Family
| Character | First appearance | Last appearance | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Timothy Hunter | The Books of Magic Book One: The Invisible Labyrinth | Hunter: The Age of Magic #25 / Books of Magick: Life During Wartime #15 | Lead character in the series, a normal teenage boy with the destiny to be the greatest magician of his age. The Books of Magick series featured multiple worlds and alternate versions of established Vertigo characters and so it is uncertain if its Timothy Hunter was the original or not. |
| William "Bill" Hunter | The Books of Magic Book Two: The Shadow World | The Books of Magic #59: "Falling Apart" | Tim's father, who struggles to maintain a relationship with his son after retreating from the world when his wife died in a car accident. Bill was the driver, and lost an arm in the accident, torturing himself by keeping the wrecked car in his front garden until Tim had it removed by the Wobbly. His relationship with Tim was made worse when the boy discovered from his birth certificate that Mary Hunter was already pregnant when she met Bill and he had to admit that he wasn't Tim's biological father. Soon after, Bill was severely injured in a fire, but made such a complete recovery at the hands of Mister Vasuki that even his missing arm grew back: Vasuki was a demon, and caused Bill to turn into a ravenous monster on the occasion of his second marriage. Recovering from his experiences, and finding love again with Holly, helped him rebuild his relationship with his son, and the two enjoyed a much closer relationship despite not seeing much of each after Tim was enrolled in Bardsley boarding school. Unfortunately, this wasn't to last: following the death of his second wife, Bill fell apart and was about to be sectioned when Thomas Currie killed him in order to provide Tim the emotion trauma needed to allow the boy to subconsciously use his magic to escape his Other. |
| Mary Hunter | Died before the series began. Grave first seen in The Books of Magic #5: "The Hidden School" | Died before the series began. | Tim's mother, who died when he was very young in a car accident. Throughout the series, the loss of her is said to have had a profound effect on Tim, and alternate versions of him living in universes where she didn't die are shown to be happy and unaware of magic. Seeds given to Tim by Death of the Endless were planted on her grave and produced strawberries that allowed anyone eating them to experience her memories. These were mostly being misused by people for selfish reasons, but Gwen collected some and made them into jam in the hope that Tim would one day get to taste them. Tim later discovered that a necklace his mother always wore was actually a glamour-stone, making her appear human. |
| Tamlin the falconer | Arcana: The Books of Magic Annual #1 | The Books of Magic #4: "Lost Causes" | Loyal human subject - and lover - of Titania, the Faerie Queen, who was revealed to be Tim's biological father. Had the ability to transform himself into a falcon. He kidnaps Tim and takes him to Faerie to make the boy aware of how the land is withering and dying, hoping that his raw magic can cure it. When Tim nearly dies from Manticore venom, Tamlin performs a magic ritual to allow him to die in his son's place. Tim meets a dream of Tamlin briefly when it wanders from the Dreaming, giving him a chance of pretending he had said goodbye. |
| Holly Ransome | The Books of Magic #14: "What Fire Leaves Us" | The Books of Magic #67: "A Day, A Night, and a Dream Part Two" | Mother of Cyril, she first meets William Hunter when he is returning from hospital after the fire and her son mistakes him for the invisible man: embarrassed, she offers to let William share her taxi home, and a relationship grows from there. She initially decided to give the relationship a chance after having to get an abortion when her previous boyfriend turned out to be married and deciding that she would have a better chance at a stable relationship if she ignored her instincts and went out with a man she didn't find attractive. She marries Tim's father as angels and demons are fighting over the boy's magic, but blames her hazy memories of the day on too much alcohol. She is shown to be a very kind woman, but feels increasingly awkward around Tim and thinks he needs discipline to stop him running wild: her solution is to enroll him in Bardsley, where Cyril is also a pupil, which Tim manages to fool her into thinking is working despite the fact that he stops attending to receive private tuition in magic from Thomas Currie. In an incidence of déjà vu, Holly is fatally injured when a car driven by Bill Hunter crashes after he unexpectedly sees Tim's Other at the side of the road. Tim meets her again briefly at the Inn Between the Worlds, where she has wandered from Death's domain and apologises to him for not trying hard enough before being collected by the Coach of the Dead. |
| Cyril Ransome | The Books of Magic #14: "What Fire Leaves Us" | The Books of Magic #75: "The Closing: Inner Child" | Holly's son and Tim's stepbrother, Cyril is shown to be spoiled, selfish and vain . . . and extremely jealous of Tim. This often leads him into trouble, on one occasion nearly becoming the victim of a demon who seduced him by saying how clever and special he was, and on another happily being beatified by two angels and going on a rampage of destruction that led to the death of Tim's guardian angel, Araquel. He is also dangerously unhinged, having decided that since his mother said he had no father, he is the second Son of God sent to the Earth to be the God of the Dead. Despite this, he is extremely intelligent and is in Tim's year at Bardsley despite being the younger of the two. He remains adversarial towards Tim until the two eventually come to an arrangement: Tim pretends to attend Bardsley when in truth he is receiving instruction from Thomas Currie, and Cyril keeps Tim's secret in exchange for keeping the school all to himself. With the death of his mother and stepfather, however, he is expelled from Bardsley and runs away with Tim, unknowingly disguised as a troll after stealing a glamour from Thomas Currie. The two part company when Cyril gets stuck on a train track and Tim refuses to help free him, and narrowly escaping death Cyril sells information about the Opener to the demon Barbatos in exchange for the knowledge to use his glamour stone properly and a bot that brings the dead back to life. He lives in the cellar of Bardsley college with the reanimated corpse of his mother, until Tim comes seeking his hidden magic and destroys the pot, Holly's body and seemingly Cyril. However, although horribly disfigured Cyril survives and hides the extent of his injuries with his glamour stone, swearing revenge on Tim. |
Read more about this topic: List Of The Books Of Magic Characters
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