Holderness

Ghostwritten

  This is Mitchell's first book, the obvious predecessor of Cloud Atlas. It also is made up of a number of chapters that might be short stories, each with a different narrator and style. The connections between the stories are like the connections between this book and Cloud Atlas; there are references to events (often their consequences) and characters in previous stories, and some of the characters in Ghostwritten appear in Cloud Atlas. Even such tenuous connections have an interesting impact and hold the stories together. One of the stories in Ghostwritten, as in Cloud Atlas, is a perfect imitation of a common thriller style, including typical ignorant errors such writers make, but still a good story. (I haven't seen a critic acknowledge that yet; I hope they are aware of it.)

   The reason I didn't rate this book as highly as Cloud Atlas is that I didn't care for the characters as much as I did in the subsequent book. Also, Ghostwritten is like a first try at Cloud Atlas, and the latter is more interesting, more original, more cohesive, funnier, deeper, and bigger in scope. Still, if you want more of Cloud Atlas, you can find it here.