Brandon Sanderson, author of The Cosmere books, has some thoughts on the new Mr. Beast book. More specifically, he is wondering who the true author actually is. During the latest episode of his podcast, Intentionally Blank, he decided to dive into his own perception of The Most Dangerous Games.
"I'm really curious who the ghost writer was," said Sanderson. "I would love for them to be credited, but I can see why they're not." He then goes on to explain how he personally goes about co-authoring books, which he recently did with Blightfall, and how he thinks that differs from being an editor. His final point on the matter was "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."
For anyone who has followed Mr. Beast's YouTube career, it seems pretty unlikely that he did any of the writing himself. The fact that James Patterson is also listed on the book would make it seem the famous author is likely the one who did all of the heavy lifting to get this story off the ground. But Sanderson questions just how involved Paterson actually was in this project and if the true author is maybe left uncredited.
"Normally it's James Patterson and somebody," explains Sanderson, "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."
"It doesn't feel like a James Patterson book," continues Sanderson. "but it's very strange for Patterson to use an uncredited ghostwriter, right?"
As someone who has helped finish The Wheel of Time Book series for Robert Jordan, Sanderson is no stranger to co-authoring a story. He admits later in the podcast that it's certainly possible that Patterson could have written the book, but he thinks an uncredited ghostwriter was definitely involved.
The book in question, The Most Dangerous Games, has been out since September and has received conflicting reports about its success. The official page for the book calls it "an unputdownable survival thriller". If you're interested in reading it for yourself, here's the description of the book: