The Coode Street Podcast

Ten 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. Award-winning novelist and critic Nina Allan talks with Gary about what the lockdown has been like on a Scottish island almost devoid of the usual seasonal tourists, the appeal of golden age crime novels, the fascinating exercise of seeing how contemporary SFF works sometimes map onto older or classic works, the reissue of her collection Stardust (with a new story added!), and her forthcoming novels. Books mentioned include: Ruby by Nina Allan The Good Neighbors by Nina Allan (forthcoming 2021) The Last Astronaut by David Wellington Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke Engine Summer by John Crowley Cage of Souls by Adrian Tchaikovsky The Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe China Mountain Zhang by Maureen McHugh

Ten 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 multiple award-winning artist and illustrator Charles Vess, chatting about country living during the lockdown, working with authors such as Ursula K. Le Guin and Neil Gaiman (including a new collector’s edition of Stardust from Lyra's Books with new illustrations and handmade paper), and Charles’s own novel, The Queen of Summer’s Twilight, available on his Green Man Press website. Books mentioned include: Stardust by Neil Gaiman and Charles Vess Honeycomb (forthcoming 2021) by Joanne Harris (ill. Charles Vess) The Queen of Summer’s Twilight by Charles Vess Flyaway by Kathleen Jennings The Old Ways: A Journey on Foot by Robert McFarland The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal The World that We Knew by Alice Hoffman The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow Reservation Blues by Sherman Alexie The Mermaid and Mrs. Hancock by Imogen Hermes Gowar

Ten 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, and more! You can listen to an excerpt from Sarah's story, "We Don’t Talk About the Dragon", right now and if you live in the US and are over 18 you can enter our sweepstakes to win one of ten copies by following this link! Books mentioned include: Upright Women Wanted by Sarah Gailey When We Were Magic by Sarah Gailey The Echo Wife by Sarah Gailey Why Fish Don't Exist: A Story of Loss, Love, and the Hidden Order of Life by Lulu Miller Camp by Lev A.C. Rosen On the Come Up by Angie Thomas The Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins

Ten 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. Hugo, Tiptree, and Shirley Jackson Award winner Maureen McHugh joins Gary to talk about online teaching during the lockdown, the benefits of Zoom work sessions with fellow writers, the reissue of her classic novel China Mountain Zhang, researching the 13th century, and completing a draft of her first novel in almost two decades(!) Books mentioned include: China Mountain Zhang by Maureen F. McHugh The Mirror and the Light by Hilary Mantel The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells The Rivers of London series by Ben Aaronovitch A Perfect Spy by John Le Carré

Ten 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. Amal's poem "A Final Knight to Her Love and Foe", appears in The Book of Dragons.   If you live in the US and are over 18 you can enter our sweepstakes to win one of ten copies by following this link! Books mentioned include: This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone Dance on Saturday by Elwin Cotman The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson Die by Kieron Gillen and Stephanie Hans The Wicked + The Divine by Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie

Ten 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, the work of Tim Powers and Carmen Maria Machado, and much more. You can listen to an excerpt from Daniel's story, "Yuli", right now and if you live in the US and are over 18 you can enter our sweepstakes to win one of ten copies by following this link! Books mentioned include: Tiamat's Wrath by James S.A. Corey Last Call by Tim Powers In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado The Plague by Albert Camus

Ten 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 sunny New York to talk to the fabulous Nebula Award-winning author of The Only Harmless Great Thing, Brooke Bolander, about reading, writing and living during the pandemic, the comfort of reading somewhat grim nonfiction, and her contribution to The Book of Dragons. You can listen to an excerpt from Brooke's story, "Where the River Turns to Concrete", right now and if you live in the US and are over 18 you can enter our sweepstakes to win one of ten copies by following this link! Books mentioned include: The Only Harmless Great Thing by Brooke Bolander The Perfect Storm: A True Story of Men Against the Sea by Sebastian Junger In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex by Nathaniel Philbrick Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water by Marc Reisner Every Bone a Prayer by Ashley Blooms The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York by Robert A. Caro

Flying in the face of both good judgment and common sense, Jonathan and Gary return once again to the question of canons in science fiction and fantasy—a discussion which has widely re-emerged in recent weeks as a result of controversies over the Hugo Awards presentation at ConZealand. Are canons lists of books that people actually need to read, or are they ways of defining and celebrating your own reading communities? Are they useful at all? Are publishing programs such as the Gollancz Masterworks or the Tor Essentials trying to impose a particular idea of canon, or simply to make certain works widely available for those who might be interested? Are there multiple canons for multiple interest groups, or does each reader form their own canon? Would it even be possible to start thinking about works published since 2000 in terms of this discussion? As usual, we have strong opinions without really deciding anything much.

Ten 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 chats with A.T. Greenblatt -- this year’s short story Nebula winner for "Give the Family My Love" -- about the pleasures of escape reading even in normal times, listening to romances, mysteries, and memoirs, the graphic novels of Marjorie Liu and Neil Gaiman, the Murderbot stories of Martha Wells, and serious walking as an inspiration for fiction.  Books mentioned include: Educated by Tara Westover Tuesday Mooney Talks to Ghosts by Kate Racculia I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou The Beastie Boys Book by Michael Diamond and Adam Horovitz Monstress by Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda The Sandman by Neil Gaiman et al.

Ten 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 fan, publisher, and critic Cheryl Morgan talks with Gary about some favourite new and forthcoming books; the comfort in watching classic TV and movies; watching Doom Patrol and Black Panther; Sam Jordison and Galley Beggar Press; her own fanzine Salon Futura and Wizard’s Tower Press, and being a sensitivity reader for trans characters and issues. Books mentioned include: The Sunken Land Begins to Rise Again by M. John Harrison The Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vo Mordew by Alex Pheby The Green Man's Heir and The Green Man's Foe by Juliet E. McKenna  The Tales of Einarinn series by Juliet E. McKenna The Aldabreshin Compass series by Juliet E. McKenna untitled forthcoming collection by Aleksandar Žiljak