I directly downloaded epub from Internet Archive.. then have tried to clean up errors (namely simple formatting and scan errors). Not doing anything fancy. I think italics is so basic, it doesn't seem to show up anywhere as error in the log (don't see anything that says "italics" below). here is the conversion log:
Spoiler:
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Convert book 1 of 1 (Sorceress of Darshiva (ed))
Conversion options changed from defaults:
verbose: 2
output_profile: u'kindle_voyage'
cover: u'/var/folders/j7/5yhhz22j5xq5ksk754y0x88r0000gn/C/calibre_3.46.0_tmp_0g13wm/pF7YQm.jpeg'
read_metadata_from_opf: u'/var/folders/j7/5yhhz22j5xq5ksk754y0x88r0000gn/C/calibre_3.46.0_tmp_0g13wm/kSRL7S.opf'
Resolved conversion options
calibre version: 3.46.0
{'asciiize': False,
'author_sort': None,
'authors': None,
'base_font_size': 0.0,
'book_producer': None,
'change_justification': u'original',
'chapter': u"//*[((name()='h1' or name()='h2') and re:test(., '\\s*((chapter|book|section|part)\\s+)|((prolog|pr ologue|epilogue)(\\s+|$))', 'i')) or @class = 'chapter']",
'chapter_mark': u'pagebreak',
'comments': None,
'cover': u'/var/folders/j7/5yhhz22j5xq5ksk754y0x88r0000gn/C/calibre_3.46.0_tmp_0g13wm/pF7YQm.jpeg',
'debug_pipeline': None,
'dehyphenate': True,
'delete_blank_paragraphs': True,
'disable_font_rescaling': False,
'dont_compress': False,
'duplicate_links_in_toc': False,
'embed_all_fonts': False,
'embed_font_family': None,
'enable_heuristics': False,
'expand_css': False,
'extra_css': None,
'extract_to': None,
'filter_css': u'',
'fix_indents': True,
'font_size_mapping': None,
'format_scene_breaks': True,
'html_unwrap_factor': 0.4,
'input_encoding': None,
'input_profile': <calibre.customize.profiles.InputProfile object at 0x111cb9590>,
'insert_blank_line': False,
'insert_blank_line_size': 0.5,
'insert_metadata': False,
'isbn': None,
'italicize_common_cases': True,
'keep_ligatures': False,
'language': None,
'level1_toc': None,
'level2_toc': None,
'level3_toc': None,
'line_height': 0.0,
'linearize_tables': False,
'margin_bottom': 5.0,
'margin_left': 5.0,
'margin_right': 5.0,
'margin_top': 5.0,
'markup_chapter_headings': True,
'max_toc_links': 50,
'minimum_line_height': 120.0,
'mobi_file_type': u'old',
'mobi_ignore_margins': False,
'mobi_keep_original_images': False,
'mobi_toc_at_start': False,
'no_chapters_in_toc': False,
'no_inline_navbars': True,
'no_inline_toc': False,
'output_profile': <calibre.customize.profiles.KindleVoyageOutput object at 0x111cb9dd0>,
'page_breaks_before': u'/',
'personal_doc': u'[PDOC]',
'prefer_author_sort': False,
'prefer_metadata_cover': False,
'pretty_print': False,
'pubdate': None,
'publisher': None,
'rating': None,
'read_metadata_from_opf': u'/var/folders/j7/5yhhz22j5xq5ksk754y0x88r0000gn/C/calibre_3.46.0_tmp_0g13wm/kSRL7S.opf',
'remove_fake_margins': True,
'remove_first_image': False,
'remove_paragraph_spacing': False,
'remove_paragraph_spacing_indent_size': 1.5,
'renumber_headings': True,
'replace_scene_breaks': u'',
'search_replace': '[]',
'series': None,
'series_index': None,
'share_not_sync': False,
'smarten_punctuation': False,
'sr1_replace': None,
'sr1_search': None,
'sr2_replace': None,
'sr2_search': None,
'sr3_replace': None,
'sr3_search': None,
'start_reading_at': None,
'subset_embedded_fonts': False,
'tags': None,
'timestamp': None,
'title': None,
'title_sort': None,
'toc_filter': None,
'toc_threshold': 6,
'toc_title': None,
'transform_css_rules': '[]',
'unsmarten_punctuation': False,
'unwrap_lines': True,
'use_auto_toc': False,
'verbose': 2}
InputFormatPlugin: EPUB Input running
on /var/folders/j7/5yhhz22j5xq5ksk754y0x88r0000gn/C/calibre_3.46.0_tmp_0g13wm/ptCCIP.epub
Found HTML cover OEBPS/Text/leaf0001.html
Parsing all content...
Parsing OEBPS/Text/Ch8.html ...
Parsing OEBPS/Styles/stylesheet.css ...
Parsing OEBPS/Text/Ch15.html ...
Parsing OEBPS/Text/Ch3.html ...
Parsing OEBPS/Text/Ch21.html ...
Parsing OEBPS/Text/Ch19.html ...
Parsing OEBPS/Text/Ch12.html ...
Parsing OEBPS/Text/leaf0002.html ...
Parsing OEBPS/Text/Ch14.html ...
Parsing OEBPS/Text/Prologue.html ...
Parsing OEBPS/Text/Ch2.html ...
Parsing OEBPS/Text/Ch23.html ...
Parsing OEBPS/Text/Ch9.html ...
Parsing OEBPS/Text/leaf0004.html ...
Parsing OEBPS/Text/part0000.html ...
Parsing OEBPS/Text/Ch11.html ...
Parsing OEBPS/Text/Ch6.html ...
Parsing OEBPS/Text/Ch10.html ...
Parsing OEBPS/Text/Ch4.html ...
Parsing OEBPS/Text/Section0001.html ...
Parsing OEBPS/Text/Section0002.html ...
Parsing OEBPS/Text/Ch17.html ...
Parsing OEBPS/Text/Ch13.html ...
Parsing OEBPS/Text/Ch20.html ...
Parsing OEBPS/Text/Ch1.html ...
Parsing OEBPS/Text/leaf0007.html ...
Parsing OEBPS/Text/leaf0006.html ...
Parsing OEBPS/Text/Ch7.html ...
Parsing OEBPS/Text/Ch22.html ...
Parsing OEBPS/Text/Section0003.html ...
Parsing OEBPS/Text/Ch5.html ...
Parsing OEBPS/Text/leaf0005.html ...
Parsing OEBPS/Text/Ch16.html ...
Parsing OEBPS/Text/leaf0008.html ...
Parsing OEBPS/Text/Ch18.html ...
Parsing OEBPS/Text/Section0004.html ...
Parsing OEBPS/Text/leaf0424.html ...
Parsing OEBPS/Text/intro.html ...
Parsing OEBPS/Text/leaf0001.html ...
Referenced file u'OEBPS/Text/part0002.html' not found
Referenced file u'OEBPS/Text/part0004.html' not found
Referenced file u'OEBPS/Text/part0001.html' not found
Referenced file u'OEBPS/Text/part0003.html' not found
Reading TOC from NCX...
Merging user specified metadata...
Detecting structure...
Detected chapter: PROLOGUE
Detected chapter: Part One - Melcena
Detected chapter: CHAPTER ONE
Detected chapter: CHAPTER TWO
Detected chapter: CHAPTER THREE
Detected chapter: CHAPTER FOUR
Detected chapter: CHAPTER FIVE
Detected chapter: CHAPTER SIX
Detected chapter: CHAPTER SEVEN
Detected chapter: CHAPTER EIGHT
Detected chapter: Part Two - Peldane
Detected chapter: CHAPTER NINE
Detected chapter: CHAPTER TEN
Detected chapter: CHAPTER ELEVEN
Detected chapter: CHAPTER TWELVE
Detected chapter: CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Detected chapter: CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Detected chapter: CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Detected chapter: Part Three - DARSHIVA
Detected chapter: CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Detected chapter: CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Detected chapter: CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Detected chapter: CHAPTER NINETEEN
Detected chapter: CHAPTER TWENTY
Detected chapter: CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Detected chapter: CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Detected chapter: CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Flattening CSS and remapping font sizes...
Source base font size is 12.00000pt
Removing fake margins...
Found 5 items of level: p_4
Found 4698 items of level: p_2
Found 225 items of level: div_2
Found 5 items of level: div_3
Found 43 items of level: div_1
Ignoring level p_4
Ignoring level div_3
p_2 left margin stats: Counter({u'0': 4698})
p_2 right margin stats: Counter({u'0': 4698})
div_2 left margin stats: Counter()
div_2 right margin stats: Counter()
div_1 left margin stats: Counter({u'': 33})
div_1 right margin stats: Counter({u'': 33})
Cleaning up manifest...
Trimming unused files from manifest...
Trimming u'OEBPS/Images/picture4.jpg' from manifest
Trimming u'OEBPS/Text/leaf0001.html' from manifest
Creating MOBI Output...
Serializing resources...
Creating MOBI 6 output
Generating in-line TOC...
Applying case-transforming CSS...
Parsing manglecase.css ...
Parsing tocstyle.css ...
Rasterizing SVG images...
Converting XHTML to Mobipocket markup...
Serializing markup content...
Compressing markup content...
Generating MOBI index for a book
MOBI output written to /var/folders/j7/5yhhz22j5xq5ksk754y0x88r0000gn/C/calibre_3.46.0_tmp_0g13wm/hx4oTq.mobi