I would agree in contemporary terms. The current explosion of author teams seems to be to cover weakness or double the output of a more famous or burnt out author. Not a scenario for greatness.

Anyway.. I.. I don’t think I have any ‘dreamteam’ – I don’t quite believe that a team framework can produce top-level results as far as SF writing goes.

Still, there are some pairups that would be amusing in one way or another.
Combining G.R.R.Martin and P.F.Hamilton would, I think, produce a complete singularity of a supernovel, jam-packed with awkward unfortunate-implications sex and rape, in the format of a trilogy of 2000-page tomes. The uncomfortable obsessions that plague both writer’s works would definitely feed off of each other in a most deliciously repulsive manner.

Next, I’d like to see what happens when you pair U.K.LeGuin and O.S.Card.. The sheer presence of those names on a cover would set the blogosphere ablaze – people already can’t seem to stop mentioning both of those authors at every opportunity far exceeding the actual need, so a co-op work would, without doubt, be the go-to talking topic for a generation of people, at least.

Well, I am being a bit mean. But hey, as reality tv shows have proven, people are drawn to negativity far more. There’s money in this, y’hear?

McCarthy’s Pulitzer prize winning, genre-crossing novel, THE ROAD is a far cry from his stronger novels, including BLOOD MERIDIAN, ALL THE PRETTY HORSES, AND SUTTREE. Aside fro his literary sentiments, McCarthy is the best author I know of at getting at the raw power of human emotion. Under Chiang’s high concept science fiction/philosophy mentorship, I would love to see a novella between the two.

I’d love, for example, to see Elizabeth Bear and Steven Brust to collaborate on a fantasy novel. That could be scary good.