Is Cloud Atlas a trilogy? If so, what are the first 2 books??

[Hannah]

Is Cloud Atlas a trilogy? If so, what are the first 2 books?? I'm so confused ...

[Audrey_e]

It's not.

[Hannah]

Lol thanks!

[Leslie]

Yes. It is linked to David Mitchell's Number9Dream and Ghostwritten.

[Mary]

Leslie, what is your source for confirming that the three books are part of a trilogy? I have read all three and made no such connection (although, curiously, there is a character that appears in both Cloud Atlas and Black Swan Green) - the books totally stand on their own.

[Zoran]

Mary wrote: "Leslie, what is your source for confirming that the three books are part of a trilogy? I have read all three and made no such connection (although, curiously, there is a character that appears in..."

I haven't read Number9Dream and Ghostwritten so I can't tell is it a trilogy, but I must say that a trilogy IS supposed to contain three books that can stand alone, yet are connected in some way. For example, Lord of the Rings is NOT a trilogy, it is one single book printed in three volumes.

LOTR, The Hobbit and Silmarillion might be considered a trilogy.

[Marianne]

I have only read Cloud Atlas and Black Swan Green and noticed the common characters of the Belgian composer and his wife. Apparently there is a Luisa Rey in Ghostwritten and a character of the same name in Cloud Atlas, but I don't know if they are the same person. And Boerhave appears in Cloud Atlas and Thousand Autumns, at different times in his life. But having characters in common doesn't make a trilogy, IMHO. Maeve Binchy did it all the time, but hers were never referred to as trilogies.

[Mary]

Marianne, I did read an interview with David Mitchell once where he said that he was happy to reuse characters, and to me it is fascinating that the same character could be in such different books - Black Swan Green reads like an autobiographical piece, and how it could have a common character with a quasi-fantasy like Cloud Atlas is certainly intriguing. I thought that Cloud Atlas and Thousand Autumns might have a common character (thanks for confirming - certainly the sea journal is being kept at around 1799) and I did not remember that Luisa Rey was in Ghostwritten, having read these a while ago.

Notwithstanding, if anyone can explain how Cloud Atlas, Number9, and Ghostwritten are a trilogy, I would like to hear it. They do stand on their own, and stand very far apart, in my view.

[Marianne]

I got some of that info (Luisa Rey, Boerhave) from an interview (just googled David Mitchell recurring characters), it might be the same one you read?? And apparently there are some similar characters or X seems like a cousin of Y, that sort of thing. But I agree with you, these are stand-alone books with vastly differing themes and styles. Are Larsson's Dragon Tattoo books a trilogy?

[[deleted user]]

Marianne wrote: "But having characters in common doesn't make a trilogy, IMHO. Maeve Binchy did it all the time, but hers were never referred to as trilogies."

Bret Easton Ellis also did it, but isn't sure those same-name characters are all the same person (but sometimes the family connections stay e. g. Patrick Bateman (from Amecian psycho) is the brother of Sean Bateman (Rules of attraction) - but that's all we know for sure. Parents circumstenses are different.)

And I think the Cloud Atlas doesn't belong to a trilogy.
And yes, Larsson's Dragon Tattoo books are trilogy.

[Mary]

I will say that I think that Mitchell re-uses characters in a way that I have not seen anywhere else - and even he just figures why not re-use a character that he likes - there is otherwise none of the continuity the way one sees recurring characters in a series, or actual historical characters referred to by different writers.

And now we just have to hear from Leslie.

[Ken]

Luisa Rey appears in several Mitchell books, once as a POV

Gwendolyn Bendincks appears as the vicar's wife in BlackSwanGreen and an employee of the assisted home in Cloud Atlas.

Eva van Crommelynck is a teen in Cloud Atlas and an adult in BlackSwanGreen. Her family is also referenced.

Neal Brose is a kid in BlackSwanGreen and an adult POV in Ghostwritten.

[Jordan]

They are connected, but I wouldn't say they are a trilogy....

[Kappytaylor]

I have read nothing to suggest to me that Cloud Atlas is in any way a trilogy. However, I will state that in my humble opinion, the story told in Cloud Atlas is complete. I don't think that it seems there is anything missing. I do not want for more info about any of the characters, I feel like each story added a piece of the overall story, and that it succeeded in what it set out to do.

[John]

Cloud Atlas is standalone. It's just that there are different narrative threads, set in different time periods and locations.

[Richard]

Cloud atlas wouldn't exist without If On A Winters Night A Traveller by Italo Calvino so if you read one you should read the other

[Robert]

I don't know if it's essential to understanding Cloud Atlas, but any chance to get someone to read If on a Winter's Night a Traveler is heartily seconded by me. One of my favorite books of all time.

[Gregsamsa]

Many good books are not parts of series.

[Hannah]

Thank you everyone!

[Cecily]

All Mitchell's books include some characters from some of his other books. He has described this a writing an uber-novel comprising novellas. The chart at the end of this article shows just some of the crossover characters in his six novels so far: http://www.vulture.com/2014/08/david-...

As already said, Cloud Atlas is not part of a trilogy. It's a sextet of its own six novellas.

However, Mitchell IS writing a trilogy: the first is The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, the second is his recent The Bone Clocks, and the third does not yet have a title.