The Books of Magic by Neil Gaiman

[meganbmoore]

So, Books of Magic.  If you mention Harry Potter to most people who've read this book(or many times, just the ones who know a fair bit about  Tim Hunter,) the polite ones will say that HP is an all ages version of BoM, or heavily influenced by.  The less polite ones will just say it's a ripoff.

Comments

[magicnoire]

Honestly, I don't believe Rowling never heard of the series either. At the very least.

(And Gaiman is a very generous, kind man. Far more generous and gracious than some circumstances warrant, sometimes.)

[meganbmoore]

Yes. Gaiman seems amazingly down to earth and generous. I suspect a lot of his comments have more to do with not wanting to cause trouble for either of them(lets face it, if he'd wanted to, he probably could have made things bad for her after the first book...he has a lot of clout...even now he probably has a lot more than she does)

If Harry and Tim themselves didn't have so many striking similarities, I'd throw it up to coincidence...you can let them similar themes slide for the reasons Gaiman stated, but the Harry/Tim comparison just can't be ignored or glossed over.

Have you read the BoM ongoing, or just the original series?

[magicnoire]

Just the original series (I saw in the bookstore when I was still in college.) I didn't even realize there was an ongoing series. Shows what I know. D:

[meganbmoore]

Well, it isn't continueing now. It seems that not all of it was collected, and even then, not all the collections are currently in print, which means reading all of it will require work...

[fairest1]

I accept Neil Gaiman's standpoint on Harry Potter and, out of respect for him, will not be among those rabidly going "Ripoff!"

That said, I attempted to take out the throat of someone who saw me reading Books of Magic and said "Oh, are they putting out a Harry Potter comic now?"

[meganbmoore]

Precisely. I'm not sure I'd be quite at the point of "ripoff" for the series as a whole, but for Tim/Harry...

Gaiman is more generous and gracious than anyone of his standing has any right to be, really. And he apparently is just as nice in person. Sometimes when reading his blog, I wish there was just this hint of ego or vanity...

Had I gotten that comment, there would have been a lecture.

[fairest1]

I think it was either Neil or some other author who commented on the way that people would come up to them at signings and such saying, "I'll give you this great idea for a book, you write it, we split the profits. Deal?"

The reason, besides the obvious, that no one ever takes these people up on it, is that ideas are easy. It's the writing that's hard.

JKR built her own universe, a fairly elaborate one at that. While Harry does bear some resemblance to Tim, they're distinctly different characters. She still wrote a long and complicated series that has fewer plot holes than many.

Does Harry seem to be inspired by Tim Hunter? Yes. Should anyone be taking legal action? Nah. That'd just likely wind up being a headache for all involved.

Oh, there was a lecture after the severe rage had passed.

[meganbmoore]

I've seen similar comments from a number of writers, actually.

Harry's basic character descripton is the same as Tim's, and the appearances make them dead ringers, so it's essentially impossible to believe any protestations that she wasn't at least familiar with the character. But, as you said, she made it a completely different and developed world. Still, Harry is enough like Tim that, had he wanted to, Gaiman likely could have ended Rowling's career right after he started. But part of why he has as much respect as he does is that he's not that type of guy.

[chomiji]

I loved the original volume/intro for Books of Magic (which is what you have here), but I was less impressed by the rest of the series. Still, they're not bad.

Gaiman is a prince of a human being, and his blog is enchanting reading - I've been following it faithfully for a couple of years now. He's a sweet uber-nerd, and loves to post links to fun things for everyone to check out and read.

He's also very hot, from my viewpoint ... (he's my younger sister's age).

[meganbmoore]

I've read a bit by the author of the onging series...not amazing, but solid.

Gaiman is very good looking, I agree. I also agree with the sweet uber-nerd part. I love his blog, even though the entries are sometimes so long i don't have time to check it all out.