Like everyone else in the US, I was grumbling about losing an hour today thanks to Daylight Savings. I'll probably be a little more tired and grumpy for the next week or so, but after that I think I'll adjust. It sure beats the hell of jetlag after flying from Australia to the US! It always took me weeks to recover from that.

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Yesterday the first instalment of Matthew Reilly's new novel, Hover Car Racer landed in my inbox.

For those not familiar with Reilly, he's an Australian author who sprang onto the book scene after self-publishing his first novel, Contest back in 1996. A publishing scout noticed his book in a bookstore, gave it a read, and the rest is history!

The best way to describe Reilly's novels is 'action movies in book form' and he is well known for his fast-reading prose. With each successive novel, he has honed his writing skills to the point where they have become real page-turners. Reilly has quite a following around the world, and like J.K. Rowling, his novels have encouraged more than a few people to read who otherwise wouldn't.

Suspension of disbelief is difficult when reading a Matthew Reilly novel, simply because he packs his novels with enough gadgets to rival a Bond movie, and the situations his characters find themselves in are often quite unbelievable.

Avid readers of Hard Science Fiction, where the science is rigorous and based on real science and scientific theories, may find themselves snorting in disgust when reading a Matthew Reilly novel. I remember reading a review in an issue of Andromeda Spaceways where the reviewer quite literally could not stand reading one of the novels because it was so outlandish.

That said, if you don't mind the occasional action movie and can forgive Reilly his penchant for over-the-top action, then you'll probably find his novels aren't too bad.

With his latest novel, Hover Car Racer, Reilly is releasing the entire thing online in fortnightly instalments for FREE! Each section is in PDF format and contains discreet advertising at the top and bottom of each page. Each instalment can be printed-out, emailed, or shared with friends.

Hover Car Racer follows the adventures of Jason Chaser, a 14-year old hover car racer. From humble beginnings, he is invited to attend an International Racing School (which happens to be in Tasmania, Australia) along with his younger brother and his trusty hover car, the Argonaut (pun intended, I'm sure). Presumably the story will follow Chaser's rise to the international circuit, and no doubt the action will be fast and furious.

This novel does seem to be geared toward a younger audience, but I'm sure Reilly has packed enough action into it to satisfy his older fans.

At the very least it's an interesting experiment, and I wouldn't be surprised to see a paper edition hit the bookstores if the online version has a wide readership.

Cory Doctorow is doing a similar thing with his novels, Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, and more recently, Eastern Standard Tribe. Both are free for download (but without ads), and naturally Doctorow encourages downloaders to buy the books if they enjoy them online. Thus far this seems to have been quite successful, and sales are probably higher than they would've been without the online experiment.

Contrast this with Harlan Ellison's approach to free electronic distribution, where legal action is the order of the day. I can't blame him, since his novels and stories (along with those of thousands of other writers) are being distributed online without his consent and without appropriate compensation.

It's an interesting time for copyright law, with these online experiments and court battles attempting to tackle problems with the system from different angles. Neither approach seems ideal to me, and I don't think DRM (Digital Rights Management) is a viable long-term solution, either.

The fundamental problem is how to make electronic copies of an author's work available online, while at the same time providing for author compensation and discouraging piracy.

It's a thorny problem, but one that I think is solveable. Online music seems to be moving closer to a viable business model, with services like Rhapsody and iTunes proving to be quite successful. Only time will tell what approach works best for electronic books...