I'm reading this so-called ' fantasy book'. It's called
Bite Club by Rachel Caine. Apart from the fact that it is a pretty bad book from the point of view of plot and style, there is one thing that is slightly bothering me. In the story there is a character consisting of a brain in a bowl of liquid. This brain is wired up to all sorts of surveillance gadgets in order to spy on the inhabitants of the town where the story is set. To my knowledge the author who first hit upon the idea of a brain in a bowl was Roald Dahl in a short story called
William and Mary. Now, should this in any way influence my judgement of the book? Is it plagiarism that the author makes use of the same gimmick as Roald Dahl? Most of the readers of
Bite Club, I would imagine, are 11 to 15 year olds who, presumably, have not read Roald Dahl's story. It isn't as if Ms Caine has copied the plot. Just one character. Recycled it, as it were. Mmmm...
