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Originally Posted by pwalker8
That's always the question. I tend to break it out into several categories
Writing team - two writers who write together and are co-equals. An example would be Jerry Pournell and Larry Niven. Both very good and well known writers on the own who have written some very good books together.
Mentor team - one big name writer who is mentoring a younger or lesser known writer. Some of the early Drake/Stirling General and Pournelle/Stirling books might be an example, though Stirling had a few books before that. I think that helped Stirling smooth out some of his rough edges and understanding what appeals to readers (though it was pretty easy to see what parts Stirling wrote in the Pournelle/Stirling books).
Name team - big author slaps his name on it, while lesser known author does most of the writing, i.e. ghost writer.
Universe writer - Second author writes in the universe of the first author maybe from an outline, maybe just on his one. Examples might be some of the newer Bond books, the last three of the Robert Jordan series, John Ringo's Monster Hunter books.
The last two are the ones I'm most cautious about. I've read some very good books in these categories (I thought Sanderson's three books were better than the last three books that Jordan actually wrote and really liked Ringo's Monster Hunter books) and some very bad books in these categories.
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Another Universe Series would be the 1632 Universe. Eric flint wrote the first book and has allowed other authors to write in his universe.
Apache