Great! Great! Great! Great! Great! Can't really add anything more to the eulogies already penned with regard to this modern masterpiece. Personally speaking, as someone who is happy to read a variety of genres this book really has it all. How Mitchell conceived the variety of styles he describes these stories through is thrilling. I have never read a book twice, but having read this... Never say never.

I was drawn to this book simply because it had the unfortunate luck of sharing an almost identical title to Cloud Atlas. That book has of course garnered critical acclaim and is now a major motion picture, so it came as a bit of a surprise to me that there was also a book called The Cloud Atlas that was published in the same year by an imprint of the same publishing house. What are the odds of that? That appealed to me on some twisted level, though, and I felt compelled to read a book which seems relegated to the status of dirty stepchild in the wake of the other Cloud Atlas's fame and fortune.

This book is a story about a real life last-ditch weapons program implemented by the Japanese at the tail end of WWII. Bombs were attached to what were essentially paper balloons, and these contraptions were floated across the jet stream with the intent of wreaking havoc on the North American continent. These balloons were pretty much the first intercontinental weapons, and they were the cause of the only reported deaths in the continental US caused by enemy fire.

The story blends past and present by relating the main storyline as a series of flashbacks from a present-day character, an Alaskan priest who was a WWII bomb disposal soldier tasked with helping classify the threat level posed by the Japanese bomb balloons. While I really enjoyed the first half of the novel, it quickly devolved into a "lite" version of Heart of Darkness. Just substitute the wilds of Alaska for the Congo and it has much the same flavour, although it lacks the same impact.

Yes. I got the wrong book *sigh*
DNF at 32%

I kept feeling like I was missing something, and I probably was. I found this book to be quite dull.

Came for the other Cloud Atlas, enjoyed this one as well.

I will be honest..I had intended to read Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell but mistakenly downloaded this one...who knew an article could make such a huge difference?! I don't know if I was 'catfished' or if it was a coincidence that two similarly-titled books were published around the same time however, the captivating narration in this book kept me going. So much is going on here...war, spirits/ghost stories, tales of love and madness. It was hard to put down this book. I found the conflicted way the narrator, a Christian priest, recollected events quite intriguing. But perhaps I enjoyed reading this book since I'm a little superstitious myself. Whatever the case, I would recommend it!

Historical fiction set in Alaska during WWII. Story of a young soldier trained to disable bombs. He works with a volatile captain intent on saving face after an embarrassment and redeeming himself. There are really only four main characters in the book: Louis, the soldier, Gurley, the captain, Lily, mixed eskimo woman, and Ronnie, a shaman. All the characters are linked by Lily. Louis becomes a priest after the war and resettles in Alaska. This story is filled with mysticism as Louis tries to understand his past and combines his Catholicism with Ronnie's shamanism.

If Jorge Amado and Gabriel Garcia Marquez are South American Magical Realists, then Liam Callanan is a North American Magical Realist - and by North American, I mean TRULY North American, as in Alaska.

The story of a soldier turned priest's experiences during World War II, this first novel is simultaeneously a love story, the story of little known Japanese offensive, and an exploration of the meanings of friendship, love, and ultimately, faith.

Callanan's lyrical writing delivers an intimate understanding of the novel's protaganist, and the strange, often darkly magical world that surrounds him. That world is Alaska during WWII - apparently, a very different place than today's Alaska. But far from being some kind Alaskan adventure tale, this novel simply uses the wet, gray landscape of southern Alaska as a backdrop for its examination of the series of events that are the formative, if not definitive, events of the rest of the main character's life.

Well worht the read.

I quit at 40%. It didn't hold my interest.

Spellbinding

Alaska, especially the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, weaves It’s magic into one’s very spirit, and changes us. Embrace the change. Quyana cak’neq.

Two 'it was okay' stars

I picked up this book accidentally instead of Cloud Atlas. I realized my mistake by chapter four but decided to give this book a chance anyway because I was kind of interested in the subject matter.

The story is told from the perspective of a priest in Alaska who used to be a bomb-disposal soldier during WWII. The narrative switches between past and present and tells the story of the priest, as well as the soldier.

I've never read a story with an Alaskan setting, so I was very excited. The subject of the Japanese bombs also extremely fascinated me, since I never knew they even existed and I needed to know more. Unfortunately, as much as The Cloud Atlas had gripping information about the Japanese Fu-Go balloon bombs, and although the writing was very beautiful and mystical in its portrayal of Alaska, it wasn't enough. The interesting parts about the bombs and living in Alaska were completely overshadowed by a lackluster romance and dull characters.

It seems to be only my problem, as many people have enjoyed the book, but I would have much preferred for the romance to have taken a background role in the story. It just really failed to make me engaged in what was going on, as I did not care about any of the characters or who ended up with who.

I enjoyed this accidental mistake