BOOKS : Cloud Atlas

I haven't reviewed a 'real' book before, but for that matter I haven't read that many either. Cloud Atlas, by David Mitchell, was short listed for the Booker prize last year, which was pretty much its only qualification for my reading it.
The book is a bit like the Theatre Sports game 'spacejump'; each section of the book is set in a time period following the previous section with a few bits of commonality between them (specifically the hinted at reincarnation of the central character) until we reach the middle of the book when we start moving back to finish off the 'earlier' sections in reverse order. My god that was badly explained, but maybe if you can remember space jump you'll understand.
The theme of the book seemed to be civilization, the role of the individual in civilization and the corruption of short-sightedness. At the beginning of the downward path of the book one of the characters defines civilization as 'making decisions bearing in mind the long term, rather than short term gain'. As you then read the concluding sections through the rest of the book you realise that that is what it is all about; comparing the levels of civilization and honesty of beliefs/pain through different time periods.
Anyway, a quick note about each section

• Chapham Islands sea voyage, just after colonization of NZ
  Lots of pain, and missionary stuff, questioning whether the imposition of Christianity is the work of god or guns
• Failed composer in Belgium, 1930s
  Great fun, bisexual composer copying down a 'mentor's' work for him, very witty and colourful. I guess used to show how creative, beautiful life and humans can be (and vindictive etc)
  
• Journalist versus Nuke power corporation, 1970s
  Quite exciting, even if the woman is annoying at points (get it together, stop being so silly!). Ooooh almost gave something away :)
• Aged Book Editor caught in nursing home hell, 1980s
  Great fun! And somewhat poignant considering my gran's position
• Engineered human becomes enlightened, far future
  Interesting, if a little dry at first. Starts asking some curly questions about humanity, friendship, generosity, motivations etc. Very dark, corporate future
  
• 'barbarian' boy shelters one of the few remaining 'civilized' humans, apocalyptic future
  Middle of the book , so this one felt it was a little long, but the major thesis of the book was highlighted here.

He loves to play with language, trying to mimic the era he is writing in. And I feel he does it well, the first and last sections each have quite hard to understand 'colloquial' language, which can get tiring, but the rest is just plain fun.
I would highly recommend this book as an interesting and enjoyable read. I think more literary types might be able to get more out of it (it had a feeling of more layers than I picked up) but even so it's worth the time.
My next books are

• Collapse, by Jared Diamond
  Only my 2nd favorite pop sci. author - talking about his thesis for the collapse of civilizations
• The Plot Against America, by some big wig american author
  It seemed for a while that every book review I read in the Guardian would say 'this book is good, but not as good as Plot Against America' so I thought I should get a copy
• Saturday, by Ian McEwan
  This was one fo the books compared to The Plot Against America, and sounded interesting. A bit Ulysses like in that it all happens in one 24 hour period, but more of a thriller like his other book Enduring Love (which I chose this over)