

The Coode Street Podcast
Jonathan Strahan & Gary K. Wolfe
Discussion and digression on science fiction and fantasy with Gary K. Wolfe and Jonathan Strahan.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Jul 5, 2020 • 17min
Episode 470: Ten Minutes with Premee Mohamed
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 ten minutes or so talking to exciting debut novelist Premee Mohamed about reading, writing, and working during the pandemic; the work of Alan Moore, Umberto Eco, and Amitav Ghosh; the experience of publishing her debut novel in 2020; and how it was to effectively collaborate with her younger self on Beneath the Rising and writing A Broken Darkness.
Books mentioned include:
Beneath the Rising by Premee Mohamed
A Broken Darkness by Premee Mohamed
Jerusalem by Alan Moore
Chronicles of a Liquid Society by Umberto Eco
Gun Island by Amitav Ghosh

Jul 5, 2020 • 1h 1min
Episode 469: SF, 2020, and the Anxiety of Influence
Well, it's time to head back to the socially distanced Gershwin Rooms in the geographically distanced Coode Street Motels Six for Gary and Jonathan to spend an hour or so talking about science fiction and the world. Today conversation starts with a continuation of the idea that this is a Golden Age of science fiction, what characteristics might make up that age, whether you can identify great works of 21st Century SF, new work by M. John Harrison,Hugo voting opening online, and much more.
As always, we hope you enjoy the episode!

Jul 4, 2020 • 17min
Episode 468: Ten Minutes with Tad Williams
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 twenty minutes with the bestselling creator of Osten Ard, Tad Williams, discussing living and working during the pandemic; researching archaeology, science, and neolithic England; the work of Hilary Mantel and the BBC adaptation of Wolf Hall, and his own forthcoming work, including a new Osten Ard short novel.
Books mentioned include:
The Witchwood Crown by Tad Williams
Empire of Grass by Tad Williams
The Navigator's Children by Tad Williams (forthcoming)
The Mirror and the Light by Hilary Mantel

Jul 2, 2020 • 28min
Episode 467: Ten Minutes with Stefen Brazulaitis and Tim Thomas
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.
And now for something completely different. During the Ten Minutes with ... series we've talked to writers, editors, artists, agents and publishers. Today a conversation -- with apologies for a little patchy audio -- with two booksellers who bring a similar attitude to what appear to be different sides of the bookselling game. Stefen Brazulaitis is an award-winning bookseller and owner/proprietor of the respected independent Perth bookstore, Stefen's Books, while Tim Thomas is the owner/franchisee of Dymock's Books in Subiaco. Both love books, both are genuinely passionate about selling books, both have wonderful but different bookstores, and both have different stories to tell.

Jul 1, 2020 • 17min
Episode 466: Ten Minutes with Ursula Vernon
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 and Nebula Winning author and artist Ursula Vernon, along with her alter ego for adult readers T. Kingfisher, chats with Gary about the comfort of reading historical romances and horror fiction that doesn’t seem too close to home, the classic fantasy of Robin McKinley and Terri Windling, and the sometimes arbitrary distinctions between adult and kids’ literature, especially given the occasional disconnect between who buys the latter and who reads it.
Books mentioned include:
The Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher (forthcoming)
The Twisted Ones by T. Kingfisher
The Hollow Places by T. Kingfisher
Swordheart by Ursula Vernon
The Damar Series by Robin McKinley
Deerskin by Robin McKinley
The Wood Wife by Terri Windling
Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz

Jun 30, 2020 • 14min
Episode 465: Ten Minutes with Walter Jon Williams
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.
Nebula winner and recent Worldcon Guest of Honor Walter Jon Williams talks with Gary about hiding from COVID and the sun in rural New Mexico, a rare science fiction novel that deals with elder care, the appeal of E.R. Eddison and other pre-Tolkien fantasies, the hardboiled fiction of David Goodis, researching on Wikipedia, and the next book in his Praxis space opera series.
Books mentioned include:
Quillifer the Knight by Walter Jon Williams
The Accidental War by Walter Jon Williams
Fleet Elements by Walter Jon Williams
Plum Rains by Andromeda Romano-Lax
Mistress of Mistresses by E.R. Eddison
Five Noir Novels of the 1940s and 50s by David Goodis

Jun 29, 2020 • 14min
Episode 464: Ten Minutes with Derek Künsken
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 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 Quantum Garden by Künsken
The House of Styx by Derek Künsken
The Prince of Nothing Series by R. Scott Bakker
The Robot Series by Isaac Asimov
House of X by Jonathan Hickman
Immortal Hulk by Bennett Ewing

Jun 28, 2020 • 17min
Episode 463: Ten Minutes with Sam J. Miller
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.
Multiple award winner Sam J. Miller joins Gary to discuss judging this year’s Neukom Award (with its intimidating list of finalists), catching up with some favourite writers of colour, finally getting around to a classic, the remarkable narrative skills of William Gibson, and Sam’s own forthcoming ghost story novel, The Blade Between.
Books mentioned include:
The Blade Between by Sam J. Miller Jr
Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse
Trouble the Saints by Alaya Dawn Johnson
Ulysses by James Joyce
Gravity’s Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon
The Novels of William Gibson

Jun 27, 2020 • 14min
Episode 462: Ten Minutes with Catherynne M. Valente
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 ten minutes with bestselling, multiple award-winning author of Space Opera, Catherynne M. Valente, who joins him from an island of the northeastern coast of America, to talk about reading, writing and working during these strange times and trying to do so with an infant in the house, the work of Hank Green and Jenny Slate, her love of Dune, her upcoming short fiction, the return of Tetley Abdnego, and much more.
Books mentioned include:
Space Opera by Catherynne M. Valente
A Perfect Host by Catherynne M. Valente
A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor by Hank Green
Little Weirds by Jenny Slate
Station Eleven by Hilary St. John Mandel
Dune by Frank Herbert
The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
Lud-in-the-Mist by Hope Mirrlees
Haroun and the Sea of Stories by Salman Rushdie
Exhalation: Stories by Ted Chiang
Burning Girls and Other Stories by Veronica Schanoes

Jun 26, 2020 • 16min
Episode 461: Ten Minutes with G. Willow Wilson
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 and World Fantasy Award-winning G. Willow Wilson chats with Gary about what living in Seattle has felt like during the plague time and the city’s characteristically progressive politics, the fascination of listening to Proust on Audible, the remarkably prescient writing of James Baldwin and the literary innovations of William Makepeace Thackeray, and what it’s like to write in the Sandman universe after having been enthralled by it when younger.
Books mentioned include:
The Bird King by G. Willow Wilson
The Dreaming: Waking Hours by G. Willow Wilson & Nick Robles
The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin
A Rap on Race by James Baldwin & Margaret Mead
Remembrance of Things Past by Marcel Proust
Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray