Vice Advice

We just read "The Amulet of Samarkand" and loved it. It actually caused us to loathe our own fantasy novel in progress. Then, however, we found an error on the author's Web site and immediately, pathetically, felt a little bit better.

In May 1999, Jonathan burst onto the children’s book scene with his first novel, Buried Fire. This powerful and compelling read combines elements of fantasy and mythology in a contemporary setting. It is a pacey story that shows how the dark past lives on and can still have a vice-like hold on the present.

He means "vise-like." A vice is a bad habit (such as comparing one's writing to that of a master). A vise is a holding device.

(Yes, we know that in British English, vice can be used as the spelling for both. We further know a marketing person, and not Jonathan Stroud, crafted this sentence. Please let us find our comfort where we can.)