«It takes only a few pages of any part of this masterful feast of a novel to make you want to read the rest»

Evening Standard

«David Mitchell may well be possessed of genius . . . As well-plotted, entertaining narrative, Cloud Atlas succeeds on many levels. As political and cultural fable, with an unerring humanist sense of the dangerous will to power that lies at the dark heart of man, it's visionary»

Irish Independent

«As mind-bending in its ideas as it is accessible on the page . . . It pretty much resists hyperbole simply by being better than you'd ever dare hope»

Big Issue

«Remarkable . . . it knits together science fiction, political thriller and historical pastiche with musical virtuosity and linguistic exuberance»

Guardian

«An impeccable dance of genres . . . an elegiac, radiant festival of prescience, meditation and entertainment»

The Times

«His wildest ride yet . . . a singular achievement, from an author of extraordinary ambition and skill»

Independent on Sunday

«A magnificent tour de force»

Time Out

«A glorious puzzle for the reader . . . Mitchell's storytelling in Cloud Atlas is of the best»

Independent

«An impeccably structured novel of ideas in many voices»

Literary Editor's Best Books, Observer

«A virtuoso performance . . . deeply impressive»

Daily Telegraph

«One of those how-the-holy-hell-did-he-do-it? modern classics that no doubt is - and should be - read by any student of contemporary literature»

Dave Eggers

«Tremendous . . . one of the most shamelessly exciting books imaginable»

Spectator

«Stunning . . . One of those rare books that manages to be enormously clever while resisting the temptation to show off»

Daily Mail

«Reassuringly excellent»

Times Literary Supplement

«Engrossing»

Financial Times

«The way Mitchell inhabits the different voices of the novel is close to miraculous . . . No other British novelist, to my mind, combines such a darkly futuristic intelligence with such polyphonic ease»

Robert Macfarlane, Sunday Times

«Mitchell writes as though at the helm of some perpetual dream machine, can evidently do anything, and his ambition is written in magma across this novel's every page»

New York Times Book Review

«This isn't just one brilliant book, it's a collection of six completely different brilliant books»

Sunday Independent

«Mind-bogglingly good»

Elle

«Not just dazzling, amusing, or clever but heartbreaking and passionate, too. I've never read anything quite like it»

Michael Chabon

«An intense, arcing colossus of a book whose narrative links, supplied by the voices of six main characters, are spun out into a unified theory of everything: history, human evolution, science, the will to power. The voices span epochs, continents, and genres . . . Mitchell has rightly commanded attention for the sheer breadth and energy of his composition . . . I am moved by (his) talent»

Prospect