Recently there was the new BBC series based on the book that Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett co-authored: Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch (published in 1990).
This is one of those books which, when I read it, I laughed so much I cried. So good! Was this a successful co-authoring of a strange and wonderful book? Yes!
Then there are the co-authored books which somehow do not hit the spot for me. The original author, say, of a series of books, is awesome. Time goes by, situations change, and they are joined by a co-author.
This happened with the books of Dick Francis, which are extraordinarily good in that usually the protagonist of the story is a decent and good person, with a well-written story of danger, evocatively descriptive and just fun to read. (There is much conversation about how Dick Francis was joined with his wife, Mary, in co-writing the books.) Then he was joined by his son (Felix), and somehow the whole flavour of the books changed, sort of gradually but then more rapidly to where I simply didn't want to read them anymore. The books continue to have a large and happy audience, so that is a fine thing, too. But they are no longer my cup of tea. I preferred the books which were co-authored (even if not officially) with Mary.
Do you have any books which were co-authored and you really like them? (Or read them and dislike them when comparing them to the books written by the authors as individuals?)
Do you have any ideas of authors who could possibly join together and write an extraordinary story together?
Tell us!
