Free ebooks of "Flight of the Heron" and its sequels

[luzula]

So hey, I just discovered that there actually already exist free ebooks of these, in epub, html, mobi, or whatever format your heart desires! Not on Gutenberg, which runs on US copyright, but on the Distributed Proofreaders Canada site (bless them). I am VERY pleased to have an electronically searchable text; it will be a great help in fic-writing. And if you were curious about the book but having a hard time getting hold of it, here you go. : )

The Flight of the Heron
The Gleam in the North
The Dark Mile

So regshoe, it looks like your plans are unnecessary. : )

There's also a collection of Broster's short stories, A Fire of Driftwood.

Comments

[regshoe]

Oh hey, that is very good news indeed :D Thanks very much for linking! *runs off to look things up*

[luzula]

Yes, so useful! \o/ And it's great to have them more accessible, as well, since they're not in print.

[isis]

Yay, thank you for bringing these to my attention!

[luzula]

I was very pleased! I thought I might scan my first edition for Gutenberg next year, but I'm so happy to be spared the work.

[philomytha]

Ooh, thank you! I haven't seen the short story collection, though I have a bunch of her other books - I recently read Mr Rowl, which is also very shippy in places - and I like having ebooks of my favourite books generally.

[cyphomandra]

Mr Rowl is prob my pick for having the most inherently slashy bit of Broster I’ve read so far :D

[philomytha]

The disguised-as-a-woman thing, plus all the rest of the long nursing sequences... yeah. Though The Wounded Name is pretty incredible for slashiness too.

[hyarrowen]

Mr Rowl is hilarious! And based, very loosely, on a real-life French POW, though DKB added the shippy bits of course.

[luzula]

I've ordered a bunch of her other books and am waiting for them to arrive! Looking forward to them. She does seem to have had a theme to her writing. : )

[cyphomandra]

Oh cool!! I’ve wanted to read her short stories for ages, though I still need to track down Couching at the Door.

[luzula]

Couching at the Door doesn't seem that difficult to get hold of! I've ordered some of her other books (the slashy ones, obviously), but not that one.

[baronjanus]

Thanks for the links! :)

[luzula]

Enjoy! : )

[hyarrowen]

Part of me wants to download these, part of me says "no" because the books are still under copyright in Australia and, I think, the UK. *thinks* What would those paragons of honour, Ewen and Keith, do?

[luzula]

I suspect the issue would be rather foreign to them, and would require some explaining. : )

If I were you I would go ahead--it's not like you haven't spent enough money on these books already, and Broster died seventy years ago. But of course, it's up to you!

ETA: A quick look at Australian copyright on Wikipedia seems to say that everything by Broster ought to be out of copyright there? It says that copyright lasts 70 years after death, except for authors who died before 1955, and for them it's 50 years. And Broster died in 1950. But you're the one who lives in Australia, so you undoubtedly know more about it!

[hyarrowen]

Oh, that's a relief! I confess I find copyright law incredibly confusing and the Gutenberg pages didn't really shed light on the matter... I'm a law-abiding type myself and have a stroppy attitude towards pirates, because they've pirated some of my work in the past and are very likely doing so now. Bleh.

[james]

I am very excited because I found a used copy of Flight of the Heron for $2! I am very much looking forward to rereading for the first time in 30 years.

[luzula]

Yay! I had no idea of the existence of this book three months ago, and I love all these people coming out of the woodwork who read it when they were young. : )

[feroxargentea]

Thanks for the link! Might be less painful than holding up the brick of a paperback, in all seriousness.

[luzula]

Yes, I was very pleased to find them!

[luzula]

Oh, I'm glad you're doing a promo there! I didn't know about that comm and actually saw it just today at fandomcalendar, and thought that maybe I should do a promo. But I'm very pleased that you are doing it instead, because then I can spend that time writing more fic instead. : )

And you don't need to credit me, they're public links, after all. You might want to say that the books are not actually public domain in the US yet (FotH comes into the US public domain 1st of Jan 2021). The ebooks are Canadian. OTOH, Broster died in 1950 so it's hardly like pirating a contemporary author...