Blog – Page 2 – Elspeth Cooper

As of this week, I’ve deactivated my Twitter account. I haven’t used it at all since before I made the leap to BlueSky, and the site has degenerated into a flaming trash-heap of disinformation and hate so I pulled the plug. It was past time.

I’m also taking a long, hard look at the various Meta apps I have accounts on. I hardly bother with Instagram now, except to keep up with a few folks I follow there. I’ve posted once in a year and a half, and to get the most out of the algorithm there you need to post frequently, preferably with video ::shudder:: (This is why I don’t do TikTok/BookTok. I hate being filmed.)

So that brings us to Facebook. I never really liked it much, and only kept my personal account so I could administer my author page, where I got a bit of interaction with readers. Again, changes to the algorithm penalised infrequent posting, and started de-prioritising posts with external links so what posts I did make there were no longer sending traffic to my blog (Meta *really* doesn’t like people clicking away from its ecosystem).

Plus there’s the whole evil empire thing, and the using-user-content-for-AI-training nonsense, and and and . . .

So this is where I am at. I’ll be sorry to lose the reader interaction on my author page, and there’s some accounts on Insta I’ll miss, but so be it. I have limited energy and I’d rather spend it writing books than jumping through hoops trying to stay one step ahead of the machine.

From the end of this month, then, the only social media I’ll be using is BlueSky, where you can find me as @elspethcooper.bsky.social. I hope to see some of you over there.

Time for a further upate on my attempt to clear the outstanding books from my TBR pile. It’s been a productive couple of months, reading-wise, and the pile is now down to just 102. No chance I’m going to clear it by the end of the year, but I have made a significant dent.

Since the end of July I’ve read (or attempted to) the following books:

Cover of Caraval by Stephanie Garber — Caraval - Stephanie Garber

Cover of Advanced Triggernometry by Stark Holborn — Advanced Triggernometry - Stark Holborn

Cover of The Golem and the Djinni by Helene Wecker — The Golem and the Djinni - Helene Wecker

Cover of The Atrocity Archives by Charles Stross — The Atrocity Archives - Charles Stross

Cover of The Sword of Albion by Mark Chadbourn — The Sword of Albion - Mark Chadbourn

Cover of Unconquerable Sun by Kate Elliott — Unconquerable Sun - Kate Elliott

Cover of A Matter of Blood by Sarah Pinborough — A Matter of Blood - Sarah Pinborough

Cover of Among Thieves by Douglas Hulick — Among Thieves - Douglas Hulick

Cover of Mudlarking by Lara Maiklem — Mudlarking - Lara Maiklem

Cover of The Thousand Names by Django Wexler — The Thousand Names - Django Wexler

Cover of Wolfhound Century by Pete Higgins — Wolfhound Century - Pete Higgins

Cover of The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden — The Bear and the Nightingale - Katherine Arden

Cover of Nunslinger (The First Omnibus) by Stark Holborn — Nunslinger (The First Omnibus) by Stark Holborn

Cover of Lud-in-the-Mist by Hope Mirrlees — Lud-in-the-Mist by Hope Mirrlees

Cover of The Bone Shard Daughter by Andrea Stewart — The Bone Shard Daughter by Andrea Stewart

Cover of Traitor's Blade by Sebastien de Castell — Traitor's Blade - Sebastien de Castell

Cover of Network Effect by Martha Wells — Network Effect - Martha Wells

Cover of A Perfect Balance by Laura Ambrose — A Perfect Balance - Laura Ambrose

Cover of An Unheard Song by Laura Ambrose — An Unheard Song - Laura Ambrose

Cover of Swordspoint by Ellen Kushner — Swordspoint - Ellen Kushner

Sadly, right out of the gate I had a DNF: Caraval, by Stephanie Garber. I don’t DNF books often. Usually I’m pretty good about picking ones I think I will enjoy, but sometimes I just don’t vibe with the prose style or the characters, and I have to put it down. In Caraval‘s case, I think I simply wasn’t the intended audience, and rather than struggle through to the end I moved on.

Another DNF was Hope Mirrlees’ Lud-in-the-Mist. Whilst I wanted to love it, and indeed moments charmed me, I quickly grew tired of the narrator and the very mannered prose. Perhaps it was simply a case of the wrong book at the wrong time, but I found that once I put it down I was not motivated to pick it back up.

Stand-out reads:

The Golem and the Jinni was a delight: easy to read, with an exquisite sense of place. Two non-humans learning how to be people – immigrants to humanity, as well as to New York.
I was utterly captivated by Mudlarking: Lost and Found on the River Thames by Lara Maiklem. What a treasure trove of history and glimpses into the daily life of our ancestors, rich and poor alike, as well as a love letter to the river itself. Recommended for anyone who – like me – has an irresistible urge to pick up treasures on the beach or from the forest floor and take them home.
Kate Elliott’s Unconquerable Sun surprised me with rather more pew-pew battles than I was expecting, but also did not stint on the intrigue, characters, culture and worldbuilding. More. please.
The Thousand Names by Django Wexler. Imagine Sharpe’s Rifles transported to alt-North Africa, with a dollop of fantasy on top. Enormous fun.
Wolfhound Century by Peter Higgins. This had absolutely bags of atmosphere, oppressive and unsettling: part Soviet spy thriller with the serial numbers filed off, part tone poem exploring the clash between man’s ruthless enforcement of systems and the built environment onto the natural landscape and its denizens. Left me quite breathless.
The Bear and the Nightingale was a gorgeous Russian fairytale, which I ate up in heaping helpings. Worthy of the praise that has been heaped upon it.
Nunslinger by Stark Holborn. I have previously enjoyed both Triggernometry and Advanced Triggernometry by this author, and this book serves up more Old West, lean prose and quick-fire pace. I am eager to sample Stark’s scifi now, too.
Traitor’s Blade by Sebastien de Castell. A rollicking adventure: fast, fun, and the instant I finished I was dying to pick up the next one. The fact that the copy I read was an ARC given to me by the publisher Jo Fletcher will tell you how long this one had been sitting on the shelf patiently waiting for my eyeballs. I know, I should be shot.
Andrea Stewart’s The Bone Shard Daughter was another absorbing read, with just enough creepy to keep me turning the pages. Another I’ll be reading the sequels to, in due course.

None of the books I haven’t highlighted were bad, by the way, even the ones I didn’t click with; the list above is just the ones that stuck in my memory as I was writing this post. Needless to say, as a result of this exercise my list of continuing series has grown: I am currently midway through no less than 43 series, and it shows little sign of slowing down.

And I am not sorry.