Remember the old adage: Microsoft stole it from Apple -- but they stole it from IBM -- who stole it from Xerox -- who nicked it from the Rosewall aliens anyway.
It's all about who uses the building blocks to get another step higher. Isaac Newton said that "If I have seen farther it is by standing on the shoulders of giants." All that we now know, read, believe, etc, is because we have people like Ray, who stand on the shoulders of those who wrote before. Rudyard Kipling wrote two serious sci-fi novels -- do his descendants claim that every sci-fi novel, series, or movie owes them money? Of course not, it's a ludicrous concept. But Kipling helped set a foundation for sci-fi that others built on. Without him, we may not have had 'Star Wars' (IMHO, not a great loss) or 'Star Trek' (a much greater worry!). And without them, we may well have not had the great series of the past few years. One writer cannot claim a genre as their own alone. But their writing, be it ever small or large, will add to that genre and allow others to step up to greatness. Ray and Janny have probably influenced more than we'll ever know, simply by using common concepts and putting them together into their amazing works. P.S. -- None of this means I don't want to know what happened when Kevin took Mara to Midkemia! Drives me mad that this book hasn't been written yet! Fliss I have a gripe with Apple in particular which proudly boasts its innovation in design and architecture, while those in the know really know just how they have historically leeched other companies inventions through the 90s. I have a running joke with my IT peers that if they could have patented the finger they would have!
