Fantasy heavyweight Brandon Sanderson has a question about the biggest book of the YouTuber era — and it’s not about the plot. On the latest episode of his Intentionally Blank podcast, Sanderson admitted he is deeply curious about who actually wrote “The Most Dangerous Games,” the survival thriller credited to MrBeast and James Patterson.
“The Most Dangerous Games” book (Credits: IGN)
“I’m really curious who the ghost writer was”
Sanderson — the Cosmere author who famously helped finish The Wheel of Time for Robert Jordan — doesn’t think the credited byline tells the whole story. “I’m really curious who the ghost writer was,” he said. “I would love for them to be credited, but I can see why they’re not.”
His argument is part industry insight, part stylistic read. Describing the typical Patterson collaboration, Sanderson explained: “Normally it’s James Patterson and somebody — what happens in those situations usually is James Patterson has an idea, they brainstorm and outline together, then the person writes the book and Patterson reads it and offers feedback.” But this one feels different to him: “It doesn’t feel like a James Patterson book,” he said, though he admitted it would be “very strange for Patterson to use an uncredited ghostwriter.”
His verdict? An uncredited ghostwriter was “definitely involved.” And Sanderson should know the mechanics of shared authorship: as he put it, “if you see someone else’s name on a book, chances are I came up with the outline and then was the editor on it.”
The book itself
“The Most Dangerous Games,” out since September, is billed as an “unputdownable survival thriller” pitting players against deadly Games in Antarctica and other extreme settings for a billion-dollar prize — with alliances curdling into ambushes and a hidden voice watching and testing the players. Whether Jimmy Donaldson himself did any of the actual writing is an open question, and the book has received conflicting reports about its success so far.
For now, the ghost remains unnamed — and Sanderson’s curiosity is shared by plenty of readers.
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Source: IGN — read the full story there.
