Mitchell is a virtuoso writer, so basically cannot construct an infelicitous sentence or boring story. But here he borrows elements from "Ghostbusters II" (evil spirit in a painting), Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (in a pinch, a soul takes refuge in someone else's body and must later emerge) and various other fantasy elements, combining them with the kind of globe-trotting perspective-shifting dystopian narrative from "Cloud Atlas." Enjoyable (because it's Mitchell) but I wasn't sure what to take away from it all. The soul-migrating fantasy never seems to rise above basic genre fantasy. The ordinary characters are more interesting, but are just pawns for the fantasy characters with super-powers. There was a lot of hype around this book, and I thought I'd give it a read. It is a long book (600+ pages) that takes places in 6 parts over the years 1984 - 2043. The story is basically the battle between two factions and is told through a serious of apparently unrelated incidents. Personally, I think the book would have been a lot better if it had been 1/2 as many pages and didn't try to keep tying up obscure loose ends from the various stories.One other item: I've seen this book classified as fiction and science fiction. I felt that it was similar to a Stephen King book and wouldn't put it in a class similar to his books.
What do You think about The Bone Clocks (2014)?
Loved it! Wonderful characters, message, writing. Wish I could say I loved Cloud Atlas as much.
—shaman88
wow what an amazing read, def my favourite mitchell novel to date
—maggie
