The Coode Street Podcast

And now for something a little different. Jonathan spends ten minutes with James Bradley, author of the fabulous new novel Ghost Species to discuss Adrian McKinty's Sean Duffy series of crime novels which starts with The Cold, Cold Ground; Lily King's Writers & Lovers, and much more. Books mentioned in this episode include: The Sean Duffy series by Adrian McKinty Writers & Lovers by Lily King Ghost Species by James Bradley The Electric State by Simon Stalenhag Some more things James has read recently that he highly recommends: Bridge 108 by Anne Charnock Greenwood by Michael Christie Agency by William Gibson Zero Bomb by MT Hill The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel Gathering Evidence by Martin MacInnes Circe by Madeleine Miller Weather by Jenny Offill Some books James is looking forward to a lot: Mammoth by Chris Flynn The Mirror and the Light by Hilary Mantel War of the Maps by Paul McAuley The Trespassers by Meg Mundell Dead Astronauts by Jeff Vandermeer

Today Gary Wolfe spends ten minutes with Nisi Shawl, who is currently preparing her introduction to the Library of America edition of Octavia Butler's work. They briefly touch upon Cory Doctorow as well as Nisi’s recent mini-collection from PM Press, Talk Like a Man, and the forthcoming sequel to her Nebula-nominated novel Everfair.   Books mentioned in this episode include: Fledgling by Octavia Butler Walkaway by Cory Doctorow Talk Like a Man by Nisi Shawl Everfair by Nisi Shawl

In the second of our all-new "Ten Minutes with..." series, Jonathan spends ten minutes (well, nearly twenty) with critic and reviewer Ian Mond talking about the book he's reading right now and the books he recommends for those with a little time on their hands (some of which he's reviewing for Locus). Books mentioned in this episode include: The Testaments by Margaret Atwood Bubblegum by Adam Levin We All Hear Stories in the Dark by Robert Shearman Providence by Max Barry Ghost Species by James Bradley Pew by Catherine Lacey Temporary by Hilary Leichter 

And now for something a little different. With all of us staying indoors, the team at Coode Street thought it might be fun to get in touch with some of our favourite people - writers, artists, and just folk we like to hang out with - and ask them what they're reading at the moment, what they recommend to read if you're currently hanging around indoors a lot, and maybe to let us know what they've been doing to. For the very first of this "Ten Minutes with..." series, Gary calls up Sarah Pinsker to chat with her about her insanely prescient novel, A Song for a New Day, and what she's been reading.  Books discussed in this episode include:

This week Jonathan and Gary have a lively discussion with the wonderful N.K. Jemisin, mostly about her new novel The City We Became (you can read the short story that inspired the novel at Tor.com), but with fascinating side discussions about living in New York and trying to capture and celebrate it in fiction; the vices and virtues of H.P. Lovecraft and his difficulties in dealing with Brooklyn; the comparative challenges of world-building in an invented versus a recognizable world; how her work as a psychologist has informed her fiction; and a couple of side trips about the short stories in her recent short story collection How Long Til Black Future Month?  With most book tours cancelled (including hers), this is a good way to spend some time with one of our most interesting and innovative writers. As always, our thanks to Nora for making time to join us, and we hope you enjoy the episode. See you in two weeks (and stay safe and well!)

This week Gary and Jonathan are joined by a long time friend of the podcast, Ken Liu, to discuss his new short story collection The Hidden Girl and Other Stories, approaching the end of his epic silkpunk fantasy series The Dandelion Dynasty, and how having good stories is more important to a society than having good institutions. Along the way, we talk about history, life, evolving art, and much, more more. The Hidden Girl and Other Stories is out now and The Veiled Throne is out early next year.  As always, we'd like to thank Ken for making time to join us and hope that you all enjoy the episode.  See you in two weeks with more!  

As usual on this week’s Coode Street, Jonathan and Gary discuss what they’ve been reading lately, with a particular focus on how apocalyptic fiction has evolved over the decades, and how writers like Kim Stanley Robinson have found ways of finding some sort of hope even in the face of what increasingly seems inevitable. This being the start of awards season, they also spend some time discussing the finalists for the Nebula, Stoker, and Spectrum awards, as well as the new Ray Bradbury Prize from the Los Angeles Times Book Prizes. Mostly, though, they focus on the Nebulas, and the interesting question of whether Nebula nominees which had a lot of buzz years or decades ago still have impact today. We stop short of guessing which of this year’s nominees will have readers in another decade or so. Among current and forthcoming books, Gary sounds pretty enthusiastic about the new Liz Williams novel Comet Season and James Bradley's forthcoming novel, Ghost Species.

In the second (or maybe third) episode in our new bi-weekly schedule, Jonathan and Gary eventually get around to the question of what books to recommend to someone new to science fiction and fantasy or someone who’s been away from the field for years or even decades. The standard answer to this a generation ago—Heinlein, Bradbury, Clarke—hardly provides an intro to modern SF, and while names like Le Guin and Butler still seem helpful, the question remains what current authors are good entry points. Along the way, we touch upon N.K. Jemisin’s forthcoming The City We Became, which Octavia Butler novel might be the best to start with, Kim Stanley Robinson’s novels, including the recent reissue of his California trilogy along with Maureen McHugh’s China Mountain Zhang. But first, Gary complains about the overused shorthand of describing a new novel in terms of other novels (“think Novel X meets Novel Y”), and the habit of publicists and even reviewers of describing novels as “for both literary and genre readers.

This week, after more or less inadvertently falling into a discussion of Simon Jimenez’s new novel The Vanished Birds (Del Rey) and whether it will successfully gain attention from both SF and mainstream literary readers, Jonathan and Gary mention a few other forthcoming books and eventually circle in on a discussion of fandom—what it means to be a fan, different kinds of fandom, and questions of what happens when you stop being a fan of a particular series or author, what major works you may have missed or over-looked despite considering yourself a fan of the author, and why some fans drift away in the face of too much sameness, while others remain fans because of that sameness.  Characteristically, we fail to adequately answer any of these questions, but at least we raise them.  Next episode We are officially moving from a weekly schedule to a two-weekly schedule, so look for the next episode on the weekend of Febuary 8th, wherever good podcasts are sold.

After 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. Jemisin, The City We Became Hao Jingfang, Vagabonds Nancy Kress, Eleventh Gate and Sea Change Yoon Ha Lee, Phoenix Extravagant Ken Liu, The Veiled Throne Paul J. McCauley, War of the Maps Tamsin Muir, Harrow the Ninth Tochi Onyebuchi, Riot Baby K.M. Szpara, Docile Lavie Tidhar, By Force Alone Jo Walton, Or What You Will Gene Wolfe, Interlibrary Loan Alexander Irvine, Anthropocene Rag Greg Egan, Dispersion Jeffrey Ford, Out of Body The Best of Elizabeth Bear Ken Liu, The Hidden Girl and Other Stories The Best of Jeffrey Ford Jonathan Strahan (ed.), Made to Order: Robots and Revolution Jonathan Strahan (ed.), The Book of Dragons Jonathan's list Agency, William Gibson (Viking) Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line, Deepa Anappara (Chatto & Windus) The City We Became, NK Jemisin (Orbit) Burn, Patrick Ness (Walker) Utopia Avenue, David Mitchell (Sceptre) Piranesi, Susanna Clarke (Bloomsbury) By Force Alone, Lavie Tidhar (Head of Zeus/Tor) Vagabonds, Hao Jingfang (Saga) The Angel of the Crows, Katherine Addison (Tor) Unconquerable Sun, Kate Elliott (Orbit) The Sunken Land Begins to Rise Again, M. John Harrison (Gollancz) Or What You Will, Jo Walton (Tor) The Left-Handed Booksellers of London, Garth Nix (Allen & Unwin/Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins) Ghost Species, James Bradley (Penguin) Comet Weather, Liz Williams (Newcon)