I just finished Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell, and I must say I'm impressed. The book is built on six separate but linked stories in the manner of Russian matryoshka dolls. Each story deals with a different time period: 1850, 1931, 1975, present day, the not-so-distant future, and a post-apocalyptic era. Each story is written in a different form (from journal entries to a series of letters to short "chapteroids" (as Mitchell calls them), to an interview and a longer narrative, and plays with concepts from different genres (historical fiction, thriller, science fiction, and fantasy). Each story interrupts it's predecessor (moving forward in time) until the middle of the book (the post-apocalytic fantasy), and then each story then ties itself back (going backward) so the whole work both begins and ends in the past. Simply brilliant. Maybe a touch preachy at the end, but on the whole, I found the concept intrigiung and well thought-out--not gimmicky at all. Another minor frustration I had is due to how I feel when I finish a book--I'm generally sad to leave the ficticious world behind. Here, I had to say good-bye six times, but I enjoyed each leave-taking immensely.