Cloud Atlas received positive reviews from most critics, who felt that it managed to successfully interweave its six stories. On Metacritic, the book received a 82 out of 100 based on 24 critic reviews.[7]
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."[8] Kirkus Reviews called it "sheer storytelling brilliance."[9] Laura Miller of The New York Times compared it to the "perfect crossword puzzle," in that it was challenging to read but still fun.[10] The Observer's Hephzibah Anderson called it "exhilarating" and commented positively on the links between the stories.[11] In a review for The Guardian, Booker Prize winner A. S. Byatt wrote that it gave "a complete narrative pleasure that is rare."[12] The Washington Post's Jeff Turrentine called it "a highly satisfying, and unusually thoughtful, addition to the expanding 'puzzle book' genre."[13] In its "Books Briefly Noted" section, The New Yorker called it "virtuosic."[14] 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."[15] Richard Murphy said in the Review of Contemporary Fiction that Mitchell had taken core values from his previous novels and built upon them.[16]
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."[17] 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."[18]
In 2019, Cloud Atlas was ranked 9th on The Guardian's list of the 100 best books of the 21st century.[19]
In 2020, Bill Gates recommended it as part of his Summer Reading List.[20]
