DAW and DRM?

Does anyone know if DAW e-books (Penguin group) are DRM free or not. There are a couple of books I want but no Kindle editions are on offer on Amazon. DAW sell a digital e-pub version direct from their site which I can convert to mobi for my Kindle reader, but only if it is DRM free. I don't have a reader for e-pub files, so if I buy the books and then discover they are cursed with DRM, I've wasted my money.

Book Log 36/2012 - Georgette Heyer: The Grand Sophy

I can see why a lot of people list this as their favourite Heyer Regency romance. Sophy Stanton-Lacy is a delightful character, full of mischief, self-confidence and an insight into character surprising for her tender years, whose main flaw is thinking - no, knowing - what's best for other people. While her father is in South America on a diplomatic mission he leaves her with her aunt and her family in London. Sophie immediately decides that the family needs her help. It seems she's arrived in the nick of time. Cecilia, her cousin, has fallen for an absent-minded but handsome poet and is on the point of rejecting a very good match with an entirely suitable man. Cousin Hubert has fallen into the clutches of an unscrupulous moneylender and Cousin Charles, supposedly the sensible one since Sophie's Uncle is a confirmed wastrel, has affianced himself to a humourless bluestocking whose entire raison d'etre seem to be to find fault with the whole family, set herself above them all in manners and morals and to make sure Charles knows about it.

Rushing in where angels fear to tread, Sophie soon has the house in an uproar. Bringing the younger children a pet monkey is only the start of it. She infuriates Charles by insisting on keeping an independent stable with a splendid riding horse and her own phaeton and pair of spirited bays (entirely too frisky for a woman to handle!). Not only that but she carries a gun and knows how to shoot it - which comes in very handy on a couple of occasions.

Naturally everything comes within a whisker of turning to complete chaos, but works out well in the end. Yes, it has all the issues of misogyny inherent in women being treated as if they had no brain at all, but it's set in 1816 and Sophie is one of the few feminists in Heyer's fluffy Regency world, or would be if feminism had been a Regency concept. Very enjoyable.

Book Log 37/2012 - Andre Norton: Trey of Swords

Witch World #8

This has been sitting on my bookshelf for years. I'm fairly sure that I have read it before, but even part way through it wasn't doing more than ringing faint bells, and that may have been because some of Norton's other Witch World characters were mentioned or had small roles in this novel.

The central character is Yonan, adopted into the household of Lord Hervon, lately fled from Karsten to Estcarp and from there emigrated to the magically unstable Escore to forge a new life at the call of Kyllan Tregarth (one of Simon Tregarth's sons from earlier Witch World novels). Yonan, never a brilliant fighter and somewhat weak as a child, has grown up with little self-worth.

Yonan has always been in love with Crytha, the niece of his guardians, but she's destined to marry her cousin, Hervon's heir. Crytha is a witch by inclination if not by training and in Escore she attaches herself to Dahaun, Lady of Green Silences, to learn what she can about her power.

Okay, that's all background. It turns out that Yonan carries the soul of Tolar – a warrior of old who was pitted against the evil Targi and despite having little liking for war himself must take up Tolar's ancient sword, Ice Tongue and fight the old battle once more.

Divided into three sections, the first two cover Yonan's rescue of Crytha from a kidnap attempt by the evil Thas and his freeing of the ancient warrior, Uruk from a block of ice and his and Uruk's journey back in time to fight against Targi once again.

Then suddenly, having been in Yonan's head for two thirds of the story, we change to Crytha who has been called by Laiden who is trying to resurrect Targi. It's a strange break point in the story and quite dragged me out of the tale. The first part of it repeated the bits where Yonan and Crytha's story intersected, but from her point of view (though this added little, I think). I read it assuming that when Crytha's part in making sure Targi never returns is finished that Crytha and Yonan would be reunited... but no. It's like the last chapter of the book is missing completely. After the 2/3 point we never hear from Yonan again and Crytha decides that she 's going to dedicate herself to learning more about her powers. I could have taken to it more if it had been presented as a shorter novel followed by Crytha's novella rather than as part of the same book.

It's very unusual for Norton, who was one of the writers who first led me into fantasy, it's an unsatisfying ending. She sets up expectations at the beginning and then drops all the threads at the end. Very like life, but not at all like fiction.

Book Log 38/2012 - Cathy McDavid: Aidan: Loyal Cowboy

Book MCDIX of Harlequin American Romance

I can hardly bear to admit to reading this, but the worst thing about this book is its truly cringeworthy title, though I guess it means that what's on the outside of the tin is a pretty accurate description of what's on the inside. I like a touch of romance in my reading, but except for one Mills and Boon more than thirty years ago I've never been a reader of formula romances, so I thought it was about time I gritted my teeth tried one.

I suppose as far as they go this is up to standard. The writing style is transparent; the characters are well developed; Ms McDavid writes horses well (sometimes better than people) and seems to know her stuff about rodeos, vets and horse breeding. The plot is slight and all the problems would have been resolved on the first page if Ace had told Flynn he loved her. There - that was it. Spoiler.

But this is formula romance. I guess the main characters are allowed to be stupid and avoid resolving their relationship until the end of the book otherwise there would be no romantic tension.

So... plot.

Flynn and Aidan (Ace) live on neighbouring ranches. They had a thing going back in their student days but Ace's dad – a mean drunk – almost ruined the family farm due to mismanagement. When he died Ace dumped Flynn due to impending pressure of work and took over the farm as well as running his vet practice, taking on all the hard work while his brothers did their own thing, one riding the rodeo circuit and not to be depended upon, the other skipping off to join the marines. Broken-hearted Flynn married on the rebound, but that didn't work out – mainly because her husband put work before her. Now Flynn's back home and due to an unfortunate night of passion with Ace (before the book opens) she's pregnant

Ace wants Flynn to marry him so he can look after her and they can raise their baby together but absent-mindedly forgets to tell Flynn that he's been suppressing his love for her for years. Flynn loves him but doesn't think he loves her. Oh sure he'll take on the responsibility of a family. He's good at grabbing responsibility and hoarding it. She sees a workaholic and wants to be sure she'll not be ignored like last time. Yeah, right, it will be no surprise that eventually they figure things out.

There's a sub-plot about rehabilitating a mistreated rodeo stud stallion (and possibly more than the average reader wants to know about collecting stallion sperm for artificial insemination) which does resolve itself.

There's an unresolved sub plot with the two brothers. Colt acts as though his nose has been put out of joint when he learns of Flynn's pregnancy, but there's never any reason given. The other brother is never on the page, but apparently has been discharged from the Marines but hasn't been in touch since then. I expected this to be resolved at the wedding (What? Wedding? Did that come as a surprise?) but the last we hear Colt just fails to show up for best man duties and the ex-marine sub plot remains unresolved.

I can only assume they are dealt with in another book since this is number MCDIX (1409) in the American Romance series, but I can't find details on the author's website. (Additional note: that's because other books in the same series are not written by the same author, so they must be commissioned as a series. That makes sense in the context of this being number 1409.) When I worked in libraries we used to buy this stuff by the yard. Ingterchangeable romances with the same predictable plot only then it was most likely doctors and nurses. Well, my goal this year was to step out of my comfort zine when reading and this certainly made me do that, if not in the way I originally intended. It's not a bad book, but I could feel redundant brain cells leaking out of my ears as I read it.