If anybody is reading, or rereading this title, if you spot Anything you think is a typo or a mistake, ask me! I have until May to get in corrections for the mass market edition, and any extra eyes on the subject would be accepted with authorial gratitude.
originally posted by Greebo
When I reread - maybe soon - I will keep an eye out. I am a natural-born Spelling Nazi.
originally posted by Tygrr
I am not sure if this is a mistake or not. On page 427, Arithon says tae'thadra in Paravian. When I went to look it up in the index, as I do with all Paravian phrases, it was not there!
originally posted by Sundancer
I haven't seen any typos, but there were a number of things which jarred. Some of them are integral to the story, so can't be changed, some might be my misunderstanding.
Here's a few - I'd be grateful for anyone else's perspective:
I recall at one point Kharadmon referring to himself as being more than five hundered years dead, but frustratingly I can't find it again. While true, he's been discorporate since the second age, so presumably over five thousand years dead.
These are just gripes, maybe because the tapestry was so richly drawn in other books: I find it strange that Mearn left Avenor to get married some 17 years prior to this book, but is only just now expecting his first child. Similarly there's no scent of s'Brydion grandchildren, you get the impression all the s'Brydion have young children of an age that need protecting, yet Kheldmar or Parrien was betrothed 27 years previously. None of this is explicit of course, and there's probably not room in the book for it.
Why can't Sethvir's earthsense locate the dragonet skulls at Avenor? Why the desperate search? If not the skulls (given the different nature of dragons), then at least the gems or the box they were stored in must be Atheran, or the silk masking them (I guess if the gems were Koriani then they might not be Atheran). Surely Sethvir would have known where they were when they were torched by Lysaer?
Did anyone else find it strange that Arithon (who fights the curse harder) needed to be pierced with Alithiel to be recalled to himself when he was overtaken by the Mistwraith's curse, but Lysaer (who has used the hatred engendered by the curse to go deeper and deeper) can be recalled just by Sulfin Evend appealing to him and his better side? Was it due to the fact that Lysaer had reached sanity while Alithiel was creating the opportunity for people to leave the conflict?
What grounds did the Fellowship have to stop the hostilities at the end of the book that Kharadmon didn't have at the beginning? They never appealed to Lysaer, or forbade him. Was it because they were now talking to Sulfin Evend, and as caithdein he's sworn to uphold charter law, while on the other side the s'Brydion had conducted their defence less than honourably and contravened charter law themselves?
Why did Asandir take so long to get there? Why not depart from the focus circle at Athir with Dakar and Parrien and travel from Methisle or Tirans - wouldn't that be faster?
originally posted by Sundancer
By the way, is it congratulations that you've sold enough for a mass market edition, or is that the normal next stage and you wish they'd printed more of the first edition?
Yeesh - authorial hair on fire!!! - I asked for typos, not picking for nits when there are lines, on page that COVER the points in question…references, plain as daylight, to packs of s'Brydion offspring, even bastards. Not once but twice…all I can say is, read more carefully, please. 
Chill out, me - Douse hair. Nobody's expected to notice the hours that went into making these plot points tick and be tight…holes in the carpet, paced, don't show in the prose.
Admittedly, these points and checks on the direct actions of characters are not necessarily handled with a rolling pin…I am not/never meant to write an generational saga, replete with births, deaths, and marriages.
The books are quite fat and the plots, intricate enough, without overweighting the reader with bits that scarcely pertain to the STORY. People in a hurry to find out what happens miss MAJOR bits all the time. They will emerge in a re read. They are NOT missing.
The Fellowship had grounds, and checks; look for them. Yes, Alithiel's tone permitted Sulfin Evend's intervention, quite plainly. Sethvir's earthsense CANNOT read dragons - guess why.
Mearn's marriage - took awhile, yes, and this is the ONLY point that I failed to address directly. He went home under pressure to marry. Dawr picked his wife. Who KNOWS how long that game took to corner him? Mearn was a dandy and a dilittante, who loved his messing around. (Recall the love lock?) Even with Dawr on the muscle, I do not imagine him caving in to the first female she chose to present him. DO YOU think he'd have meekly waltzed into a permanent relationship - not with that character, I supposed…
And who knows how long he took to decide when to start a family.
As to having grand kids, young kids, underfoot in councils of war, or out on the battlements - really…where was the appropriate little domestic scene, or the space for same, given that this book was WAY long, enough I feared the publisher might demand a reduction? More power that they did not - and what do you think may have been the reaction if I said, "Oh, just to show the familial ties, let's run this thing into another split volume?) grin.
There is no congratulations in order yet – mass market production is quite routine. Let's sell out the press run…FAST…then we shall see if the rock can be moved, and a miracle produce us a reprint, first. There's gotta be a mighty reason for the publisher not to just sit back on their laurels…new readers up from the first volume kinda pressure. The whole series needs new friends to grow real numbers.
The press run was for this book was tightly conservative, and did not allow for growth. Sensible for the publisher, in a tight market - they're not fiscal fools - therefore, we have to yield up the evidence to bust the bounds of complacent good sense. AND if we get there, deliver on it.
Stomped soapbox aside, I do appreciate the sharp eye - there have been errors found by readers, but thankfully none of the gapers listed above. I can hope!!!
originally posted by motley
Can you imagine a chapter that started with:
First there was XYZ S'brydion, who married ABC s'Whoever, who begat Alpha S'brydion, who married Omega Lady, who begat (endless generations…)
With all the begatting, the story would have never begun.
I'm a shameless humanist - ideas, plans, structures are never quite so perfect in the actual as they are in the mind. I for one, think Janny has worked harder than most to ensure as much accuracy as possible.
Jane Austen wrote a dog that changed sex in Mansfield Park. That hasn't knocked her out of the best of literature rankings!
I have to also admit, that I'm a very devoted Janny fan. So I'll add for balance, that's some sharp noticing, Sundancer!
Sundancer - it wasn't you, trust me -
Recall, do, that I am in the early stages of writing Arc IV, and JUST the sort of logic flaws have to be sorted, on the grand scale – and I don't have any space to reiterate old material.
So my hair was already crackling sparks…as it does, alot of the time, anyhow. Nobody but my horses gets to see my patience.
originally posted by Sundancer
My apologies Janny, I should have raised some of these elsewhere and not implied they were typos or things that needed fixing.
Certainly not looking for a generational saga! It is your precision of holding so much detail together so well that made the odd thing jar so much.
Your work can't be compared to so many poorly edited works nowadays. I truly admire the craft, poetry and effort in your work.
originally posted by Hunter
One for the "hyphenation gone mad" editorial staff…
page 256: "stag-horn-handled-dagger"…
originally posted by Blue
The problem with hyphens, like commas, is that the little buggers sometimes breed faster than bunnies, Hunter.