Favorite official fanfiction?

[the_wolfs_howl]

Generally, I've found that people tend to look down on fanfiction, saying it's not "serious" literature, or that it's copyright infringement. But what about the "official fanfiction," the books that get written by people hired to do so? Or just professionally published stories that can be defined as fanfiction?

What are your favorites? Fanfiction of movies, video games, anime.... Feel free to interpret the term "fanfiction" as tightly or loosely as you like.

For me, most of the books that come to mind are actually about the Warcraft series. My favorite Warcraft author is Christie Golden; I love her books Lord of the Clans, Rise of the Horde, and Arthas: Rise of the Lich King (even though I'm only some 50 pages in ). I also like Cycle of Hatred by Keith R. A. DeCandido. I guess, basically, I like any book that centers around Orcs, especially Thrall, and ever since I played Warcraft 3 I've had a soft spot for Arthas, so.... Oh, and Medivh is pretty cool, so I enjoyed The Last Guardian.

And I ADORE Another Note: The Los Angeles BB Murder Cases by Nishioishin, which is a spin-off novel of Death Note. What an ingenious murder mystery, and what great characterization of both Mello and Ryuzaki!
While not quite as well-written, I'm also very fond of the novelization of L: Change the World by M. Though it's a bit off on L's characterization at some points (if you ask me), it greatly improves on the lackluster plot of the movie, and still offers some cool new insights to L's character.

...and I'll come right out and say that I still think the Star Wars: Jedi Apprentice series by Jude Watson (and Dave Wolverton) is a good children's series

To step away from the more modern stories, I think probably my favorite "fanfic" of a Greek myth is Jorge Luis Borges' "The House of Asterion," which is written from the perspective of the Minotaur.

...I probably have some more swimming around in the back of my head, but I'm curious to see what other people say.

[TopazRaven]

The only one I can really think of at the moment is a book called The Third Witch which is written by Rebecca Reisert. It is a re-telling of the story of Macbeth from the point of view of one of the three witches, a girl named Gilly. Meanwhile, I've never even actually read Macbeth yet, but it was a very good book.

Edit: Meanwhile, I don't see anything wrong with fanfiction as long as it is written well and the characters aren't to OOC. Sadly those are hard to come by so I stopped reading fanfiction awhile ago.

[Atria35]

If people are hired to write those stories, then they're part of the franchise, not 'official fanfiction'.

But I will agree with Topaz on The Third Witch- great book. Still own it. Hmm... I tend to be fond of retold fairy tales, where they put dark twists on the actual events and tell it from the perspective of other characters. One of my favorites is Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister. I don't get it entirely, but I loved it.

Actual, unofficial fanfiction? I've come across some amazing ones. Ones that were epics unto themselves, that broke my heart and really did what they did well. Unfortunately, they're usually written for mature audiences, so I couldn't post links here.

[Nate]

The Star Wars prequels are my favorite official fanfiction.

[Edward]

The only official fanfiction I've ever read (actually the only fanfiction I've ever read) are the Halo books Fall of Reach and First Strike by Eric Nylund, which I liked, and The Flood by William C. Dietz which I did not like.

[rocklobster]

I've read a few Star Trek TNG books and some Star Wars stuff too. Oh and a Spider-man book written by Diane Duane.