{cite magazine |last1=Begley |first1=Interviewed by Adam |year=2010 |title=Paris Review - The Art of Fiction No. 204, David Mitchell |url=http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/6034/the-art-of-fiction-no-204-david-mitchell |magazine=The Paris Review|volume=Summer 2010 |issue=193}} He has stated that the title and the book address reincarnation and the universality of human nature, with the title referring to both changing elements (a "cloud") and constants (the "atlas").{{Cite web |author= |title=Against all odds, David Mitchell's novel 'Cloud Atlas' now a film |url=https://www.beaconjournal.com/story/entertainment/local/2012/10/24/against-all-odds-david-mitchell/10724164007/ |access-date=2024-01-05 |website=Akron Beacon Journal |language=en-US}}

Mitchell said that Vyvyan Ayrs and Robert Frobisher were inspired by English composer Frederick Delius and his amanuensis Eric Fenby.{{cite news |last=Turrentine |first=Jeff |date=22 August 2004 |title=Washington Post |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A17232-2004Aug19.html |access-date=19 April 2008}} He has also noted the influence of Russell Hoban's novel Riddley Walker on the Sloosha's Crossin' story.{{cite web |last1=Mitchell |first1=David |date=5 February 2005 |title=The book of revelations |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2005/feb/05/featuresreviews.guardianreview27 |access-date=12 August 2020 |website=The Guardian}}

Reception

Cloud Atlas received positive reviews from most critics, who felt that it managed to successfully interweave its six stories.{{Cite web |title=Cloud Atlas|url=http://www.criticsandwriters.com/book/1895/Cloud-Atlas|access-date=12 July 2024|website=Critics & Writers|url-status=usurped|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160804142048/http://www.criticsandwriters.com/book/1895/Cloud-Atlas |archive-date=4 Aug 2016}} On Metacritic, the book received an 82 out of 100 based on 24 critic reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".{{Cite web |title=Cloud Atlas|url=http://www.metacritic.com/books/authors/mitchelldavid/cloudatlas |access-date=2 March 2024 |website=Metacritic|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080206035720/http://www.metacritic.com/books/authors/mitchelldavid/cloudatlas |archive-date=6 Feb 2008}} The Daily Telegraph reported on reviews from several publications with a rating scale for the novel out of "Love It", "Pretty Good", "Ok", and "Rubbish": Times, Independent, Observer, Independent On Sunday, Spectator, and TLS reviews under "Love It" and Daily Telegraph and Sunday Times reviews under "Pretty Good" and Literary Review review under "Ok".{{cite news |title=Books of the moment: What the papers say |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-daily-telegraph/151142050/|access-date=19 July 2024|work=The Daily Telegraph |date=6 March 2004 |page=190 }} According to Book Marks, from American press, the book received a "positive" consensus, based on eleven critics: six "rave", one "positive", and four "mixed".{{Cite web |title=Cloud Atlas |url=https://bookmarks.reviews/reviews/cloud-atlas/ |access-date=11 July 2024 |website=Book Marks}} The BookScore gave it an aggregated critic score of 9.0 based on British and American press.{{Cite web |title=Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell|url=http://thebookscore.net/review/79/cloud-atlas-by-david-mitchell |access-date=12 July 2024|website=The BookScore|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151001132921/http://thebookscore.net/review/79/cloud-atlas-by-david-mitchell |archive-date=1 Oct 2015}} In the November/December 2004 issue of Bookmarks, the book was scored four out of five. The magazine's critical summary reads: "Critics on both sides of the Atlantic rave over Cloud Atlas, British novelist Mitchell’s third novel".{{Cite web |title=Cloud Atlas By David Mitchell|url=http://www.bookmarksmagazine.com/book-review/cloud-atlas/david-mitchell|access-date=14 January 2023 |website=Bookmarks|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160828231709/http://www.bookmarksmagazine.com/book-review/cloud-atlas/david-mitchell |archive-date=28 Aug 2016}} Globally, the work was received generally well with Complete Review saying on the review consensus, "Not quite a consensus, but most very impressed".{{Cite web |date=2023-10-04 |title=Cloud Atlas|url=https://www.complete-review.com/reviews/mitchelld/cloudas.htm |access-date=2023-10-04 |website=Complete Review}}

The BBC's Keily Oakes said that although the book's structure could be challenging, "David Mitchell has taken six wildly different stories ... and melded them into one fantastic and complex work."{{cite web|title=Review: Cloud Atlas |author=Oakes, Keily|date=17 October 2004|publisher=BBC |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/3744012.stm|access-date=2 August 2012}} Kirkus Reviews called it "sheer storytelling brilliance."{{cite magazine|title=Cloud Atlas Review|date=15 May 2004|magazine=Kirkus Reviews |url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/david-mitchell/cloud-atlas/#review|access-date=2 August 2012}} Laura Miller of The New York Times compared it to the "perfect crossword puzzle," in that it was challenging to read but still fun.{{cite web|title=Cloud Atlas Review|date=14 September 2004|work=The New York Times |author=Miller, Laura|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/19/books/review/19MILLERL.html|access-date=2 August 2012}} The Observer{{'}}s Hephzibah Anderson called it "exhilarating" and commented positively on the links between the stories.{{cite news|title=Observer Review: Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell|date=28 February 2004|newspaper=The Observer |author=Anderson, Hephzibah|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2004/feb/29/fiction.davidmitchell|access-date=2 August 2012}} In a review for The Guardian, Booker Prize winner A. S. Byatt wrote that it gave "a complete narrative pleasure that is rare."{{cite news|title=Review: Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell|date=28 February 2004|newspaper=The Guardian |author=Byatt, A. S.|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2004/mar/06/fiction.asbyatt|access-date=2 August 2012}} The Washington Post{{'}}s Jeff Turrentine called it "a highly satisfying, and unusually thoughtful, addition to the expanding 'puzzle book' genre."{{cite news|title=Fantastic Voyage|date=22 August 2004|newspaper=The Washington Post |author=Turrentine, Jeff|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A17232-2004Aug19.html|access-date=2 August 2012}} In its "Books Briefly Noted" section, The New Yorker called it "virtuosic."{{cite magazine|title=Cloud Atlas|date=23 August 2004|magazine=The New Yorker|url=http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2004/08/23/040823crbn_brieflynoted1|access-date=2 August 2012}} Marxist literary critic Fredric Jameson found its new, science fiction-inflected variation on the historical novel now "defined by its relation to future fully as much as to past."Fredric Jameson, The Antinomies of Realism, London and New York: Verso, 2013, p. 305. Richard Murphy said in the Review of Contemporary Fiction that Mitchell had taken core values from his previous novels and built upon them.{{Cite journal|url = http://www.dalkeyarchive.com/product/journal-review-of-contemporary-fiction/|title = David Mitchell. Cloud Atlas|last = Murphy|first = Richard|date = 2004|journal = The Review of Contemporary Fiction}}

Criticism focused on the book's failure to meet its lofty goals. F&SF reviewer Robert K. J. Killheffer praised Mitchell's "talent and inventiveness and willingness to adopt any mode or voice that furthers his ends," but noted that "for all its pleasures, Cloud Atlas falls short of revolutionary.""Books", F&SF, April 2005, pp.35-37 Theo Tait of The Daily Telegraph gave the novel a mixed review, focusing on its clashing themes, saying "it spends half its time wanting to be The Simpsons and the other half the Bible."{{cite news|title=From Victorian travelogue to airport thriller|date=1 March 2004|newspaper=The Daily Telegraph |author=Tait, Theo|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/3613044/From-Victorian-travelogue-to-airport-thriller.html|access-date=2 August 2012}}

In 2019, Cloud Atlas was ranked 9th on The Guardian's list of the 100 best books of the 21st century.{{cite web |title=The 100 best books of the 21st century |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/sep/21/best-books-of-the-21st-century |website=The Guardian |date=21 September 2019 |access-date=22 September 2019}}

In 2020, Bill Gates recommended it as part of his Summer Reading List.{{Cite web|url=https://www.gatesnotes.com/About-Bill-Gates/Summer-Books-2020|title=5 summer books and other things to do at home|date=2020-05-18|access-date=2021-04-13|website=Gates Notes|last=Gates|first=Bill}}

Awards and nominations

The book won the Literary Fiction Award at the 2005 British Book Awards and the Richard & Judy Book of the Year Award.{{Cite web |last=post |first=The Conservatism of Cloud Atlas was published on You can annotate or comment upon this |date=2015-06-21 |title=The Conservatism of Cloud Atlas |url=https://eve.gd/2015/06/21/the-conservatism-of-cloud-atlas/ |access-date=2024-01-05 |website=Martin Paul Eve |language=en}} It was shortlisted for the Booker Prize.{{Cite web |title=David Mitchell {{!}} The Booker Prizes |url=https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/authors/david-mitchell |access-date=2024-01-05 |website=thebookerprizes.com |language=en}} It was nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 2004,{{Cite web |last1=Fictions |first1=© 2023 Science |last2=SFWA® |first2=Fantasy Writers Association |last3=Fiction |first3=Nebula Awards® are registered trademarks of Science |last4=America |first4=Fantasy Writers of |last5=SFWA |first5=Inc Opinions expressed on this web site are not necessarily those of |title=Cloud Atlas |url=https://nebulas.sfwa.org/nominated-work/cloud-atlas/ |access-date=2024-01-05 |website=The Nebula Awards® |language=en-US}} and the Arthur C. Clarke Award in 2005.{{Cite web |title=The Arthur C. Clarke Award |url=https://www.clarkeaward.com/ |access-date=2024-01-05 |website=The Arthur C. Clarke Award |language=en}}

Structure and style

The book has been described as incorporating elements of metafiction,{{Cite journal |last=Brown |first=Kevin |date=2016-01-02 |title=Finding Stories to Tell: Metafiction and Narrative in David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas |url=http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/20512856.2016.1152078 |journal=Journal of Language, Literature and Culture |language=en |volume=63 |issue=1 |pages=77–90 |doi=10.1080/20512856.2016.1152078 |issn=2051-2856 |s2cid=163407425|url-access=subscription }} historical fiction, contemporary fiction, (post)apocalyptic writing and science fiction into its narrative.{{Citation |last=Hicks |first=Heather J. |title="This Time Round": David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas and the Apocalyptic Problem of Historicism |date=2016 |url=https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137545848_3 |work=The Post-Apocalyptic Novel in the Twenty-First Century: Modernity beyond Salvage |pages=55–76 |editor-last=Hicks |editor-first=Heather J. |access-date=2023-12-05 |place=New York |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan US |language=en |doi=10.1057/9781137545848_3 |isbn=978-1-137-54584-8 |s2cid=144729757|url-access=subscription }}{{Cite journal |last=Bayer |first=Gerd |date=2015-08-14 |title= Perpetual Apocalypses: David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas and the Absence of Time. |url= https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00111619.2014.959645 |journal=Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction |language=en |volume=56 |issue=4 |pages=345–354 |doi=10.1080/00111619.2014.959645 |issn=0011-1619 |url-access=subscription }}{{Cite journal |last=De Cristofaro |first=Diletta |date=2018-03-15 |title="Time, no arrow, no boomerang, but a concertina": Cloud Atlas and the anti-apocalyptic critical temporalities of the contemporary post-apocalyptic novel |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00111619.2017.1369386 |journal=Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction |language=en |volume=59 |issue=2 |pages=243–257 |doi=10.1080/00111619.2017.1369386 |issn=0011-1619 |s2cid=165870410}} The book's style was inspired by Italo Calvino's If on a winter's night a traveler, which contains several incomplete, interrupted narratives. Mitchell's innovation was to add a 'mirror' in the centre of his book so that each story could be brought to a conclusion.{{cite news |last=Mullan |first=John |date=12 June 2010 |title=Guardian book club: Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/jun/12/book-club-mitchell-cloud-atlas |access-date=6 August 2010 |work=The Guardian |location=London}}

Mitchell has said of the book:

{{Blockquote|title = |quote = Literally all of the main characters, except one, are reincarnations of the same soul in different bodies throughout the novel identified by a birthmark ... that's just a symbol really of the universality of human nature. The title itself Cloud Atlas, the cloud refers to the ever changing manifestations of the Atlas, which is the fixed human nature which is always thus and ever shall be. So the book's theme is predacity, the way individuals prey on individuals, groups on groups, nations on nations, tribes on tribes. So I just take this theme and in a sense reincarnate that theme in another context ...{{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/arts/bookclub/ram/bookclub_20070603.ram |title=Bookclub |date=June 2007 |access-date=19 April 2008 |publisher=BBC Radio 4}}}}

Textual variations

Academic Martin Paul Eve noticed significant differences in the American and British editions of the book while writing a paper on the book. He noted "an astonishing degree" of variance and that "one of the chapters was almost entirely rewritten".{{Cite journal|last=Eve|first=Martin Paul|date=2016-08-10|title="You have to keep track of your changes": The Version Variants and Publishing History of David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas|journal=Open Library of Humanities|volume=2|issue=2|pages=1|doi=10.16995/olh.82|issn=2056-6700|doi-access=free}} According to Mitchell, who authorized both editions, the differences emerged because the editor assigned to the book at its US publisher left their job, leaving the US version un-edited for a considerable period. Meanwhile, Mitchell and his editor and copy editor in the UK continued to make changes to the manuscript. However, those changes were not passed on to the US publisher, and similarly, when a new editor was assigned to the book at the US publisher and made his own changes, Mitchell did not ask for those to be applied to the British edition, which was very close to being sent to press. Mitchell said: "Due to my inexperience at that stage in my three-book 'career', it hadn't occurred to me that having two versions of the same novel appearing on either side of the Atlantic raises thorny questions over which is definitive, so I didn't go to the trouble of making sure that the American changes were applied to the British version (which was entering production by that point probably) and vice versa."{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/aug/10/cloud-atlas-astonishingly-different-in-us-and-uk-editions-study-finds |title=Cloud Atlas 'astonishingly different' in US and UK editions, study finds |author=Alison Flood|date= 10 August 2016 |work=The Guardian }}

Film adaptation

The novel was adapted to film by directors Tom Tykwer and the Wachowskis. With an ensemble cast to cover the multiple storylines, production began in September 2011 at Studio Babelsberg in Germany. The film was released in North America on 26 October 2012. In October 2012, Mitchell wrote an article in The Wall Street Journal called "Translating 'Cloud Atlas' Into the Language of Film" in which he compared the adapters' work to translating a work into another language.{{cite web |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10000872396390443675404578060870111158076 |title=Translating 'Cloud Atlas' Into the Language of Film |work=The Wall Street Journal |first=David |last=Mitchell |date=19 October 2012 |access-date=19 October 2012}}

References

External links

[https://www.bbc.co.uk/archive/writers/12261.shtml David Mitchell discusses Cloud Atlas] on the BBC's The Culture Show
[https://web.archive.org/web/20181223225510/http://www.complete-review.com/reviews/mitchelld/cloudas.htm Cloud Atlas] at complete review (summary of reviews)
[http://www.conceptualfiction.com/cloud_atlas.html Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200904064928/http://www.conceptualfiction.com/cloud_atlas.html |date=4 September 2020 }}, review by Ted Gioia (Conceptual Fiction)

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