boxofdelights

I take it that the correct pronunciation of "Sobornost" is referenced somewhere in the book?

Oooh, which reminds me of a pet peeve I developed through years of exposure to fantasy novels: 'indexes' of the made-up words where the pronunciation is given poorly! Be consistent, authors - if "ear-ON" and "grell-AHN" have identical end syllables, then render your phonetic pronunciations identical! (Likewise, please remember vowels are tricky; in something like "SORR-a-bu" there is no way for me to distinguish what that middle sound is supposed to be!)

I've corrected someone twice that I can recall; one was my friend's younger brother, who somehow mangled Siuan Sanche's first name into "Sue-Ee-Ann" - which doesn't even match the vowel order! (And also sounds like one is trying to summon a pig, but never mind that.) The second was a longtime college friend whom I introduced to the works of Lois Bujold; when discussing the Miles Vorkosigan series, his consistent use of "VOR-ko-SIG-an" prompted from me a gentle, puzzled, "I'd always thought it was "vor-KO-sig-an". (Word of God says I'm right, but while I continued to use my own pronunciation I didn't ever correct his beyond the one suggestion.)