My knowledge of Sherlock Holmes begins and ends with the recent BBC adaptation. Aside from its modernity, I don't know how true it is to the book - it does talk about Mycroft being intellectually superior and positions him as a powerful and mysterious cursory personality.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar has written a novel focussing on this periphery character. This figment of Arthur Conan-Doyle's imagination is posed as his author intended, so is true to his original vision, but it's taking something that exists and breathing new life into it.
People get inspiration from weird and wonderful places, is it so strange to take someone else's fictional character and create something original? All sorts of stories are adapted, rebooted and splintered, therefore adding to the canon and potentially opening it up to a new audience who may revisit the original.
Creativity shouldn't fall victim to laws, rules and commercialism. It should be celebrated, regardless of how it came into fruition.
