Ok, so on p115 it says: "The vampire's principle prey is now humans"
I mean, please! Can't you make a difference between nouns and adjectives?
And then I did a quick search in The Sundered Eagle pdf... There are 16 instances of "principle" on 13 pages... 5 of which are correct.
"The Persians’ principle magical aid came from the jinn,"
"Candia, the Cyclades, and the Dodecanese are the principle territories of the Kretan phyle,"
"The principle use of the tokens is neutralization."
"principle phyle." {I guess you could call it that if you want}
"The principle order of business at the Hermetic Assembly"
"The principle, and most feared, galleys of the Eastern Mediterranean were the dromons of the Byzantine navy;"
"The principle trading vessel of Favonius,"
"the principle residence of later emperors"
"The six principle gods of the Pantheon"
{DIGITAL VERSION 1.0}
Now I'm scared to look at the other books...
And it's not the fact that one author was confused, it's the lack of quality control. There were 8 errors spread through the book for a proof-reader to catch, do a global search & replace, and warn the author about the confusion. And then certain words (principle, capitol, etc.) should be added to the QA process and every use validated.
To reiterate, I'd rather have an inspired author that does simple mistakes than a dull one that writes prefectly. We each have our foibles.
And this appears to be one that the relevant authors, I, Jessica Banks, and Michelle Nephew share. After this thread, however, I'm rather more likely to get this one right, although it obviously won't be my principal principle in editing books.
To be fair, homonyms get missed a lot because spellchecking software won't find it, and proofreaders can easily skip them (because in your head it sounds like the right word).
If this annoys you too much, get someone to read the book out to you for the authentic medieval scholastic experience - you won't notice the difference between the words.
