# Ultimate author collaborations

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ultimate-author-collaborations/170651>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [April 23, 2003, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ultimate-author-collaborations/170651 "2003-04-23T18:27:51Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Shade](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2bfe46/32.png) [@Shade](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shade)\
**Post date:** [April 23, 2003, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ultimate-author-collaborations/170651/1 "2003-04-23T18:27:51Z")

</div>

Who are good authors you think match each other’s weak spots? Would they actually work well together, or would it be a case of too many cooks spoil the broth?

I’m sure this has been done before, but not for a while (I hope).

For example, I’ll list some IMHO strong and weak points of some authors. (I’ll do the children’s fantasy genre, why not?)

**Piers Anthony** : Some good ideas, nice effort with consistancy of magic in some places, some good plots, absolutely abysmal writing style.

**Philip Pullman** : Beautiful ideas and telling, mish-mash of plot and ideas at the end.

**J. K. Rowling** : Good world, good stories, exciting plots but ill-thought out magic leads to big holes at the end.

Could we combine any authors and get a book with a coherant plot, well thought out and beautiful world and interesting characters?

Probably not. (Oh, and I bet the second post is someone saying X is perfect already. Why not) (And it’s OK to think my examples suck. Better them)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![NoCoolUserName](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5fc32e/32.png) [@NoCoolUserName](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NoCoolUserName)\
**Post date:** [April 23, 2003, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ultimate-author-collaborations/170651/2 "2003-04-23T19:27:00Z")

</div>

Heinlein + Harlan Ellison.

Heinlein=Smooth writing style, strong political/social viewpoints, no on-the-other-hand opinions.

Harlan=Brilliant writing but sometimes difficult to follow, strong political/social viewpoints much the other hand from RAH.

RAH is dead, and Harlan almost, but this is just a fantasy exercise anyway, isn’t it?

Disclaimer: The above pairing was suggested by George RR Martin at an address he did advocating shared-worlds writing. I do not have his permission to use the idea.