Shows
The Coode Street PodcastEpisode 678: Nearly 15 years of rambling...This week it’s just Jonathan and Gary again, in what some listeners might view as an either a classic ramble or a series of rabbit holes from which we never fully escape. We start with a discussion of some current trends such as cozy fantasy and SF, romantasy, and dark academia, noting that these had all been around for decades before getting their present labels, and briefly consider Paul Kincaid’s contention that “coziness” seems antithetical to what SF really does.
We later touch upon what we’re reading, mentioning some forthcoming books by Nicola Griffith, Alix E. Ha...
2025-05-2159 minThe Coode Street PodcastEpisode 672: We've probably forgotten something importantThis week’s episode features a few news items, but as usual you have to listen closely to find them among our usual free-association digressions.
Awards season is underway. Nominations/and or votging for the Nebulas, Locus Awards, and Hugo Awards (once again we are eligible in the Fancast category, and Jonathan in the Editor Short Form category) is underway, and just closed for the BSFA Awards. There's also, news from a major distributor in the US that may mark the beginning of the end of the mass-market paperback, while other publishing news involves the consolidation of thr...
2025-03-021h 02The Coode Street PodcastEpisode 658: A resumption of normal serviceWith the Glasgow WorldCon just around the corner, Gary and Jonathan turn their attention to plans for the event. In addition to panel appearances, there'll be a special live recording of The Coode Street Podcast where we are joined by Joe Haldeman, Gay Haldeman, and John Scalzi to discuss 50th anniversary of the publication of The Forever War.
Since rambling is unavoidable, there is also a brief discussion of how newer readers discover older SFF texts and writers, both in terms of short fiction and novels, anthologies like The Science Fiction Hall of Fame and Dangerous Visions se...
2024-07-2151 minThe Coode Street PodcastEpisode 643: All Time Top 5sSomewhat hesitantly, Jonathan and Gary return to the mics, sans guests, and somehow get into a discussion of various SFF listicles—partly because of Gary’s recent contribution to fivebooks.com of a list of five novels about science fiction. Why are such lists so appealing and so ubiquitous these days, and who are they for?
By the time we're done, Jonathan begins musing on a possible list of the top five most disappointing SF novels of all time. You'll have to tune in to see what’s at the top of that list—and get ready to argue
2024-03-041h 02The Coode Street PodcastEating the Fantastic: Episode 217: Gary K. Wolfe and Jonathan StrahanAll round good guy Scott Edelman was at the recent World Fantasy Convention, and took Gary and Jonathan out for lunch and a chat. That chat became the latest episode of Eating the Fantastic, Scott's terrific podcast.
If you're interested, you can hear the episode here.
2024-01-281h 22The Coode Street PodcastEpisode 639: A Very Coode Street Gift Guide Roundtable 2023For the 2023 instalment of the Very Coode Street Gift Guide, we invited some old friends to share their recommendations of books read in 2023: Alix E. Harrow (whose very worthy Starling House was a favorite, officially excluded from discussion because of her participation in the episode), award-winning Locus reviewer Ian Mond, and distinguished novelist James Bradley, whose nonfiction Deep Water: The World in the Ocean will be out next year.
The books mentioned during the podcast are listed below.
James Bradley recommended:
The Deluge, Stephen Markley
Chain-Gang All-Stars, Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
White Cat, Black D...
2023-12-171h 16The Coode Street PodcastEpisode 633: A classic rambleIn a return to classic rambling form, Jonathan and Gary begin thinking about the waning months of the year, and the inevitable recommended reading discussions.
Jonathan starts off by asking why we always seem to say it was a surprisingly good year for collections, when just about every year is a good year for collections. We also touch upon anthologies, such as Jared Shunn’s massive The Big Book of Cyberpunk, and what implicit arguments are being made by such broadly inclusive anthologies.
We also touch upon Jonathan’s brand-new The Book of Witches, the question o...
2023-09-041h 01The Coode Street PodcastEpisode 622: More about space operaIt's not been that long since they last discussed it, but this week Jonathan and Gary return to the question of space opera, new space opera, and what contemporary SF authors might make of the concept.
Is space opera the core narrative of SF, as Jonathan suggests, or only one of them? What are its essential characteristics? Has the greater diversity of SF over the last decade changed its basic form? It seems that when the term was first coined, it clearly referred to pulp adventure tales that we popular in the 1930s. But later versions have...
2023-01-2257 minThe Coode Street PodcastEpisode 619: And Happy Holidays to all!And that's a wrap. Time to hang up the headphones and take a short break. The Coode Street Podcast is going on hiatus for the remainder of 2022 and will return early in 2023.
Just before the Gershwin Room closes for the holidays, though, Gary and Jonathan take a moment to chat about the Advent Calendar, the year just gone, and more.
Doing something like the podcast is a joy and a privilege, so Gary and Jonathan would like to thank everyone who has appeared on the podcast, everyone who has listened to it, and everyone who...
2022-12-2325 minThe Coode Street PodcastEpisode 588: Let’s Talk About Space (Opera), Baybee...With Gary about to leave for the World Fantasy Convention to be held in New Orleans next week, and with Jonathan in the process of assembling anthologies on the most recent iterations of space opera, we spend most of our time discussing the characteristics, history, and too-common misuse of that venerable term.
While we do touch briefly on the etymology of 'space opera', and on the pulp-era adventures that Wilson Tucker had in mind when he rather contemptuously coined the term in 1941, most of the discussion focuses on how the idea has evolved since M. John Harrison...
2022-10-301h 03The Coode Street PodcastEpisode 577: Books, classics, and collectingIt's only been a week since Jonathan and Gary sat down to chat with Nicola Griffith about her new book, Spear, but in a bid to get back on schedule, they took a moment to record a new episode for the coming long weekend.
They kick off chatting about travel during the pandemic and the coming WorldCon, before Jonathan admits he's only just read Ursula K. Le Guin's A Wizard of Earthsea, and they then go on to talk about Le Guin's work, the oddities of book buying and collecting, and then our hosts attempt to answer...
2022-04-151h 01The Coode Street PodcastEpisode 574: Kickstarters, communities, and moreAfter reminding listeners that the deadline for Hugo nominations is fast approaching on March 15 (and reminding them once again of the eligibility of this podcast for Best Fancast and of Jonathan for Best Editor, Short Form), we move on to the much-discussed, record-setting Brandon Sanderson Kickstarter, and the question of whether it really matters to anyone other than Sanderson and his readers. Acknowledging that Sanderson readers are fully likely to get exactly what they are expecting, this led us into a brief discussion of reader expectations, also the topic of a recent essay by Molly Templeton on Tor.com...
2022-03-061h 11The Coode Street PodcastEpisode 572: Genre, change, and the passage of timeThis week (episode 3 of season 13) we return to our tradition of almost entirely unstructured rambling. Jonathan and Gary consider such questions as to whether a novel can be good SF, but not much good in literary terms, or a good literary novel not much good as SF.
While we recognize that many popular subgenres, from military SF to heroic fantasy, have plenty of readers loyal to the old traditions, we muse about whether many of today’s writers feel some pressure to meet both traditional literary and SF standards, and Jonathan namechecks R.F. Kuang. Some writers we...
2022-02-1359 minThe Coode Street PodcastEpisode 557: All This and Dystopia TooWelcome to episode 15 of Season 12 of The Coode Street Podcast.
For the first time in more than two months, it’s just Jonathan and Gary again, talking about science fiction of the anthropocene, whether science fiction has shifted its “consensus future” away from the optimism of past eras, the notion that forms such as space opera have begun to look more like heroic fantasy than old-fashioned extrapolation, and the rapidly multiplying meanings of the term dystopia.
In an unusual departure from our usual literature-based rambles—we also touch on what we both think of recent MCU cont...
2021-07-181h 04The Coode Street PodcastEpisode 555: Catherynne M. Valente and Telling TalesWelcome to episode 13 of Season 12 of The Coode Street Podcast. This week Jonathan and Gary are joined by the wonderful Catherynne M. Valente to talk about her new book The Past is Red, which continues the tale of Tetley Abednego, first introduced to readers in the Sturgeon Award-winning "The Future is Blue" from Jonathan’s anthology Drowned Worlds.
We discuss the origins of that story, of the Hugo-nominated Space Opera and its forthcoming sequel Space Oddity, the thriller Comfort Me With Apples (also forthcoming this October), and the importance of working with supportive editors and agents
...
2021-06-2658 minThe Coode Street PodcastEpisode 547: Nominating for the World Fantasy AwardsWelcome to episode 5 of Season 12 of The Coode Street Podcast. After three weeks of unexcused absences, Jonathan and Gary return, just as the world starts re-emerging with the announcement that the Montreal World Fantasy Convention, at least at present, expects to host an in-person event in early November. That led us to return to our occasional discussion of possible candidates for Life Achievement Awards (limited to those over 62 years of age), with Jonathan again presenting his case for Howard Waldrop, which Gary finds it hard to disagree with. But Gary also mentions several other eligible possibilities.
That...
2021-04-0556 minThe Coode Street PodcastEpisode 543: The Year in Review and Other DigressionsWelcome to episode 2 of Season 12 of The Coode Street Podcast. This week, in the second of our main season of twenty-six hour-long episodes, our hosts Gary K. Wolfe and Jonathan Strahan talk to Locus Publisher and Editor-in-Chief Liza Groen Trombi and award-winning writer Daryl Gregory about the year in science fiction and fantasy.
The annual Locus Recommended Reading issue is due out at the beginning of February featuring an overview of the year, the 50th Locus Reader's Poll and annual recommended reading list, so it seemed like a good time to talk trends, themes, books, and more. A...
2021-01-3155 minThe Coode Street PodcastEpisode 541: John Clute and Science Fiction Repeating the FutureWelcome to Season 12 of the Coode Street Podcast. This year we're repeating our commitment to bring you at least twenty-six hour-long episodes where our hosts, Gary K. Wolfe and Jonathan Strahan, talk about science fiction and stuff with little or no coherent purpose, and occasionally interact with interesting people. There will also be additional episodes and bits and pieces, but they'll come in due time.
John Clute and Science Fiction Repeating the Future
This week we're delighted to be joined by the venerable John Clute, who talks to us from a weirdly deserted Camden Town in London...
2021-01-161h 01
The Coode Street PodcastEpisode 518: Ten Minutes with Andrea StewartTen minutes with... is a special series presented by Coode Street that sees readers and booklovers from around the world talk about what they're reading right now and what's getting them through these difficult times.
Today Jonathan spends ten minutes or so chatting with exciting debut novelist Andrea Stewart about living and working through the pandemic, the pleasures of reading, exciting new books by Kerstin Hall, Megan O'Keefe, and Lisbeth Campbell, and her own book, The Bone Shard Daughter.
Books mentioned include:
The Bone Shard Daughter by Andrea Stewart
Star Eater by Kerstin Hall
...
2020-09-1610 min
The Coode Street PodcastEpisode 517: Ten Minutes with Jane RoutleyTen minutes with... is a special series presented by Coode Street that sees readers and booklovers from around the world talk about what they're reading right now and what's getting them through these difficult times.
Today Jonathan is joined by Aurealis Award-winning writer Jane Routley and they chat about how Jane's coping with the Melbourne shutdown and with being an essential worker, enjoying and participating in the New Zealand Worldcon, reading the Hugo nominees, watching The Umbrella Academy, American Gods, Tales from the Loop, and lots more.
Books mentioned include:
Shadow in the Empire o...
2020-09-1511 min
The Coode Street PodcastEpisode 516: Ten Minutes with Annalee NewitzTen minutes with... is a special series presented by Coode Street that sees readers and booklovers from around the world talk about what they're reading right now and what's getting them through these difficult times.
Science journalist, novelist and Hugo Award-winning podcaster Annalee Newitz joins Jonathan to chat about living and working in the San Francisco Bay Area during the pandemic, the joys of modern science fiction, their novel-in-progress The Terraformers, and much more.
Books mentioned include:
The Future of Another Timeline by Annalee Newitz
Four Lost Cities: A Secret History of the Urban...
2020-09-1417 minThe Coode Street PodcastEpisode 514: Alix E. Harrow and The Once and Future WitchesFor the first time since way back in March when they chatted with N.K. Jemisin, Jonathan and Gary are joined by a guest.
This time the wonderful Alix E. Harrow, author of the Hugo, Nebula, and World Fantasy nominated The Ten Thousand Doors of January and the forthcoming The Once and Future Witches joins Jonathan and Gary to chat about reinventing fairy tale materials for the modern age, the recent resurgence of novels about witches, the difference between secret histories (as in her earlier novel) and alternate histories (as in the new one), using fantasy to...
2020-09-1350 min
The Coode Street PodcastEpisode 512: Ten Minutes with Micaiah JohnsonTen minutes with... is a special series presented by Coode Street that sees readers and booklovers from around the world talk about what they're reading right now and what's getting them through these difficult times.
Today Jonathan chats with exciting debut novelist Micaiah Johnson about the strangeness of lockdown in Nashville, struggling to work in the early stages of quarantine, the pleasures of listening to creepy horror audiobooks, her early memories of reading genre fiction, and how she found her way to writing book that became The Space Between Worlds.
Books mentioned include:
The...
2020-09-1013 min
The Coode Street PodcastEpisode 510: Ten Minutes with Chaz BrenchleyTen minutes with... is a special series presented by Coode Street that sees readers and booklovers from around the world talk about what they're reading right now and what's getting them through these difficult times.
Today Jonathan fires up Skype to talk to Chaz Brenchley about the strange challenges of these times, the comfort to be found reading crime and mystery novels, living and working a short walk from SETI and NASA in Silicon Valley, combining girls school novels and steampunk (and the accompanying Mrs Bailey's Recipes for Medium), taking control of his own publishing, his new...
2020-09-0824 min
The Coode Street PodcastEpisode 509: Ten Minutes with Lev GrossmanTen minutes with... is a special series presented by Coode Street that sees readers and booklovers from around the world talk about what they're reading right now and what's getting them through these difficult times.
Today Jonathan spends some time chatting with Lev Grossman about living and working during the pandemic, spending more time than usual with your loved ones, focussing on work, writing for a different audience, and his brand new middle-grade novel, The Silver Arrow.
Books mentioned include:
The Silver Arrow by Lev Grossman
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
The Trouble with Peace...
2020-09-0717 min
The Coode Street PodcastEpisode 507: Ten Minutes with Sheree Renée ThomasTen minutes with... is a special series presented by Coode Street that sees readers and booklovers from around the world talk about what they're reading right now and what's getting them through these difficult times.
World Fantasy Award winner Sheree Renée Thomas talks with Gary about old horror movies like Burnt Offerings and Trilogy of Terror as comfort viewing, the 20th anniversary of her groundbreaking Dark Matter anthology and how the SFF landscape has changed since then, the influence of Octavia E. Butler, and different kinds of music.
Books mentioned include:
Dark Matter: A...
2020-09-0617 minThe Coode Street PodcastEpisode 500: Second verse...For their 500th episode (if you count the shorter “10 Minutes With” episodes they’ve been doing since March), Jonathan and Gary characteristically fail to achieve any sort of clear structure for the discussion but do return to some favourite themes. While we manage to avoid reopening the old canon of worms, we do talk about what science fiction cultural literacy might look like—not in terms of specific works, but in terms of concepts and techniques, and how they might change over time. Would a reader of Gardner Dozois’s first “year’s best” anthology feel any sense of familiarity with...
2020-08-301h 02
The Coode Street PodcastEpisode 498: Ten Minutes with Elizabeth KnoxTen minutes with... is a special series presented by Coode Street that sees readers and booklovers from around the world talk about what they're reading right now and what's getting them through these difficult times.
Today Jonathan gets to spend talking to one of New Zealand's finest writers, Elizabeth Knox, who joins the conversation from Wellington (home of the 2020 WorldCon) to talk about living, working and writing during the pandemic, the joys to be found in reading absolutely everything by Diana Wynne Jones and Patrick O'Brian, her new novel The Absolute Book (due in the US in 2021...
2020-08-2717 min
The Coode Street PodcastEpisode 495: Ten Minutes with Charles de LintTen minutes with... is a special series presented by Coode Street that sees readers and booklovers from around the world talk about what they're reading right now and what's getting them through these difficult times.
World Fantasy Award Life Achievement recipient and WorldCon Guest of Honor Charles de Lint joins Jonathan to discuss living, working, and reading in these strange times, what he's been working on, the relationship between his work and contemporary urban fantasy, the rewards he's found in taking control of his own publishing, and a new series of urban fantasy novels set in Newford...
2020-08-2416 min
The Coode Street PodcastEpisode 491: Ten Minutes with Sarah GaileyTen minutes with... is a special series presented by Coode Street that sees readers and booklovers from around the world talk about what they're reading right now and what's getting them through these difficult times.
Today Jonathan spends a while chatting with Hugo Award winner Sarah Gailey about reading, writing, and getting through these strange times; the attractions of reading immersive texts (whether fiction or non-fiction); rediscovering The Hunger Games, reading the prequel, and her Medium article "Everything is The Hunger Games now"; her fabulous story from The Book of Dragons; writing YA and her upcoming novels...
2020-08-2019 min
The Coode Street PodcastEpisode 490: Ten Minutes with Amal El-MohtarTen minutes with... is a special series presented by Coode Street that sees readers and booklovers from around the world talk about what they're reading right now and what's getting them through these difficult times.
Today Jonathan fires up Skype and calls Hugo and Nebula award winning writer, poet, and critic Amal El-Mohtar, whose novella This Is How You Lose the Time War (co-written with Max Gladstone) has been sweeping all of the awards this year, to chat about reading, working and living during the pandemic, the pleasure of reading graphic novels, and some great new books. A...
2020-08-1922 min
The Coode Street PodcastEpisode 489: Ten Minutes with Daniel AbrahamTen minutes with... is a special series presented by Coode Street that sees readers and booklovers from around the world talk about what they're reading right now and what's getting them through these difficult times.
Over the past decade Daniel Abraham has become famous as half of James S.A. Corey, creators of The Expanse, but in addition to creating incredible space opera and great television, Daniel has crafted some of the best science fiction and fantasy of the past decade. Today he talks to Jonathan about reading, writing, and working during the pandemic, working for television...
2020-08-1822 min
The Coode Street PodcastEpisode 482: Ten Minutes with Arkady MartineTen minutes with... is a special series presented by Coode Street that sees readers and booklovers from around the world talk about what they're reading right now and what's getting them through these difficult times.
Today Jonathan calls up newly minted Hugo Award winner for Best Novel, Arkady Martine, to talk about reading, writing, and working during the pandemic, how influence on writers is often quite different from what a reader might expect, the current state of space opera, her next novel, and a new novella coming late next year from Subterranean Press.
Books mentioned...
2020-08-1221 minThe Coode Street PodcastEpisode 479: What Comes Next?Well, without really planning it, we had a bit of a hiatus. It seems like recording over a hundred episodes in a row left us - or at least Jonathan - with the need for a little break, but we're back! We think.
With the Virtual ConZealand not quite over, Gary and Jonathan sit down to talk awards, congratulate the award-winners, talk about inclusiveness and the need for a fresher take on the genre, thank the ConZealand team and shout out to coming conventions, and more. Oh, and thank the World Fantasy Awards for a v...
2020-08-0257 minThe Coode Street PodcastEpisode 474: Ten Minutes with Jane YolenTen minutes with... is a special series presented by Coode Street that sees readers and booklovers from around the world talk about what they're reading right now and what's getting them through these difficult times.
Legendary Grand Master Jane Yolen shares with Gary some delightful personal news, as well as her advice to aspiring authors on how the lockdown can be seen as a gift to writers, the pleasures of "munchie" writing like Cat Valente or Gregory Maguire, the short stories of Theodora Goss, and Linda Barnes's Carlotta Carlyle mysteries.
Books mentioned include:
The...
2020-07-0916 minThe Coode Street PodcastEpisode 464: Ten Minutes with Derek KünskenTen minutes with... is a special series presented by Coode Street that sees readers and booklovers from around the world talk about what they're reading right now and what's getting them through these difficult times.
Today Jonathan spends ten minutes or so chatting with Derek Künsken about how he's been dealing with these strange and difficult times, what he's been reading and would recommend, the fiction of R. Scott Bakker and Isaac Asimov, an enormous X-Men re-read, some terrific recent comics, and more.
Books mentioned include:
The Quantum Magician by Derek Künsken
The...
2020-06-2913 minThe Coode Street PodcastEpisode 455: Almost Outta Gas, But We Can See The Golden Age...Left once again to their own devices, Jonathan and Gary turn to the question of what was science fiction’s real golden age—not in terms of overall literary history or the old cliché that “the golden age of science fiction is twelve,” but rather what seemed like a golden age in terms of reading habits: when you fell in love with SF, how the genre continued to be rewarding during that time, and what was especially important about it. For Jonathan, that looked more like the 1980s, while for Gary it was basically the 1950s. Both agreed, however, that the...
2020-06-2159 minThe Coode Street PodcastEpisode 453: Ten Minutes with Gregory Norman BossertTen minutes with... is a special series presented by Coode Street that sees readers and booklovers from around the world talk about what they're reading right now and what's getting them through these difficult times.
Gary is joined by award-winning author and ILM filmmaker Gregory Norman Bossert to talk about how the changes facing the movie industry may actually help new voices and new forms, the appeal of not-quite-classifiable stories of the New Weird and other contemporary movements, a new anthology in support of the nonprofit RAICES, podcasts and movies, and his own new short fiction.
2020-06-1815 minThe Coode Street PodcastEpisode 446: Ten Minutes with Ellen DatlowTen minutes with... is a special series presented by Coode Street that sees readers and booklovers from around the world talk about what they're reading right now and what's getting them through these difficult times.
Ellen Datlow joins Gary to discuss her 40-year career, the longevity of earlier editors, her reasons for doing best-of-the-year anthologies and year-in-review essays, favorite writers like William Gibson and Jonathan Carroll, the recent Shirley Jackson biography, and the appeal of dark fiction.
Books mentioned include:
Echoes: The Saga Anthology of Ghost Stories edited by Ellen Datlow
Final Cuts: New...
2020-06-1118 minThe Coode Street PodcastEpisode 436: Ten Minutes with Simon IngsTen minutes with... is a special series presented by Coode Street that sees readers and booklovers from around the world talk about what they're reading right now and what's getting them through these difficult times.
If his recent conversation with John Berlyne saw Jonathan embrace the fact that Coode Street's ten minutes was at a best theoretical, then today's conversation blows that out of the water extending beyond 35 minutes, and still only being just barely long enough. Today Jonathan talks to writer and editor Simon Ings about art, despots, fabulous books, and unexpected experiences. Utterly essential listening...
2020-06-0136 minThe Coode Street PodcastEpisode 434: Occasionally Enlightening - Three StarsJonathan and Gary are back with a socially-distanced full-hour podcast. Since last time, Jonathan actually went and read the reviews for the podcast on the iTunes Podcast app where one listener described the Coode Street as being occasionally enlightening, saying when:
"the two hosts are left to their own devices (which is most of the time) they testily chew over a handful of pet topics, usually debating who should win each year's awards and then whether or not awards mean anything".
and rated the podcast Three stars.
Perfectly fair. Today's episode was recorded during the N...
2020-05-3158 minThe Coode Street PodcastEpisode 432: Ten Minutes with John BerlyneTen minutes with... is a special series presented by Coode Street that sees readers and booklovers from around the world talk about what they're reading right now and what's getting them through these difficult times.
This is the point where, at least for Jonathan, it all went off the rails and the 'ten minutes with" became a purely aspirational thing, losing any connection with chronological reality. In a fascinating, sprawling conversation Jonathan spends half an hour or so talking to agent, editor, bibliographer, and reluctant shut-in, John Berlyne of the Zeno Literary Agency, about reading, books, agenting...
2020-05-2934 minThe Coode Street PodcastEpisode 421: Ten Minutes with David Thomas MooreTen minutes with... is a special series presented by Coode Street that sees readers and booklovers from around the world talk about what they're reading right now and what's getting them through these difficult times.
Jonathan spends ten minutes or so chatting about living, working, and reading during this Great and Terrible Pause with Rebellion/Solaris Commissioning Editor David Thomas Moore (and a special guest who popped into the room for a little while) and they touch on some wonderful books and the challenges of the time.
Books mentioned include:
Beyond the Empire by...
2020-05-1713 minThe Coode Street PodcastEpisode 390: Ten Minutes with Alastair ReynoldsTen minutes with... is a special series presented by Coode Street that sees readers and booklovers from around the world talk about what they're reading right now and what's getting them through these difficult times.
Today Alastair Reynolds spends ten minutes talking with Jonathan about unexpectedly sunny weather in Wales, the challenges of focussing on reading and work at the moment, the immersive pleasures of diving into an enormous book by Neal Stephenson, and much more.
Books mentioned include:
Bone Silence by Alastair Reynolds
Anathem by Neal Stephenson
The Best of Gene Wolfe by Gene...
2020-04-1813 minThe Coode Street PodcastEpisode 388: Ten Minutes with Ian McDonaldTen minutes with... is a special series presented by Coode Street that sees readers and booklovers from around the world talk about what they're reading right now and what's getting them through these difficult times.
This time out, Jonathan calls up long-time friend of Coode Street, Ian McDonald, to talk about how current events are impacting reading and working, piracy at sea, research, romance, and his long-awaited (by Jonathan) next novel, Hopeland. There might even have been a moment of congratulations for Ian's recent Hugo nomination for the Luna series!
Books mentioned include:
Lun...
2020-04-1611 minThe Coode Street PodcastEpisode 387: Ten Minutes with Fran WildeTen minutes with... sees Coode Street presenters Jonathan Strahan and Gary K. Wolfe talk to readers and book lovers from around the world about what they're reading and what's getting them through this strange time.
Today Gary talks to Fran Wilde, fresh off her nominations for a Hugo Award for her story "A Catalog of Storms" and a Lodestar Award for her novel Riverland. We talk a little about Riverland, what’s she’s currently reading (or re-reading, in some cases for her MFA classes at Western Colorado University), the value of poetry in times of stress, and h...
2020-04-1514 minThe Coode Street PodcastEpisode 379: Ten Minutes with Ellen KlagesTen minutes with... is a special series presented by Coode Street that sees readers and booklovers from around the world talk about what they're reading right now and what's getting them through this strange time.
Today Gary spends ten minutes with World Fantasy and Nebula Award-winning author Ellen Klages, who most recently added the New York Historical Society Children's Book Prize and the Ohioana Book Award for Out of Left Field to her resume. It turns out that Jonathan persuaded her to try the first volume of Adrian McKinty's Sean Duffy series—the same ones he and James Brad...
2020-04-0609 minThe Coode Street PodcastEpisode 378: Ten Minutes with Garth NixTen minutes with... is a special series presented by Coode Street that sees readers and booklovers from around the world talk about what they're reading right now and what's getting them through this strange time.
Today Jonathan spends Ten Minutes with Garth Nix, who talked about Hilary Mantel, Oliver Cromwell, and more. Garth's Angel Mage is out now and The Left-Handed Booksellers of London is due soon (though not soon enough for one unnamed Coode Streeter).
Books mentioned include:
The Mirror and the Light by Hilary Mantel
Thomas Cromwell by Diarmaid MacCulloch
Angel Mage...
2020-04-0510 minThe Coode Street PodcastEpisode 377: Books in the Time of CoronavirusThis week, Jonathan and Gary are back together (with no guests) for the first time in several weeks, and we discuss the inevitable: the current pandemic, and the various ways in which it was and was not anticipated by past science fiction narratives—not only of worldwide plagues but of alien invasion stories and tales of isolation. But we also find time to touch upon the reading we’ve both been up to, including Gene Wolfe’s final novel, Lavie Tidhar’s reinvention of the Arthurian tales By Force Alone and some recent titles edited by Jonathan himself, including Zen Cho’...
2020-04-0558 minThe Coode Street PodcastEpisode 373: Ten Minutes with Alix E. HarrowLast year saw the publication of The Ten Thousand Doors of January, the enchanting debut novel from Alix E. Harrow. Today, in our continuing "Ten Minutes with..." series of short podcasts, Jonathan sits down with Alix to talk about the inordinate good fortune of being a writer asked to blurb the most awesome of books, what to read if you're looking for something to challenge you in these dark times, and what to read if you're just looking for a little bit of respite.
Books mentioned in this episode include:
Bone Shard Daughter by Andrea Stewart
Pir...
2020-04-0209 minThe Coode Street PodcastEpisode 363: Books We're Looking Forward to in 2020After last week’s episode where Jonathan and Gary discussed their favourite books from 2019, this time they talk about books they're looking forward to in 2020 (a few of which, in fairness, they’ve already seen or in Jonathan’s case even edited).
It’s a pretty varied list, and probably incomplete, so feel free to suggest more titles that we might not have known about. Overall, though, 2020 is starting off as a pretty promising year.
Gary's list
Susanna Clarke, Piranesi
William Gibson, Agency
M. John Harrison, The Sunken Land Begins to Rise Again
N.K. Jemisi...
2020-01-191h 03The Coode Street PodcastEpisode 358: Science fiction, open borders, and porous boundariesThis week, with Jonathan hard at work compiling his year’s best anthology, we revisit one of the oldest questions about science fiction—namely, what is it and how do you decide what to include or exclude from an anthology clearly labelled as science fiction?
Rather than trying to offer our own definitions, we discuss the problem of definition in general. Gary argues that the many definitions of SF could be classed as the functional (or purely practical, like Damon Knight’s famous “what I point to”), the rhetorical (definitions designed to promote the importance of the genre), an...
2019-10-131h 00The Coode Street PodcastEpisode 357: Library of America and the year's end...As we approach the October Country, Jonathan and Gary start this week’s podcast discussing Gary’s new two-volume set from the Library of America, American Science Fiction: Eight Classic Novels of the 1960s (which you can order right now) and end with discussing the challenges of editing Jonathan’s new best science fiction of the year anthology series from Saga Press.
It’s not all shameless self-promotion, though, since in between we talk about how SF changed from the 1950s to the 1960s, whether there is more high-quality SF published now than ever before, and how new writer...
2019-09-291h 10The Coode Street PodcastCoode Street Roundtable 2.1: Annalee Newitz’s The Future of Another TimelineWelcome to the first episode of the second season of The Coode Street Roundtable, a monthly podcast from Coode Street Productions where panellists James Bradley, Ian Mond, Gary K. Wolfe, and Jonathan Strahan, joined by occasional special guests, discuss a new or recently released science fiction or fantasy novel.
Annalee Newitz’s The Future of Another Timeline
This month James, Ian, Gary and Jonathan discuss the latest book from Annalee Newitz. It’s described by publisher Tor Books as follows:
1992: After a confrontation at a riot grrl concert, seventeen-year-old Beth finds herself in a car...
2019-09-221h 15The Coode Street PodcastEpisode 354: Influence, impact, the sense of wonder, and other critical missionsThis week marks the publication of Jonathan’s new hard-SF anthology Mission Critical, the title of which reminded Gary of the first SF serial he read, Hal Clement’s Close to Critical. This lead, by our usual process of carefully structured random free association, to a discussion of Clement as an example of an author whose fiction is not widely read anymore, but whose influence nevertheless shows up even in writers who may not have read him. In Clement’s case, it was carefully extrapolated SF environments and creatures, but Jack Vance and Clifford Simak are also mentioned as writers w...
2019-07-101h 02The Coode Street PodcastEpisode 353: New projects and old booksThis week Jonathan and Gary are back, fitting another episode in between travel, work, and family commitments. Gary opens up with a thoroughly reasonable discussion about writers from the 1990s and 2000s who may have published major works but have fallen from sight in recent years, while Jonathan attempts to get Gary interested in a new segment. Along the way there's discussion of the history of anthologies and whether genre fiction is more likely to be the home of theme anthologies, a new Gwyneth Jones book on the work of Joanna Russ, the state of various Library of America...
2019-06-171h 03The Coode Street PodcastEpisode 351: A Quick OneAfter a much longer than expected hiatus, we're back (sort of)! Gary's been working and travelling and Jonathan's been working and planning to travel and it's made it very difficult to squeeze recording time in. Or even to plan recording time.
Still, for a moment, early on Mother's Day in Australia and late in the evening in Chicago, Gary and Jonathan stop to discuss the books they've been reading, the movies they've been watching, the stuff they've been working on, awards and ballots, and Joanna Russ. There are mentions of fiction in translation, Chen Qiufan's Waste Tide (and...
2019-05-1258 minThe Coode Street PodcastEpisode 350: Hey, well how about that?For our 350th(!) episode, Jonathan and Gary basically just ramble on. We begin with the question of how long to stick with a novel which seems to be going off the rails, and comment a bit on what different kinds of readers expect from long novels.
Later we move on to questions about anthologies, and what to expect from recent anthologies of Chinese, Korean, South Asian, and Israeli science fiction: should they try to represent an entire national tradition, or simply focus on excellent stories? And can readers not from those cultures ever fully appreciate the full...
2019-03-311h 02The Coode Street PodcastEpisode 340: Andy Duncan and the Road to UtopiaThe 2018 World Fantasy Convention was held in Baltimore, Maryland over the first weekend of November. People from all over the globe gathered, including Gary and Jonathan, to engage in discussion, appreciate art, and generally share their love of the fantasy genre.
Somewhere in there, Gary and Jonathan found time to sit down with Andy Duncan to discuss his brand new short story collection, Agent of Utopia. The book is a fine one and the conversation was wonderful. As always, we'd like to thank Andy for making the time to talk to the podcast, and we'd like to th...
2018-11-111h 01The Coode Street PodcastEpisode 339: The Road to BaltimoreWith the 2018 World Fantasy Convention just weeks away, Gary and Jonathan sit down to discuss the upcoming convention, the life achievement recipients, nominees and much more.
This episode is a bit of ramble and includes digressions on questions like whether this really is an outstanding year for story collections (with new collections from N.K. Jemisin, Michael Bishop, and others) or if great collections coming out regularly is the new norm and whether we should devote any time at all on the podcast to such things as movies and TV (hint: Jonathan is sceptical).
We ho...
2018-10-131h 00The Coode Street PodcastEpisode 336: 2018 Novels to Read...Readers talk to other readers. They share information about the books and stories they love. They recommend. It's as natural as breathing. Those recommendations lead to a broader commentary, to lists and canons and all sorts of other things. This week Jonathan and Gary discuss the way we talk about books, the nature of recommending, and much more.
As promised, this episode contains recommendations for books published during 2018 that Jonathan and Gary thought were of interest and might make for rewarding reads for Coode Streeters. As always, these are personal recommendations and not a whole lot more. T...
2018-09-151h 11The Coode Street PodcastEpisode 330: Books, reading and wolves...This week’s episode ranges from a discussion about the growing importance of novellas and their advantages both for readers and writers, the difficult question of which story you might pick to introduce a new reader to a favourite author, the importance of distinctive voices in both short fictions and novels, the upcoming 87th birthday of the great Gene Wolfe, and James Cameron's new TV documentary on SF, which features appearance from several SF writers and critics, including Gary.
Then Jonathan springs on Gary the question of what his favourite book is, so Gary tossed it right bac...
2018-05-061h 08The Coode Street PodcastEpisode 325: World Fantasy Awards, Kate Wilhelm and moreWith nominations for the 2018 Hugo Awards closing shortly, Jonathan and Gary headed to the Gershwin Room to discuss nominating for the Hugos, the recent proposal to change the name of the young adult (not a Hugo) award and to discuss at length their respective nominees for the 2018 World Fantasy Awards.
Towards the end of the podcast, Jonathan and Gary became aware of the sad news that Kate Wilhelm had died, and spend some time remembering one of the most important SF and mystery writers of the 20th century.
We don't usually get to this, but in...
2018-03-111h 10The Coode Street PodcastEpisode 314: Annalee Newitz and Telling Stories About the FutureAnnalee Newitz, who writes on the cultural impact of science and technology for Ars Technica and who founded and edited io9.com, delivers her debut novel Autonomous this month.
Annalee joined Gary and Jonathan in Helsinki, Finland where they were all attending WorldCon 75, to discuss Autonomous, science fiction, and the power of being able to tell stories about how science influences the world.
As always,Gary and Jonathan would like to thank Annalee for joining us, and hope you enjoy the podcast.
2017-09-161h 01The Coode Street PodcastEpisode 308: Paul Kincaid, Ken Macleod, and the works of Iain (M) Banks
Any time the Coode Street Podcast connects with the United Kingdom it's a special occasion. Jonathan stays up until the dead of night (often with a whisky in hand), while Gary is driven out of bed and into the arms of coffee. This week, in the face of puzzling technical difficulties, Jonathan and Gary are joined on the podcast by noted critic Paul Kincaid and award-winning writer Ken Macleod to discuss Paul's new book on the work of Iain Banks, science fiction, writing in Scotland, and much more.
The aforementioned technical difficulties do mean there's...
2017-05-211h 17The Coode Street PodcastREPOST: Coode Street Roundtable 4: Paul McAuley's Into EverywhereRepost
With awards season upon us, we thought it might be worthwhile to re-release our spoiler heavy roundtable discussions for last year. The fourth 2017 awards-eligible book we discussed was Paul McAuley's Into Everywhere.
Welcome to the fourth episode of The Coode Street Roundtable. The Roundtable is a monthly podcast from Coode Street Productions where panelists James Bradley, Ian Mond, and Jonathan Strahan, joined by occasional special guests, discuss a new or recently released science fiction or fantasy novel.
Paul McAuley's Into Everywhere
This month Coode Street co-host Gary Wolfe joins us to discuss In...
2017-02-191h 04The Coode Street PodcastREPOST: Coode Street Roundtable 3: Patricia A. McKillip's KingfisherRepost
With awards season upon us, we thought it might be worthwhile to re-release our spoiler heavy roundtable discussions for last year. The first 2017 awards-eligible book we discussed was Charlie Jane Anders' All the Birds in the Sky.
Welcome to the third episode of The Coode Street Roundtable. The Roundtable is a monthly podcast from Coode Street Productions where panelists James Bradley, Ian Mond, and Jonathan Strahan, joined by occasional special guests, discuss a new or recently released science fiction or fantasy novel.
Patricia A. McKillip’s Kingfisher
This month Tiptree Award...
2017-02-141h 26The Coode Street PodcastREPOST: Coode Street Roundtable 2: Charlie Jane Anders' All the Birds in the SkyRepost
With awards season upon us, we thought it might be worthwhile to re-release our spoiler heavy roundtable discussions for last year. The first 2017 awards-eligible book we discussed was Charlie Jane Anders' All the Birds in the Sky.
*
Welcome to the second episode of The Coode Street Roundtable. The Roundtable is a monthly podcast from Coode Street Productions where panelists James Bradley, Ian Mond, and Jonathan Strahan, joined by occasional special guests, discuss a new or recently released science fiction or fantasy novel.
Charlie Jane Anders' All the Birds in the Sk...
2017-02-091h 04The Coode Street PodcastEpisode 293: James Bradley, Ian Mond and Coode Street's Year in ReviewIt’s the end of the year and time to talk about how it went, what’s worth reading, what could end up on your holiday gift lists, and what could be avoided. To kick off Coode Street’s end of year coverage, this week Roundtablers James Bradley and Ian Mond join Gary and Jonathan to discuss books they’ve loved during the year and would recommend to you, if you’re looking for some great reading.
To help you chase down the books, our lists are below:
James’s List
The Underground Railroad, Colson White...
2016-12-041h 15The Coode Street PodcastEpisode 289: Baseball, Bob and more
The Coode Street Podcast stumbles towards its three hundredth episode with another discursive chat between co-hosts Jonathan Strahan and Gary K. Wolfe. Topics this week include Bob Dylan, the Nobel and accepting awards; baseball in science fiction; and other stuff which, if we were honest, we might admit we don’t remember.
Nonetheless, time was spent and we hope you enjoy the episode. Next week, World Fantasy, Columbus, Ohio, and more!
2016-10-2356 minThe Coode Street PodcastCoode Street Roundtable 7: Lavie Tidhar’s Central StationWelcome to the seventh episode of The Coode Street Roundtable. The Roundtable is a monthly podcast from Coode Street Productions where panelists James Bradley, Ian Mond, and Jonathan Strahan, joined by occasional special guests, discuss a new or recently released science fiction or fantasy novel. With James busy with housemoving and such, we're joined by award-winning critic Gary K Wolfe.
Lavie Tidhar’s Central Station
This month we discuss Central Station, the latest book from Lavie Tidhar. It’s described by publisher Tachyon as follows:
A worldwide diaspora has left a quarter of a million peopl...
2016-08-281h 04The Coode Street PodcastCoode Street Roundtable 6: Madeline Ashby's Company Town
Welcome to the sixth episode of The Coode Street Roundtable. The Roundtable is a monthly podcast from Coode Street Productions where panelists James Bradley, Ian Mond, and Jonathan Strahan, joined by occasional special guests, discuss a new or recently released science fiction or fantasy novel.
Madeline Ashby’s Company Town
This month we discuss Company Town, the fourth novel from Madeline Ashby. It’s a gripping near future thriller described by its publisher as follows:
New Arcadia is a city-sized oil rig off the coast of the Canadian Maritimes, now owned by one very wealthy, powerful...
2016-06-2654 minThe Coode Street PodcastCoode Street Roundtable 5: Guy Gavriel Kay’s Children of Earth and Sky
Welcome to the fifth episode of The Coode Street Roundtable. The Roundtable is a monthly podcast from Coode Street Productions where panelists James Bradley, Ian Mond, and Jonathan Strahan, joined by occasional special guests, discuss a new or recently released science fiction or fantasy novel.
Guy Gavriel Kay’s Children of Earth and Sky
This month we discuss Children of Earth and Sky, the latest novel from Guy Gavriel Kay. It’s a rich, powerful historical fantasy described by its publisher as follows:
From the small coastal town of Senjan, notorious for its pirates, a young...
2016-06-041h 01The Coode Street PodcastCoode Street Roundtable 4: Paul McAuley's Into EverywhereWelcome to the fourth episode of The Coode Street Roundtable. The Roundtable is a monthly podcast from Coode Street Productions where panelists James Bradley, Ian Mond, and Jonathan Strahan, joined by occasional special guests, discuss a new or recently released science fiction or fantasy novel.
Paul McAuley's Into Everywhere
This month Coode Street co-host Gary Wolfe joins us to discuss Into Everwhere, the latest novel from Paul McAuley. It’s smart, engaging hard SF adventure described by its publisher as follows:
The Jackaroo, those enigmatic aliens who claim to have come to help, gave humanity acces...
2016-05-011h 04The Coode Street PodcastEpisode 274: A step to the left...As we head into our third straight week without a guest on the podcast, we confront our lack of organisation with a smile and a nod. We actually sat down and planned what we'd discuss on this episode, then Gary brought up something else entirely immediately after the intro and off we went.
Following the sad news that Prince had died, we spent some time discussing science fiction and popular music, then revisited my (Jonathan's) comments on people reading SF criticism, had a few comments on The Big Book of SF (which Jonathan's reading right now), noted the Hugo no...
2016-04-251h 04The Coode Street PodcastCoode Street Roundtable 3: Patricia A. McKillip's Kingfisher
Welcome to the third episode of The Coode Street Roundtable. The Roundtable is a monthly podcast from Coode Street Productions where panelists James Bradley, Ian Mond, and Jonathan Strahan, joined by occasional special guests, discuss a new or recently released science fiction or fantasy novel.
Patricia A. McKillip’s KingfisherThis month Tiptree Award winning writer Nike Sulway and Coode Street co-host Gary K. Wolfe join Jonathan and Ian to discuss Kingfisher, the latest novel from World Fantasy Award and Mythopoeic Award winner Patricia A. McKillip. It’s a lyrical, funny, and sometimes challenging novel about family and desti...
2016-03-271h 26The Coode Street PodcastCoode Street Roundtable 2: Charlie Jane Anders' All the Birds in the Sky
Welcome to the second episode of The Coode Street Roundtable. The Roundtable is a monthly podcast from Coode Street Productions where panelists James Bradley, Ian Mond, and Jonathan Strahan, joined by occasional special guests, discuss a new or recently released science fiction or fantasy novel.
Charlie Jane Anders' All the Birds in the SkyThis month Coode Street co-host Gary Wolfe joins us to discuss All the Birds in the Sky, the second novel from Hugo Award winning author Charlie Jane Anders. It's a warm, humane, funny, and genuinely engaging novel described by its publisher as follows:
...
2016-02-271h 04The Coode Street PodcastCoode Street Roundtable 1: Adam Roberts' The Thing ItselfWelcome to the first episode of The Coode Street Roundtable. The Roundtable is a new monthly podcast from Coode Street Productions where panelists James Bradley, Ian Mond, and Jonathan Strahan, joined by occasional special guests, discuss a new or recently released science fiction or fantasy novel. Adam Roberts' The Thing Itself
This month James, Ian, and Jonathan discuss The Thing Itself, the latest novel from British Science Fiction and John Campbell Memorial Award winning author Adam Roberts. The Thing Itself is a powerful and engaging novel described by its publisher as follows:
“Adam Roberts turns his attention to answering...
2016-01-301h 02The Coode Street PodcastEpisode 259: The Best of the Year with Paul Kincaid and Adam RobertsThe year is fast running out, but with the holiday season approaching Gary and Jonathan invited award-winning writers and critics Paul Kincaid and Adam Roberts to join them in the Gershwin Room to discuss a small sampling of the best science fiction and fantasy books of the year. They also discussed some of the most interesting and important trends in science fiction during 2015.
What books are recommended? Well, you'll need to listen to the episode to get the full list, but there are a good handful of familiar books and few surprises that you may want to hunt down...
2015-12-121h 09The Coode Street PodcastEpisode 254: Meeting Infinity and Losing the AlienThis week Gary and Jonathan are back in the Gershwin Room, killing time and talking about Jonathan's new anthology Meeting Infinity, which we discuss in some detail. It leads on to a conversation about our perceptions of 'the alien' and 'the other' in science fiction (and how that has changed over time), and quite a lot more in what is a classic Coode Street ramble.
As always, we hope you enjoy the episode. More next week!
2015-10-181h 07The Coode Street PodcastJonathan on Zen Cho's Sorcerer to the CrownFollowing on from yesterday's podcast discussion with Zen Cho about her new novel, Jonathan delivers a short audio review of Sorcerer to the Crown. If you've read the book, or have anything you'd like to add, please leave a comment.
2015-08-3108 minThe Coode Street PodcastJonathan on Kim Stanley Robinson's Aurora
In keeping with yesterday's quick squib about Limekiller, here's another short piece of review/commentary, this time about Kim Stanley Robinson's Aurora. With all of the conversation about Hugo Awards at the moment, I (Jonathan) am tempted to make some brief comments about books, stories and other works that I feel are nomination-worthy and that may make my own ballot next year.
It is possible that I won't follow through on this, or that the latter half of the year will be such that I won't get to do more. It's also possible that these will get folded i...
2015-08-2807 minThe Coode Street PodcastEpisode 220: William Gibson, Eileen Gunn, and Chris Brown
Welcome to The Coode Street Podcast, an informal weekly discussion about science fiction and fantasy featuring award-winning critics and editors Jonathan Strahan and Gary K. Wolfe. The Coode Street Podcast debuted in 2010 and has been nominated for the Hugo, British Science Fiction, and Aurealis awards.
This week Jonathan and Gary talk to old friend Chris Brown, and very special guest William Gibson , in a discussion that ranges from William’s recent novel The Peripheral to the influences of writers as diverse as Mervyn Peake, Philip K. Dick, Alfred Bester, and Avram Davidson and the question of what it means to wri...
2015-02-081h 17The Coode Street PodcastEpisode 216: Guy Gavriel Kay and the Legend of the Lost PodcastMore than two years ago, at the 2012 World Fantasy Convention in Toronto, Ontario, Gary and Jonathan sat down with Guy Gavriel Kay to discuss his then new novel River of Stars. A now legendary discussion followed, that quickly became mythical when technical issues resulted in that recording and several others being permanently lost.
In an attempt to redress the loss of that earlier conversation, Guy agreed to join Jonathan and Gary for the discussion that follows while they were all in Washington DC for the 2014 World Fantasy Convention.
As always, we would like to thank Guy for his pa...
2015-01-101h 14The Coode Street PodcastEpisode 208: Caitlin R Kiernan, Peter Straub and the literary uses of fantasyThis past weekend the World Fantasy Convention was held in Arlington, Virginia. As part of the festivities, the Coode Street Podcast team produced the second ever "live" Coode Street Podcast. This time the wonderful Caitlin R. Kiernan and Peter Straub joined Jonathan and Gary to discuss:
The Literary Uses of FantasyPanelists: Jonathan Strahan, Gary K. Wolfe, Peter Straub, Caitlin R. Kiernan
Description: The Coode Street Podcast discusses the literary uses of fantasy with Peter Straub and other special guests. Why do writers clearly capable of realistic, character-driven stories choose to introduce fantastic elements, some of them extreme, into th...
2014-11-1557 minThe Coode Street PodcastEpisode 204: Books we're looking forward to, or the shopping list episodeThis week Gary and Jonathan, aware that the Festive Season and more are in front of us all, sit down with the most recent 'Forthcoming Books' issue of Locus and do their best to assemble a quick, on-the-fly list of books we're looking forward to from October through to May next year. As Gary and Jonathan both say on the podcast, the list has been quickly assembled and certainly misses many worthwhile books. Still, it's a start.
Here's the list. These are books we'll be reading, discussing and possibly recommending in coming months.
October 2014Bacigalupi, Paolo, The Doub...
2014-10-051h 06The Coode Street PodcastEpisode 177: Kij Johnson, science fiction and the Booker PrizeAs snow and ice freeze the North American heartlands, long-time friend of the podcast Kij Johnson agreed to travel across a frozen Kansas City to find a place where she could Skype in to the Waldorf Room to join Gary and Jonathan in discussion.
This time Gary threw out a question to kick start the discussion: which science fiction writer is most likely to win the Booker Prize, and which one is most likely to top the New York Times and Amazon bestseller lists? It proved a good start to a thoughtful discussion that w...
2014-02-091h 00The Coode Street PodcastEpisode 175: We return and talk about new books in 2014It's been a long time since the last episode. In late November Jonathan and Gary sat down to record a final episode before commencing a lengthy hiatus. After nearly two months, though, normal service returns!
This week Jonathan and Gary announce the winner and shortlist for the 2014 Crawford Award, begin thinking about Loncon3 (the 2014 World SF Convention), and discuss the books they're looking forward to in 2014.
Lists will be added, but these are the books Jonathan's Looking Forward to in 2014:Wolves, Simon Ings (Gollancz, January)
Annihilation, Jeff VanderMeer (FSG, February)
The Best of Ian McDonald, Ian McDonald (PS Pu...
2014-01-251h 07The Coode Street PodcastEpisode 173: Ellen Datlow Redux
The
Coode Street Podcast is a full service podcast. While Gary and Jonathan are on
vacation, we asked long-time listener Cat Sparks to select some classic
episodes that we could send out to entertain and enlighten in their absence.
This
week Cat has selected a discussion with multiple award winning editor Ellen
Datlow. Last year Ellen was guest of honor at the San Antonion WorldCon. As
part of the run up to the event, Gary and Jonathan spoke to her via the wonders
of modern technology from Manhattan in what turned out to be a wide-ranging and
in...
2014-01-061h 01The Coode Street PodcastEpisode 172: Robert Shearman and Howard Waldrop ReduxThe Coode Street Podcast is a full service podcast. While Gary and Jonathan are on vacation, we asked long-time listener Cat Sparks to select some classic episodes that we could send out to entertain and enlighten in their absence.
Next up are brilliant short story writer Robert Shearman, and living legend Howard Waldrop, who spoke to Gary and Jonathan in July 2013 live from Readercon 24 in Boston.
We hope you enjoy the podcast and our thanks to Cat!
2013-12-291h 05The Coode Street PodcastEpisode 171: Graham Joyce reduxThe Coode Street Podcast is a full service podcast. While Gary and Jonathan are on vacation, we asked long-time listener Cat Sparks to select some classic episodes that we could send out to entertain and enlighten in their absence.
First up is Graham Joyce, who Gary and Jonathan spoke to back in November 2012. At the time Graham's novel Some Kind of Fairy Tale has just been released. It went on to win the British Fantasy Award this November in Brighton, and was followed by new novel The Year of the Ladybird.
We hope you enjoy the...
2013-12-231h 06The Coode Street PodcastEpisode 153: On Sharknado, politics, and international SFIt was another typical day in the office for the Coode Street team. Having taken the time and made the effort to ascend to the Gershwin Room (there are a LOT of stairs), having avoided the temptations of the Tiki Lounge, having decided not to simply spend their time gossiping, Gary and Jonathan instead turn their attention to pressing issues like Sharknado and modern SF, whether British SF is more political than its US counterparts, and the growning prominence of non-Anglo SF with a minor sidestep into what it is to be an insider in the SF field. Naked attempts...
2013-07-2858 minThe Coode Street PodcastEpisode 144: On bookstores and lifetime achievementWith Gary just returned from Madiscon, Wisconsin, the glorious Concourse Hotel and the fun of Wiscon 37, where hotel wi-fi frustrated plans for live podcasting, he joined Jonathan in the Waldorf Room high above the Coode Street Motel Six to discuss the role of bookstores in helping readers to find unexpected, books we've not read (The Pride of Chanur and Downwards to the Earth!!), and lifetime achievement. With nominations closing in just days, they exhorted listeners to nominate for the 2o13 World Fantasy Awards (nomination ballot here), and made special mention of Mary Stewart and Susan Cooper as possible Lifetime Achievement A...
2013-05-271h 09The Coode Street PodcastEpisode 143: A journey from new SF to politicised editingOnce again our hardy commentators, Jonathan Strahan and Gary K. Wolfe, climbed the stairs to the Waldorf Room, high above the Coode Street Motel Six, took in the breathtaking views of the science fiction field that can only be seen from the Gernsback Bar, and held forth on matters SFnal, including new and recent SF, awards and anthologies, and just dipped their toes into the beginnings of a possible discussion of politicised editing. As always, we hope you enjoy the podcast. See you next week!
2013-05-181h 11The Coode Street PodcastEpisode 133: On Locus, recommended reading, Neptune's Brood and moreThis week the Coode Street team headed back to the Waldorf Room high in the Coode Street Motel Six to discuss the annual Locus Year in Review issue, the publishing industry, and other matters. We also briefly discuss two forthcoming novels, Guy Gavriel Kay's River of Stars and Charles Stross's Neptune's Brood.
The Locus Recommended Reading List is online, as is the annual Locus Poll and a list of links to recommended short fiction. As discussed during the episode, both Gary Wolfe and Jonathan Strahan work for Locus and were actively involved in compiling the recommended reading list. You can subs...
2013-02-031h 00The Coode Street PodcastEpisode 126: In which rambling continues...After a long delay due to technical issues with our hosting service, Podbean, we are now able to bring you the latest episode of The Coode Street Podcast. Episode 126 was recorded on Sunday, 9 December by Jonathan Strahan and Gary K. Wolfe, who rambled about various subjects to do with science fiction and fantasy. The recording was done so long ago, though, that neither podcaster quite remembers what they discussed or is willing to listen to the podcast to find out what. If you do listen to the podcast, please consider describing this episode in the comments. "General rambling", commenters are r...
2012-12-111h 03The Coode Street PodcastEpisode 125: Of lists and ramblingIn one of our most problem-free podcasts of recent times, Gary Wolfe and Jonathan Strahan return to the Waldorf Room high atop the corporate tower that is the Coode Street Motel Six to discuss lists, the Locus All-Time Poll that has just closed, and essays/articles by Paul McAuley on "Lets Put the Future Behind Us" and Jonathan McAlmont on "Annoyed with the History of Science Fiction", with passing reference to Gary Westfahl and Paul Kincaid (but only passing). Along the way lists were made, recommendations avoided, and a laugh or two was had. It's one of our longest podcasts...
2012-12-011h 21The Coode Street PodcastEpisode 105: Live with Gary K. Wolfe!Episode 105, in which Jonathan joins Gary in achieving ConventionFail by failing to record a single podcast at Continuum 8 (the Australian National Science Fiction Convention), but instead gets to discuss the convention, the Writer & the Critic podcast, the Tiptree awards and Jonathan possibly having said too much elsewhere, and the recent death of Ray Bradbury. All in all, an episode we hope you enjoy. We will be back this weekend with #106, where we hope to have Kij Johnson join us as a guest.
2012-06-121h 03The Coode Street PodcastEpisode 77: Live with Gary K. Wolfe and Sophie Strahan!This week Gary and I decided to vary things a little, inviting my ten-year-old daughter Sophie to join us to discuss a younger reader's view on story, character and such. It makes for a very different Coode Street podcast, but we hope you'll enjoy it, as always. Normal programming will resume next week!
2011-11-261h 00The Coode Street PodcastEpisode 75: Live with Gary K. WolfeHaving spent the past three weeks traveling (where his microphone disappeared in-transit), a heavily jetlagged Jonathan contacted Gary in Chicago to discuss the San Diego World Fantasy Convention, traveling, Amazon.com, and a number of other things. Our apologies if Jonathan's heavily jetlagged state led to a more garbled than usual discussion. As always, we hope you enjoy the podcast, and will see you next week!
2011-11-1457 min