# Paired novels --- stories that intersect **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 19, 2016, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paired-novels-stories-that-intersect/772404 "2016-11-19T04:16:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![movingfinger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@movingfinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/movingfinger)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2016, 6:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paired-novels-stories-that-intersect/772404/21 "2016-11-21T06:27:23Z")
Not what you were looking for, probably, but in Donald Westlake’s **Dancing Aztecs,** the entire Dortmunder crew makes what can only be called a cameo appearance to help a character in **Dancing Aztecs** move his car out of someone’s driveway, and they are not seen again. Just Westlake having a bit of fun. ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2016, 6:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paired-novels-stories-that-intersect/772404/22 "2016-11-21T06:36:57Z")
Ali Smith- [How to Be Both](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_to_Be_Both) And I suppose Gone Girl? ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2016, 7:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paired-novels-stories-that-intersect/772404/23 "2016-11-21T07:09:36Z")
Raymond E. Feist and Janny Wurts’ [Empire Trilogy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empire_Trilogy) is contemporary to Feist’s Riftwar saga and contains some crossover elements. ---
**Author:** ![TonySinclair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/49beb7/32.png) [@TonySinclair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TonySinclair)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2016, 7:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paired-novels-stories-that-intersect/772404/24 "2016-11-21T07:18:50Z")
David Weber’s military sci-fi about Honor Harrington now has a couple or three branches, where different novels and novellas, sometimes by different authors, are covering the same universe/time period (aka the Honorverse), with many characters and events in common. ---
**Author:** ![si\_blakely](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@si\_blakely](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/si_blakely)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2016, 9:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paired-novels-stories-that-intersect/772404/25 "2016-11-21T09:00:41Z")
Hugh Cook’s [Chronicles of an Age of Darkness](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronicles_of_an_Age_of_Darkness) interlinks characters and plots, with the protagonist and events of one story being peripheral elements in another. ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2016, 9:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paired-novels-stories-that-intersect/772404/26 "2016-11-21T09:11:50Z")
theres a few books from the shadowrun fiction that do this basically theres a set story and 6-8 (or more) people write it from their characters point of view in each chapter and they comment when they run across the effects from the other characters like one had a jack the ripper persona and two chapters later someone was warning people about the "damn fool who was playing jack the ripper online " and then everyone’s efforts tie into the ending chapter ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2016, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paired-novels-stories-that-intersect/772404/27 "2016-11-21T16:12:26Z")
_Roshomon_ _Hoodwinked_ tells the story of Little Red Riding Hood from multiple different perspectives. _Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde_ and _Mary Reilly_. _Beowulf_ and John Gardner’s _Grendel_ _The Wizard of Oz_ and _Wicked_ [The True Story of the Three Little Pigs](https://www.amazon.com/True-Story-Three-Little-Pigs/dp/0140544518) In comics, _Marvels_ shows various events in the Marvel comic universe from the point of view of a non-super reporter. (Comics do this often, with various crossover events). ---
**Author:** ![Knowed\_Out](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/knowed_out/32/7380_2.png) [@Knowed\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knowed_Out)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2016, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paired-novels-stories-that-intersect/772404/28 "2016-11-21T16:26:22Z")
In Robert Anton Wilson’s [Schrödinger’s Cat Trilogy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Anton_Wilson#Schr.C3.B6dinger.27s_Cat_Trilogy.2C_The_Historical_Illuminatus_Chronicles.2C_and_Masks_of_the_Illuminati), the same cast of characters exist simultaneously in three alternate universes. So, different PoVs but same characters. ---
**Author:** ![Karen\_Lingel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karen_lingel/32/18649_2.png) [@Karen\_Lingel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Karen_Lingel)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2016, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paired-novels-stories-that-intersect/772404/29 "2016-11-21T19:24:47Z")
Margaret Atwood’s trilogy,_Oryx and Crake_, _The Year of the Flood_, and _MaddAddam_ basically covers the “end of the world” from three different perspectives. It kinda flags when you get to _MaddAddam_, but I definitely recommend the first two. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2016, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paired-novels-stories-that-intersect/772404/30 "2016-11-21T21:26:58Z")
> [@TonySinclair](#): > > David Weber’s military sci-fi about Honor Harrington now has a couple or three branches, where different novels and novellas, sometimes by different authors, are covering the same universe/time period (aka the Honorverse), with many characters and events in common. Piers Anthony’s Incarnations of Immortality series also covers the same incidents from different perspectives in each book (particularly in the extra books written after the first five). > [@CalMeacham](#): > > (Farmer claims it’s the only time an X-rated original gave rise to a PG-rated sequel) This reminds me: John Barnes has a series (the Century Next Door series) in which two of the books are YA (“Orbital Resonance” and “The Sky So Big and Black”) and two of the books (“Kaleidoscope Century” and “Candle”) are very R-rated (the “hero” of KC is a mercenary soldier who commits murder and rape regularly - and he’s not the worst person in the book). ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2016, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paired-novels-stories-that-intersect/772404/31 "2016-11-21T22:35:51Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > _Roshomon_ > > _Hoodwinked_ tells the story of Little Red Riding Hood from multiple different perspectives. > > _Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde_ and _Mary Reilly_. > > _Beowulf_ and John Gardner’s _Grendel_ > > _The Wizard of Oz_ and _Wicked_ > > [The True Story of the Three Little Pigs](https://www.amazon.com/True-Story-Three-Little-Pigs/dp/0140544518) > > In comics, _Marvels_ shows various events in the Marvel comic universe from the point of view of a non-super reporter. (Comics do this often, with various crossover events). Most of your examples are cases of “people writing the classic novel from a different point of view”, which I was trying to steer away from. No one has mentioned Robert Heinlein’s pair – his last novel **To Sail Beyond the Sunset** retells some events from **Time Enough for Love** from a different POV. There are connections with other books and other Heinlein characters, but it’s that simultaneous event/ different POV thing I['m looking for. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2016, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paired-novels-stories-that-intersect/772404/32 "2016-11-21T22:55:40Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > No one has mentioned Robert Heinlein’s pair – his last novel **To Sail Beyond the Sunset** retells some events from **Time Enough for Love** from a different POV. There are connections with other books and other Heinlein characters, but it’s that simultaneous event/ different POV thing I['m looking for. I was meaning to mention those two - sorry. Harry Turtledove has paired stories - “Twenty, Counting Up” and “Forty, Counting Down” feature many of the same incidents told from the perspective of two different (-ish) characters. ---
**Author:** ![velomont](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/8491ac/32.png) [@velomont](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/velomont)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2016, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paired-novels-stories-that-intersect/772404/33 "2016-11-24T20:53:57Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > The [Alexandria Quartet](https://www.amazon.com/Alexandria-Quartet-Lawrence-Durrell/dp/0571283934/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1479530914&sr=8-1&keywords=the+Alexandria+quartet) by Lawrence Durrell (brother of Gerald, currently on PBS Sunday nights) comprises four novels. The first three go over the same events from the different perspectives, and the fourth one puts them all together. I was going to mention the same work. I think I spent a summer, during my off-hours, reading the quartet. It was a fascinating series because of the perspective you mention. Something seemingly insignificant in one novel, an almost incidental detail, would be incredibly important in another novel from a different character’s point of view. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2016, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paired-novels-stories-that-intersect/772404/34 "2016-11-24T22:51:52Z")
> [@Andy\_L](#): > > A less blatant example - Lois McMaster Bujold’s “Cetaganda” and “Ethan of Athos” take place at about the same time in universe, and there are a few places where characters in “Cetaganda” are distracted by news from the other novel, as I recall. As I recall, there was only one place where those “intersected”, and it really wasn’t an intersection in the way this thread is about. That point was that the main character of _Cetaganda_ got a key piece of information that lead to the events of the other book. But since he couldn’t do anything with that info until the book was over, the two didn’t actually overlap in time. I’m surprised no one’s mention Robert Sheckley’s “Pas de Trois of the Chef and the Waiter and the Customer”, a real classic in this genre. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paired-novels-stories-that-intersect/772404.md?page=1)