Score

Thank you, superfast one!!

I know a couple of works that were written with audience participation, does that count? The author is still the author, but the audience was very much responsable for how the plots evolved.

Jan wrote: "I know a couple of works that were written with audience participation, does that count? The author is still the author, but the audience was very much responsable for how the plots evolved."

Yes, that's OK -- in fact, there's already one book on the list that was created in a similar fashion; namely, Caverns, which was the product of a creative writing class taught by Ken Kesey at the University of Oregon (the "author name," in reverse, reads "Novel U.O.").

Allright, added them :) I was part of the audience for all of these, so I'm pretty biased, but I thought it was awesome :)

Edit: I added a short explanation to each vote.

Jan wrote: "Allright, added them :) I was part of the audience for all of these, so I'm pretty biased, but I thought it was awesome :)

Edit: I added a short explanation to each vote."

Wow, cool! You should also add them to this list: http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/69...

Hahaha. Maybe I will :)

Edit: OH GOD, YOU KNOW/MET JARED DIAMOND?

That's sooooo coool.

Jan wrote: "Hahaha. Maybe I will :)

Edit: OH GOD, YOU KNOW/MET JARED DIAMOND?

That's sooooo coool."

Through absolutely no merit of my own, though!! He's a friend of my mom's -- they met in England, years ago. (As a consequence, he's fond of reminding me that as time goes by, he's one of the few remaining people who have known me as long as my parents have.) Needless to say, I admire him tremendously ... he's far and away the most broad-minded, -educated and -talented person I've ever met!

O god. I've met quite a couple of famous artists and authors (in Europe though) thanks to my father, but none are people whose work I personally am a fan of. Jared Diamond is all kinds of awesomesauce :)

Jan wrote: "O god. I've met quite a couple of famous artists and authors (in Europe though) thanks to my father, but none are people whose work I personally am a fan of. Jared Diamond is all kinds of awesome..."

He is indeed (but would be the first to vigorously dispute it)!

Prism was jointly written by Aliza and Faye Kellerman; I can find the book listed under each name but not both.

I'll edit the bookdata for that book then :)

Thanks to both of you! This reminds me -- aren't there also a few books jointly written by Faye and Jonathan Kellerman?

Themis-Athena wrote: "Thanks to both of you! This reminds me -- aren't there also a few books jointly written by Faye and Jonathan Kellerman?"

I have two listed here, Themes, but only one has the two names. Apparently this is an under-edited cache of books. The collaboration greatly improves the product, for Faye has passionate ideas but not the writing skills of husband Jonathan.

Ah -- yes, I see.

Isn't it interesting how this format particularly seems to lend itself to mysteries, thrillers and romance, btw? (As well as spoofs thereof ...)

I was thinking it mostly serves well for action heavy works. Not the explosion + car-chases + more explosions kind of action per se (although that's a possibility), but stories where a lot of stuff happens.

It lends itself to genre really well, for some reason.

I think Jan is right -- wherever the focus is more on plot than on character development, it's likely going to be easier for several authors to work together ...

That is a good point; and would work well with mystery, for example, where plot is crucial.

Yes -- though it's also bound to be a bit of an effort to keep the various clues and red herrings sorted, at least if the book isn't written as a collaboration from first to last page but rather as a "true" round-robin, i.e., with each chapter being contributed by a different author. Case in point: the Detection Club's The Floating Admiral (the original mystery round-robin, for all I know), as well as Yeats Is Dead!: A Mystery by 15 Irish Writers, a more recent spoof on the format. Dorothy Sayers, in her introduction to The Floating Admiral, describes at great length how they were on the one hand all having great fun turning on its head the upshot of the chapter written immediately before everybody's own, while at the same time it was also turning out more and more complicated not to make a complete hash of the storyline. (The book's final chapter, not coincidentally, is entitled "Sorting Out the Mess" ...)

Themis-Athena wrote: "Yes -- though it's also bound to be a bit of an effort to keep the various clues and red herrings sorted, at least if the book isn't written as a collaboration from first to last page but rather as..."

Seriously, you guys, check out Naked Came the Manatee, one of the better efforts at the round-robin, IMHO.

That is a fabulous title.

Yes -- I remember you mentioning that title before, Thom. It's now on my Amazon wish list!