TOO MANY MANY MANY MANY MANY WORDS.

Look. I loved All The Light We Cannot See. LOVED IT. But this......paragraph after paragraph, sentence after sentence, word after word, letter after letter.... it was just so much....

War stuff

More war stuff, but not that war from before - a different war.

Just....just not for me.

Anthony Doerr's latest is well written, as always. It chronicles 3-4(-5?) different stories, all connected by one story (the fifth) called "Cloud Cuckoo Land." However, because there were so many stories, it was very hard to keep track. And, in typical Doerr fashion, all the chapters were quite short, which meant that you never really got into any one story. Moreover, the book touched on some very important topics that were a bit much to read about right now, namely climate change and pandemics.

There is a lot of this book to digest. Set in three distinct time frames, five different characters are living their lives and are connected by a story. This is a book about books, and how stories can be preserved over time.

I gave this book three stars because although by the midway point I was sucked in, I really had to force myself to get there. I spent so much of the first half utterly confused. Anna and Omeir's story was painful at times to get through and just felt boring, however I do appreciate the meaning of it.

I was most interested in the Argos story and the Idaho story. I wanted to learn more about Argos and why it ended up not being real! Why were they still on earth? I felt like it was left in a cliffhanger and wasn't clearly expressed.

Overall I ended up enjoying this book, but it took effort to get to that point.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

Anthony Doerr's Cloud Cuckoo Land is a triumph! The novel is dazzling with multiple story lines and time zones. As Doerr has said, Cloud Cuckoo Land is a Utopia in the sky, based on references to Greek playwright, Aristophanes. The ancient manuscript at the center of Doerr's novel was created by the author and brilliantly weaves throughout the entire story. Doerr creates a community of characters of nature lovers and those who are transfixed by the written word. The story concentrates on five main characters:
Anna and Omeir, both young, poor and sensitive and both caught up in the 1453 siege of Constantinople
Zeno Ninis, a troubled ex-GI in contemporary Idaho, with a ear and eye for translation of Greek
Seymour, a likely autistic and lonely boy who loves an owl, also in contemporary Idaho
Konstance, a teenager confined to the spaceship Argos in the future; her loving father holds an important book

This beautifully written long novel connects these characters through an ancient manuscript that each of them have contact with and become stewards in its' preservation. Although Omeir, Seymour and Konstance each have a loving parent, all the characters are dreamers, outsiders, isolated, eventually suffering from despair, and unsure of their place in this world.
Although long, the book is fast paced and the chapters fairly short. One has to concentrate to keep the storylines clear in the beginning, but the flow eventually evens and the reader is up to speed with the connections forming.
This novel is definitely for the serious reader. In his complex and beautiful novel Doerr has made the case for the essential preservation of the written word throughout time.
Many thanks to NetGalley for the privilege of reading this novel.

Thank you to NetGalley, publisher and author for the opportunity to read this ARC. I loved All The Light We Cannot See. I was thrilled to receive Cloud Cuckoo Land. Three stories from three different time periods, one in the distant future, would weave together seamlessly to provide a story like the reader has not
experienced before. But wait….
I did not like this book at all
The promised story seemed to stall
Not a fan of the mystic, fantasy or sci fi
So about half way done I said buh bye.
Talking animals from one time period and, from another, the only remaining earthlings on a space ship which isn’t strange enough because now we have a pandemic aboard. A young girl tasked with bringing a special book out of a destroyed castle. A young man with a severe genetic injury who has brought shame upon his family bonds with bulls. IMHO this is no page turner nor triumph de force. It is a long book with not one character I cared about. Then there is the bomb in the library in the present day setting. Words and words and words to reach an ending 640 pages later needs to capture the reader immediately. I was never captured. I abandoned ship about halfway through. I read five other books in the next three weeks, I really don’t like quitting a book, but I have no interest in returning to the hodgepodge of CCL.

Where to begin? Cloud Cuckoo Land is one of the most genre-bounding novels I’ve ever read. It’s a historical/science/modern comic/tragic/fantasy novel that had me completely bemused and then bewitched. In the sense that this, too, centers on adolescents finding their way in a complex world, it is like All The Light We Cannot See, but it moves far beyond that novel in scope and theme. This book is an incredible work by a master, a real tour de force. If it was possible to give it more than 5 stars, I would do so.

Anthony Doerr is not a stranger to ambitious storylines, but Cloud Cuckoo Land is even more ambitious than The Light We Can See. He weaves 3 very different timelines and storylines that all have a Greek manuscript in common. It sounds like it shouldn't work (and in the beginning I had a little bit of a hard time getting my bearings). But the gifted author ties them all together into what will certainly become known as an epic. Doerr's love of books and libraries, as well as his concern about what is happening to the environment, come shining throughout the entire novel. Readers who are willing to go on a ride will love this story, but it is not for everyone.
Thank you #NetGalley and #Scribner for this remarkable ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

"Cloud Cuckoo Land" is beautifully written, frustratingly pieced together and probably at least 100 pages longer than it needs to be. While Anthony Doerr's "All the Light We Cannot See" was a long book I wished would go on forever, this novel felt every bit as long as it was. I am glad I pushed through to the (surprisingly satisfying) ending, but there were times I was tempted not to finish it. Doerr introduces us to five separate characters -- Anna and Omeir in the 1400s, Seymour in the present day, Zeno on two timelines (1950s and present day) and Konstance far in the future. He also weaves in a (fictional) classical Greek text featuring a shepherd named Aethon. Every time you find your footing and start to be interested in what a character will do next or what will happen to him or her, Doerr shifts gears and jumps forward or backward in time. Although all these pieces fit together beautifully in the final segment of the book, and although there's a lovely message about the power of stories to give us hope in dark times, it's needlessly difficult to get there. Save this for a time when you can give it your full attention for long stretches of reading.

3.5 stars, rounded up. Some other reviews of this book mention David Mitchell as a point of comparison, but reading it I couldn't help but think of Maja Lunde's <i>The History of Bees</i> -- three stories set in the modern day, a sci-fi future, and several hundred years ago, with an environmentalist angle, themed around a particular book or subject, which are obviously interconnected but whose links are very late in being revealed. Doerr writes a better book, in part because it is more ambitious in how wide it spreads its chronological extent, but the similarities were stuck in the back of my head the whole time.

<i>Cloud Cuckoo Land</i> follows five characters spread across three settings. One, centered around the fall of Constantinople, features Omeir and Anna, two young people living on either side of the Ottoman-Byzantine siege. Another is set initially in present-day Idaho, featuring Seymour, a neuro-atypical budding eco-terrorist, and Zeno, a lonely amateur translator of Greek, retired snowplow driver, and Korean War veteran, and includes significant flashbacks throughout each of their lives. The last is set on an interstellar generation ship carrying a cargo of humans (including 13-year-old Konstance) fleeing the environmental collapse back on Earth. Each storyline features a connection to a fictional ancient Greek work (also called Cloud Cuckoo Land) -- Anna eventually possesses a manuscript copy, Zeno is working on a translation (and attempting to put on a theatrical version with children at his local library), and Konstance is piecing together the story from the archives on her ship -- and excerpts from the play are interspersed throughout.

Each storyline is capably written, though Konstance's storyline was far more interesting to me than most of the rest (early on some sort of disease breaks out on the ship, and the depiction of the shipboard society struggling to deal with or explain a deadly outbreak on a sealed spacecraft was quite intriguing). There is a bit of a problem in the attempt to cohere each to the other with the Greek story as a unifying theme; "Cloud Cuckoo Land," as depicted, is a light-hearted farce about a man who thinks the play "The Birds" is about a real place and goes on adventures trying to find it, which is fine, but it doesn't really have the heft to support being the spine of the book, and there really isn't much to tie the Constantinople storyline to the others aside from <spoiler>"Anna's book is going to be the one that is discovered in 2017 for Zeno to translate"</spoiler>. It even lacks the environmentalist themes present in the other storylines. However, the connections between Zeno/Seymour and Konstance, and the eventual resolution of each storyline, are much more satisfying, and leave the book feeling more justified in its interwoven structure.

Cloud Cuckoo Land is an ambitious book that tackles the topics of "climate instability, pandemics, disinformation" through the lenses of three separate storylines. Though there is a thread that knits the stories together (loosely), I found that Cloud Cuckoo Land didn't blow me away.

The general plot revolves around a forgotten book/play, Cuckoo Land. The three storylines take place in the 1400s, present day, and far in the future on a spaceship. And I think a big issue for me was that I was waiting, throughout the entire book, for these timelines to eventually intermix in a mindboggling way. Instead of treating the separate stories as individuals, I think I disappointed myself looking for a deeper connection between them all. I was waiting for a plot twist that would shake me to my core instead of enjoying the intricacies that the author lovingly crafted.

I can't deny that Cloud Cuckoo Land isn't a good book. It is well written and weaves around several characters without any confusion or clutter. There is undeniably a great love that has been put into this book by the author, a passion for research and stories that exudes from the pages. I just don't know if it impacted me in the way that I had hoped for.

Cloud Cuckoo Land
by Anthony Doerr
Pub Date: Sept.28, 2021
Scribner

It took me a few pages to get "into" this book. And I will admit I found it a bit wordy. This is not going to be the book for everyone, and I think the writing style this author as will not be for everyone. I found just like All the Light We Cannot See there are things that comes out early in the book that will not make a lot of sense until closer to the ending when everything comes together.
I love that Doerr dedicated this to “the librarians then, now, and in the years to come.”
This is a Historical Fiction/Science Fiction/Fantasy. I am primarily a historical fiction reader so this was a bit of a stretch to me.
Fans will be excited to read this book. It's been a long stretch between books.
Thanks to Scribner and Net Galley for the ARC. Great book! 4 stars

Oh, this book. I’ve seen other reviews of Cloud Cuckoo Land, most of them glowing but warning that this book might not be as beloved as All the Light We Cannot See. While I was reading, I felt a bit lost and couldn’t see how these story lines of very different characters living hundreds of years apart from each other were going to tie together, but I should have trusted Anthony Doerr from the start. The last quarter of the book ties everything together so beautifully that I know I will return to this story often. It is a testament to the power of a story to provide hope and connection to every one of us, as well as the belief that children provide fresh perspective to any idea if we give them the chance. I am sad to finish this book, but I can’t wait for many more people to enter its beautiful world.

This is a doorstopper of a book that has a LOT of descriptive phrases and beautifully written prose that just seemed to go nowhere.

Honestly, this book just didn't do it for me, but if you are someone that likes lots and lots and lots of descriptions about anything, then you don't want to miss out on this one.

Many thanks to Netgalley and Scribner for this advanced readers copy. This book is scheduled for release September 28, 2021.

This was a tangled mess to get into. The story shifts between 5 points of views, plus the original text that drives the story. It was hard to shift between so many perspectives. As soon as I would get into one storyline, it would abruptly end and I have to make my way through several more stories to get back! But it was a good book and I enjoyed reading it. I loved how everything came together at the end.

My brain is rattled. This book was sooooo good but so confusing at the start. There were so many characters and so many different timelines. I went into this one thinking it was going to be along the same lines as one of my all-time favorites, All the Light We Cannot See but that was a mistake. Although this one wasn't anything like it, it was just as good. This story takes you on a journey through the lives of several different characters all linked by the story of Aethon, a man who longs to become a bird and fly away to the ends of the earth. All of the storylines merge in one way or another in a masterful dance that spans over 500+ years. From Anna and Omeir in the great siege of Constantinople to Zeno and Seymore in modern-day Idaho, and finishing with Konstance on an interstellar ship, Argos, in the distant future. It will leave you in awe of Doeer's storytelling...again. 5 stars. Thank you, NetGalley for the eARC. I LOVED IT!!!

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I am a lover of books and libraries and appreciated that this book exemplified the great power of both. I loved that a particular book and its protection and transmission were a thread between story lines from the ancient past through the future. This book was a bit long and required sustained concentration. Overall it was well written and compelling and wrapped up nicely. 4.5

Sorry but this book isn’t for me. Gave up at 25%. Could not make head or tail of what was going on.. I guess this book just didn’t suit me .

I'm not sure where to begin - this book is unlike anything I've read. It was absorbing and beautifully written. It is actually several stories linked together by the story of Cloud Cuckoo Land. It spans centuries and continents. I enjoyed Zeno's story the most and had the hardest time getting into Anna and Omeir's stories. It will not be a book for everybody - it is not your typical novel. Thanks to NetGalley for the digital ARC.

This book felt extremely complex and at many moments I felt very unsure about what was happening, but Anthony's writing is so beautiful, it is hard not to get lost in the story. There were so many characters, worlds and timelines to keep track of, but by the end it did feel like everything tied together nicely. Overall, I enjoyed this book and though it felt slow at times, by the end I could not put it down. Thank you to Netgalley and Scribner for the ARC.

Cloud Cuckoo Land shows us that stories have been around since before we were born and, if we protect them, will be around for many lifetimes beyond our own. This book travels across space and time to follow the impact that an old Greek comedy has on those who hear it. We meet Anna and Omeir in the 1400s in Eurasia, Zeno and Seymour in present day Idaho, and Konstance and her family aboard the space ship Argos.

What I liked:
-As always, Anthony Doerr does a great job of creating characters that are fully developed and intriguing. My favorite was Zeno.
-The Greek story of Aethon is woven throughout the entire book and the individual timelines. It is the thread that binds everything together.

What I didn't like:
-At times it felt like Doerr was trying to do too much. With multiple timelines and perspectives it occasionally felt overwhelming, especially when time went back and forth inside an individual point of view.

Overall this is a compelling story, but is definitely best read in large chucks in order to keep up with the timelines and characters.