Mary Stewart!

[Catlady]

Just noticed that Mary Stewart's Arthurian saga is coming to audiobooks! The Crystal Cave just came out (Audible, Downpour), and Downpour is taking preorders for The Hollow Hills (pub date 11/22) and The Last Enchantment (pub date 12/31). These are all unabridged, narrated by Derek Perkins.

Audible has a Whispersync deal on The Crystal Cave: $2.99 for the audiobook if you buy the Kindle book for $4.89.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by Catlady

Just noticed that Mary Stewart's Arthurian saga is coming to audiobooks! The Crystal Cave just came out (Audible, Downpour), and Downpour is taking preorders for The Hollow Hills (pub date 11/22) and The Last Enchantment (pub date 12/31). These are all unabridged, narrated by Derek Perkins.

Audible has a Whispersync deal on The Crystal Cave: $2.99 for the audiobook if you buy the Kindle book for $4.89.

It's also available at OverDrive. So check your local OverDrive libraries to see if they have it.

[JSWolf]

I see Amazon.com is still selling those illegal copies of the eBooks.

[Sweetpea]

Originally Posted by Catlady

Just noticed that Mary Stewart's Arthurian saga is coming to audiobooks! The Crystal Cave just came out (Audible, Downpour), and Downpour is taking preorders for The Hollow Hills (pub date 11/22) and The Last Enchantment (pub date 12/31). These are all unabridged, narrated by Derek Perkins.

Audible has a Whispersync deal on The Crystal Cave: $2.99 for the audiobook if you buy the Kindle book for $4.89.

Ohhh! I'll have to look into this!

Where do I click for that deal?

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Sweetpea

Ohhh! I'll have to look into this!

Where do I click for that deal?

But in order to get the audible deal, you also have to buy the illegal copy of of the eBook. It's not worth it to give money to a crook just so you can save some money.

[Sweetpea]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

But in order to get the audible deal, you also have to buy the illegal copy of of the eBook. It's not worth it to give money to a crook just so you can save some money.

I've never seen a property of a book saying "illegal". And as we're in different regions, we might be talking about two different books.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

But in order to get the audible deal, you also have to buy the illegal copy of of the eBook. It's not worth it to give money to a crook just so you can save some money.

For what it's worth, the ebooks were published in April of 2016 by Eos, which is a part of HarperCollin. Perhaps you are thinking about the earlier ebooks that came out in 2014.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

For what it's worth, the ebooks were published in April of 2016 by Eos, which is a part of HarperCollin. Perhaps you are thinking about the earlier ebooks that came out in 2014.

If these are supposedly legit, then why are they without DRM and published by Amazon Digital Services LLC? That speaks to me of not being legal copies.

Is there any proof that these are legal? Also, when I searched for legal eBook versions, I came up with nothing.

https://www.harpercollins.com/search...=mary+stewart# <-- click on e-books and you get no results. So if HaperCollins did in fact publish eBook versions, then the search would have some results.

Even searching via Google brings up no proof that these eBooks are legal.

[Sweetpea]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

For what it's worth, the ebooks were published in April of 2016 by Eos, which is a part of HarperCollin. Perhaps you are thinking about the earlier ebooks that came out in 2014.

The book I had in front of me was from 2012...

[Catlady]

The Kindle book is here. This is showing Eos as the publisher, with a pub date of April 2016. I don't know why anyone would think these books are somehow illegal editions.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

If these are supposedly legit, then why are they without DRM and published by Amazon Digital Services LLC? That speaks to me of not being legal copies.

Is there any proof that these are legal? Also, when I searched for legal eBook versions, I came up with nothing.

https://www.harpercollins.com/search...=mary+stewart# <-- click on e-books and you get no results. So if HaperCollins did in fact publish eBook versions, then the search would have some results.

Even searching via Google brings up no proof that these eBooks are legal.

A lot of ebooks are being published without DRM these days, including many of the backlist ebooks like this. It seems to me that if the ebooks were not legit, then they would have been taken down by now, as the others were, especially since EOS is listed as the publisher. Mary Steward died in 2014. Given that the audio books are now coming out, my guess is that the current rights holder is making an effort to make the books more available.

[AnemicOak]

There was an older omnibus that people were questioning about being legit years ago, but I don't know that any definitive proof was ever found one way of another. That edition is still available from Smashwords, and through them at Kobo, OverDrive, etc.
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=119244
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=233178
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/43827


As for the new editions they do seem a bit odd. Harper renamed Eos into Harper Voyager in 2011 so I'm not sure they use the Eos name at all any more but I don't think so. If these were sold by Harper then they would say "HarperCollins Publishers - Price set by seller" in the buy button box on Amazon. While some big publisher books are sold DRM free these days to the best of my knowledge nothing from Harper is except from Carina Press and maybe other digital firsts if they have any others. No kind of front matter at all and just going right into the book after the cover. BUT, that doesn't mean they aren't legit. There's nothing to say that the estate didn't license these out somewhere besides Harper (just because they do the print books doesn't mean they own the digital rights) or aren't putting them out themselves. Wouldn't be the first time someone used a familiar sounding publisher name for self-pubbed stuff. The audio is put out by Blackstone which is a well known legit audio publisher.

[Catlady]

I'm a bit nonplussed. Do some of you folks really think that when you see an e-book being sold by a major, reputable bookseller, it's up to you to check the provenance?

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by Catlady

I'm a bit nonplussed. Do some of you folks really think that when you see an e-book being sold by a major, reputable bookseller, it's up to you to check the provenance?

Nope. I'd consider them fair game.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Catlady

The Kindle book is here. This is showing Eos as the publisher, with a pub date of April 2016. I don't know why anyone would think these books are somehow illegal editions.

When has HarperCollins ever sold eBooks in the US exclusively at Amazon? Since EOS is now Harper Voyage, the EOS name should not be used. I cannot find any listing of these books other than Amazon. That's not normal. Can anyone actually prove these are legit? I think they are not legit. The crooks just did a better job at faking it this time around. I've been to HarperCollins site and they list no eBooks.

Another reason I believe these to not be legal is that The Crystal Cave is using the UK cover (legit eBooks in the UK). Also, when you do a look inside, you see straight quotes. The legit UK version has the usual curly quotes. The illegal version has a full line to show section breaks. That's not how it's done by Harper Voyager.

I see many indications that these are illegal and no indication that they are legal. They appear to be scan/OCR copies. So don't buy these just to get a cheaper Audible copy. That's aiding an abetting since you now know the eBooks (in the US) are not legal.