Looking for some great DRM-free books to start off your year? All of the books on this list are available from various retailers free of DRM restrictions. For your convenience, I have organized them top ten-style, from my very favourite find, all the way down. The list does not include every single DRM-free ebook I have read, but it does give a good representative sampling of the kind of content out there, from pure self-published gems to republished best-sellers to classical works in the public domain. Happy reading!
1- Radium Halos by Shelley Stout (Smashwords). Historical mystery based on a group of women who worked in a watch factory painting the luminescent dials.
2- [easyazon-link asin=”B0071XO8RA” locale=”us”]Wool Omnibus Edition[/easyazon-link] by Hugh Howey (Amazon). A creative dystopian narrative about a society that lives in a large underground silo.
3- Complete Works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (Delphi Classics). A nicely illustrated omnibus featuring the Sherlock Holmes stories and a ton of other stuff.
4- The Adventures of Whatley Tupper by Rudolf Kerkhoven (Smashwords). A clever grown-up version of the choose-your-own-adventure story.
5- [easyazon-link asin=”B008YYLMPG” locale=”us”]The Whole Megillah[/easyazon-link] by Howard Engel (Amazon). A formerly commercially published mystery featuring private eye Benny Cooperman.
6- The Outside Chance of Maximilian Glick by Morley Torgov (Smashwords). Another republication, this Canadian classic was the basis for a TV series.
7- [easyazon-link asin=”B007W4PDZO” locale=”us”]Flee[/easyazon-link] by J.A. Konrath and Anne Voss Peterson (Amazon). The first book in Konrath’s ‘Chandler’ series, about an elite spy agency and their hired assassin.
8- Soul Identity by Dennis Batchelder (Smashwords). A smart, clever story about a hacker who is asked to investigate a mysterious cult.
9- [easyazon-link asin=”B0041HXLXQ” locale=”us”]The Chosen[/easyazon-link] by John Hartness (Amazon). A road trip featuring angels, demons and biblical immortals, int he style of Tom Holt or Christopher Moore.
10- [easyazon-link asin=”B0089Z7S8K” locale=”us”]Eerie[/easyazon-link] by Blake Crouch and Jordan Crouch (Amazon). A haunted house story about a police detective who has to help his troubled sister battle a malevolent spirit.
Editor’s Note: Many of the books listed as Smashwords are also available on Amazon. However, we only included an Amazon link if the book is DRM-free at Amazon (a few were not.) For those of you outside the US, many of the books listed as being on Amazon are also on Smashwords. So try that site if the book pops up as unavailable on your country’s Amazon page.
I believe that all Tor-Forge books are also DRM-free regardless of the seller. As a fan of the fantasy genre, I have appreciated that lack and wish that more publishers would follow in their footsteps. (http://www.tor.com/blogs/2012/07/torforge-e-books-are-now-drm-free)
I’ve been trying to buy more Tor/Forge books because of that. I figure I should reward them with my money.