If you see a film with a lot of script writing credits there is cause for concern. It is usually a mess. People have been bought in to fix perceived problems. As often as not they make it worse. You don't see many books with more than one or two names on the cover. Even collaborations are fairly uncommon and those that do exist usually work together from the start. Having somebody come in to work on a problem book is not common - usually the book just goes in a drawer somewhere for the author to perhaps pull out later for another go at it.
But the movie writing type of collaboration is not completely unknown in books. Witness Hunter's Run by George R R Martin, Gardner Dozois and Daniel Abraham. It took 30 years of fits and starts with various attempts by the authors and long periods in drawers to come up with this publication. It shows. In some ways it is a mess, just like you would expect. The styles chop and change and there are some strange continuity errors. It is particularly evident in the beginning where somebody, a young Gardner Dozois I think, has run wild with some very overblown descriptive prose. Any book written over a 30 year period not only has to contend with the different writers but that each writer has changed considerably over that time.
You have to wonder why they bothered. The thing is, it is a story worth telling. At some point somebody, again Dozois, had a really good idea for an adventure story on a colony world that also delved into personal identity. It is a first contact story of a kind but also about how we see ourselves and what happens when we encounter a mirror into our nature. Not an original thought but the take on it by these authors is pretty distinct and was well worth the effort even if the execution proved flawed.
It helps that this book has an afterword and interviews with the authors. It helps assemble the puzzle of who did what. Perhaps apportion blame might be a better phrase. But there is credit too. Despite all the flaws, after a few early doubts I enjoyed this book. Perhaps just one rewrite more would do the trick.
But the movie writing type of collaboration is not completely unknown in books. Witness Hunter's Run by George R R Martin, Gardner Dozois and Daniel Abraham. It took 30 years of fits and starts with various attempts by the authors and long periods in drawers to come up with this publication. It shows. In some ways it is a mess, just like you would expect. The styles chop and change and there are some strange continuity errors. It is particularly evident in the beginning where somebody, a young Gardner Dozois I think, has run wild with some very overblown descriptive prose. Any book written over a 30 year period not only has to contend with the different writers but that each writer has changed considerably over that time.
You have to wonder why they bothered. The thing is, it is a story worth telling. At some point somebody, again Dozois, had a really good idea for an adventure story on a colony world that also delved into personal identity. It is a first contact story of a kind but also about how we see ourselves and what happens when we encounter a mirror into our nature. Not an original thought but the take on it by these authors is pretty distinct and was well worth the effort even if the execution proved flawed.
It helps that this book has an afterword and interviews with the authors. It helps assemble the puzzle of who did what. Perhaps apportion blame might be a better phrase. But there is credit too. Despite all the flaws, after a few early doubts I enjoyed this book. Perhaps just one rewrite more would do the trick.