The Bone Clocks
by David Mitchell · first published 2014
64% recommend27% neutral9% critical
Why HN recommends it
Ambitious, time-hopping novel with richly detailed characters and wide scope. It is entertaining and well suited to readers who enjoy sweeping fiction.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
Following a scalding row with her mother, fifteen-year-old Holly Sykes slams the door on her old life. But Holly is no typical teenage runaway: a sensitive child once contacted by voices she knew only as "the radio people," Holly is a lightning rod for psychic phenomena. Now, as she wanders deeper into the English countryside, visions and coincidences reorder her reality until they assume the aura of a nightmare brought to life. For Holly has caught the attention of a cabal of dangerous mystics -- and their enemies. But her lost weekend is merely the prelude to a shocking disappearance that le
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Currently engaged in: -The Bone Clocks - David Mitchell. Just a fun read. Fiction sucks me in pretty easily, and I enjoy the time-hopping. -Dirty, Sacred Rivers: Confronting South Asia's Water Crisis - Cheryl Colopy. Not enjoying this as…
on “Ask HN: What is HN reading?” ↗The Bone Clocks, by David Mitchell. An amazing writer. The best mix of beautifully detailed characters and ambitious scope that I've read.
on “Ask HN: What are some good books you have read lately?” ↗…listening to it in my early 40s was a transcendant joy. Don't be scared by the runtime - you won't want it to end. Other authors I happen to enjoy very much include David Mitchell (Thousand Autumns or Bone Clocks FTW), Cory Doctorow (Makers, Walkaway), Blake Crouch (Recursion), Daniel Suarez (Influx, Delta-V, Daemon), Robin Sloan (Sourdough, Mr. Penumbra's 24-hour Bookstore). Just to wrap up and repeat what has…
on “Ask HN: Are books worth it?” ↗The Bone Clocks and The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet are both greatly entertaining novels as well (and tangentially related to both, the shorter novel Slade House). Personally I found these more enjoyable than…
on “50 authors, 50 science fiction stories shorter than novels” ↗The best works of fiction I read: - Count Belisarius by Robert Graves - The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell - The Expanse (all of them) - Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir And the best books on software development were: - Fundamentals of Software Architecture: An Engineering Approach by…
on “Ask HN: What is the best thing you read in 2022?” ↗If you enjoyed The Bone Clocks, consider trying the other books in that same universe. Like The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet (particularly if you enjoy its historical setting of Edo period Japan on the artificial island of Deshima…
on “Ask HN: What is the best thing you read in 2022?” ↗Lots of good stuff in this thread. Two books I haven't seen are Bone Clocks and Cloud Atlas. The only thing is, you can't Google them, for risk of spoilers. Also, the movie based on Cloud Atlas is not great.
on “Ask HN: What are the best Sci-Fi books you've ever read?” ↗The Bone Clocks is fantastic - probably my #1 go-to when someone asks me for a book recommendation.
on “Ask HN: What is the best thing you read in 2022?” ↗…Assassination Of Margaret Thatcher: Stories' by Hilary Mantel 6. 'The Ballad Of A Small Player' by Lawrence Osborne 7. 'Bark: Stories' by Lorrie Moore 8. 'The Blazing World' by Siri Hustvedt 9. 'The Bone Clocks' by David Mitchell 10. 'The Book Of Strange New Things' by Michel Faber 11. 'The Book Of Unknown Americans' by Cristina Henríquez 12. 'Boy, Snow, Bird' by Helen Oyeyemi 13. 'A Brief History Of Seven…
on “Notable Books of 2014” ↗…why the elite need a prophylactic barrier of shitty state schools, to prevent clever kids from working-class post codes ousting them from the Enclave of Privilege." Mitchell, David (2014-09-02). The Bone Clocks: A Novel (p. 179). Random House Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
on “Chimpanzee Intelligence Is Heritable [pdf]” ↗The Bone Clocks is what killed David Mitchell's work for me. Really like Count Belasarius though, but I have always liked my heroes heroic, especially the historical ones.
on “Ask HN: What is the best thing you read in 2022?” ↗…feelings for PHM, but it was hard to put a finger on why. I enjoyed it well enough to make it to the end, but I think I have a limited appetite for his "authorial voice". I read it directly after The Bone Clocks and remember thinking I missed David Mitchell's "voice" and wishing there were a way to experience books through another author's voice. Outside the copyright concerns, this could be an interesting use…
on “The Egg (2009)” ↗