Brandon Sanderson used the latest episode of his podcast, Intentionally Blank, to question who actually wrote the new Mr. Beast book, The Most Dangerous Games. He said he was “really curious who the ghost writer was” and added that he would like that person to be credited, even if he understood why that might not happen.
The comment lands because Sanderson was not speaking in generalities. He said an uncredited ghostwriter was definitely involved, and he also said the book does not feel like a James Patterson book. That matters in part because the title on the cover points to Mr. Beast and James Patterson, while Sanderson’s reading of the project points to someone else doing the real drafting.
The Most Dangerous Games has been out since September, and its official description sells it as an “unputdownable survival thriller” set in Antarctica, with a billion dollars going to whoever is still standing. Author Ursula Wills has also said the story was inspired by a camping trip in Cornwall 20 years ago, a reminder that the book already arrived with a backstory as strange as the premise itself.
Sanderson framed the issue through his own experience. He said that when another person’s name is on a book, he usually expects he came up with the outline and then acted as editor, and he described Patterson’s usual process as one where Patterson brings the idea, the two brainstorm and outline together, and then the other writer does the actual drafting before Patterson reviews it and gives feedback. That is why the credit question around this book stood out to him: by his account, this one did not fit the pattern.
The unresolved part is also the most interesting one. Sanderson did not name the ghostwriter, and nothing in the discussion clarified whether the credit will ever be made public. For now, the book sits in the odd space between a famous byline and a writer’s certainty that someone else, out of sight, did the work.
