fae or fey
I find there are many different ways to spell the names of 'mythical' races/creatures. You have fae and fey, vampires and vampyres, griffin and gryphon, and fairy and faerie. (and others I'm probably forgetting.)
What I want to know is if certain spellings annoy readers. Me personally, I hate the spelling vampyre. In fact, I once passed up reading a book someone said was great just because the author favored the word and I guess I was in the mood to be easily miffed. I have no preference on fae, fey, or faeries, but I know someone who says he can't help but thinking of Disney and Tink when he reads the name fairy and he can't take the story seriously.
So what about everyone else: are certain spellings deal breakers? Do you think some spellings apply in certain situations and not during others? Opinions, anyone?
What I want to know is if certain spellings annoy readers. Me personally, I hate the spelling vampyre. In fact, I once passed up reading a book someone said was great just because the author favored the word and I guess I was in the mood to be easily miffed. I have no preference on fae, fey, or faeries, but I know someone who says he can't help but thinking of Disney and Tink when he reads the name fairy and he can't take the story seriously.
So what about everyone else: are certain spellings deal breakers? Do you think some spellings apply in certain situations and not during others? Opinions, anyone?
Comments
Unless the author was writing in the seventeenth century, I'd prefer to see plain old "pirate".
On the other hand, long and unpronouncable character names turn me off. I don't want to read a whole book with characters named Kazad-Ker Aboquathalis. You get the idea.
My dislike for long names is probably why I named the main character in my novel Syl, lol.
Fred, as a long time fantasy reader, I've run into those unpronounceable names too. After a while my brain assigns them 'nicknames' and I stop even reading the whole printed name the author used. This becomes a *huge* problem later if I end up discussing the book with someone else and I have no clue who they are talking about when they 'say' the characters' names.