The book does reference that people under the Imperius curse start coming out of it when Voldemort dies- it's like killing the head vampire or something.

He does not write the books in the OpCenter, Power Play, or Net Force series. When the Net Force series first started they didn't even mention the real author on the cover, but I believe they've changed this in the years since with it still being the case that "Tom Clancy's..." is in huge letters and the author's name is nice and small. In those first books the only mention would be something in the acknowledgments like "invaluable contribution[s] to the manuscript by Joe Blow" when in fact the invaluable contribution was that Joe Blow wrote it.

So there are the now acknowledged series in which Clancy has just licensed his name but rumors that other recent books have been ghostwritten as well.

So he's not quite in the V.C. Andrews camp (at least not until he dies) but is an example of whoring out the name. Asimov did something similar in his late years but I think the appropriate authorial credit was given much more prominently.

Robert Ludlum is another. His estate has published about a dozen new books since he died in 2001, supposedly based on unfinished manuscripts but no authorial credit is given

Ahhh. Thanks. I knew Net Force wasn't by him (because I picked up on the Tom Clancy's..." but the others didn't even occur to me. I only follow the Jack Ryan series; couldn't get in to the other ones. And now I know why. I would be curious to know if Clancy wrote The Bear and the Dragon and The Teeth of the Tiger. I had a really hard time getting involved in those books. On another note, this link makes me happy (the chronological order of the books). I now need to go back and read them in order. I bet that would fill in some [not real] plot holes.

Sorry for the derail.

Yay! I *finally* finished reading and can finally read this thread! :)

Okay, so clear me up here... wasn't there a point in the book where portraits only being able to visit their own (other portraits of same person) a major plot point? And yet, later in the book (hell, the whole series), portraits are always visiting other pictures.

Is it too early after the book release to add this to quotes? :p

I think that they can visit othe portraits in the same building. The Fat Lady who gaurds Griffindor always has her friend Violet over. But they can only to go another building if they have another portrait there.

Hmmm, is the bit of soul captured in one's portrait captured and fixed at the moment of painting, or does the portrait of a dead person reflect that person's lifetime soul?

I'd say lifetime. Because the portraits are aware of current circumstances.

Why does the Wizarding world celebrate christian holidays like Christmas and Easter? There don't seem to be, that I can recall, and references to God in any form.

Do Wizards in say India celebrate Hindu holidays or middle eastern wizards Islamic holidays?

Yes. Unless you remove references to names and gender of said character.

Not sure. I never thought of it - always took it as secular.