Overall, I liked the book very much and enjoyed reading five out of six of the novellas (short-stories?) that comprise it. The change-ups in each of the stories' style and mood made the whole more interesting, although it's pretty much impossible to describe the book to someone who hasn't read it. The outlier was the center work, and the only thing that I didn't enjoy was the literal writing of the dialogue, which always slows me down and makes reading more of a chore. Other than that minor quibble I liked the story as well. 
 I was sitting on the fence for a long period, trying to decide if the structure was too much of a gimmick, taking away from the stories themselves, or was a clever way to tie the tales into a (somewhat) cohesive whole. When the character Frobisher writes "Revolutionary or gimmicky? Shan't know until it's finished, and by then it'll be too late." about his own composition Cloud Atlas Sextet that mirrors the book's structure I decided that it really didn't matter. After all, if the author himself can admit to (pretend to) be sitting on the fence via one of his characters, then there's no reason I have to decide one way or the other either. 
 I'd definitely recommend this to someone who has eclectic tastes in books, or to someone who wants something (or six somethings) out of the ordinary.