The Coode Street Podcast

The end of the year is upon us, and plans are subject to change. Our intention to do a bunch of end-of-the year episodes has been set aside because of deadlines and other commitments. Instead here’s a conversation about the history of the podcast, about our most disappointing and surprising books of 2016, and much more. During the episode we discuss the hiatus, and whether we’ll be returning in 2017 or not. The jury remains out on that, but there’ll be at least one more episode in January. Who knows beyond that? We’ll have to wait and see. Our sincere thanks to everyone who’s been a part of Coode Street this year and in previous years, and our sincerest holiday good wishes to one and all!

It’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 Whitehead Hold, Kirsten Tranter Children of Earth and Sky, Guy Gavriel Kay Vision, Tom King, Gabriel Hernandez Walta & Mike de Mundo Barkskins, Annie Proulx Goldenhand, Garth Nix Into Everywhere, Paul McAuley Company Town, Madeleine Ashby Children of the New World, Alexander Weinstein Version Control, Dexter Palmer Europe in Winter, Dave Hutchinson Ian’s List Underground Airlines, Ben H. Winters The Sudden Appearance of Hope, Claire North Lovecraft Country, Matt Ruff Vigil, Angela Slatter I Am Providence, Nick Mamatas My Best Friend's Exorcism, Grady Hendrix What is Not Yours is Not Yours, Helen Oyeyemi Martin John, Anakana Schofield Solar Bones, Mike McCormack The Obelisk Gate, N K Jemisin Jonathan’s List Revenger, Alastair Reynolds Goldenhand, Garth Nix Children of Earth and Sky, Guy Gavriel Kay Bloom County XII: A New Hope, Berkeley Breathed Lovecraft Country, Matt Ruff Gary’s List The Underground Railroad, Colson Whitehead Revenger, Alastair Reynolds Children of Earth and Sky, Guy Gavriel Kay Central Station, Lavie Tidhar The Dream Quest of Vellitt Boe, Kij Johnson The Gradual, Christoper Priest The Ballad of Black Tom, Victor LaValle As always, our thanks to James and Ian, and we hope you enjoy the episode.  

This week we find ourselves talking about the resurgence of the novella in fantasy and SF, the possible reasons behind it, the changes in recent print magazines Asimov’s and Analog, the question of why short fiction seems to be moving in a digital direction whereas the novel not so much--and then we segue unconvincingly into questions of what gets reviewed and by whom, finally ending up with the problems in trying to find a workable definition of fantasy as compared to science fiction or horror. As always, we hope you enjoy the episode!

After a week off, we return to discuss just how science fictional the recent American elections are, whether political science fiction has ever had much impact on social attitudes or public policy, what if anything SF has to offer to the disenfranchised, and the representation of women and minorities as characters as well as contributors in recent anthologies like Jonathan’s Bridging Infinity. We also offer some thoughts on the recent World Fantasy Convention, the difficulties World Fantasy seems to be facing in terms of both awards and convention attendance, and whether there are really any professional conventions left in the SF field.

This week, from the World Fantasy Convention in Columbus, Ohio, Gary is joined by Hugo-winning David Levine (Arabella of Mars) and Andre Norton-winning Fran Wilde (Updraft, Cloudbound) to discuss various matters from Regency interplanetary adventures to bone cities to where SF titles come from,and balances between SF, fantasy, pulp traditions, and YA elements in SF’s emerging new eclecticism. As always, our thanks to David and Fran for making the time to talk to Gary. We hope you enjoy the episode!    

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!

This week we sit down with Crawford Award winning author Kai Ashante Wilson to discuss his fiction, his career and the pros and cons of being a late starter. We focus on his multiple-award nominated novella "The Devil in America", Sorcerer of the Wildeeps, and his new book, the just-released and highly recommended A Taste of Honey. As always, our thanks to Kai for making the time to join us. We hope you enjoy the episode!

After last week's experiments with audio ended up in a lost recording, this week we turned to more traditional methods to make sure we'd be bringing you a new episode this week.  For about an hour, Gary and I discuss the new Best Series category for the Hugo Awards (in great and possible inaccurate detail(, trends in alternate history, and some new books that we've been reading. We also mention our next guest. As always, we hope you enjoy the episode. See you next week!

In the final of our conversations recorded during MidAmericon 2, the 74th World Science Fiction Convention, in Kansas City, we sit down with Hugo and Nebula winner Jo Walton and Tiptree Award winner Eugene Fischer for a wide-ranging and insightful discussion that touches not only upon their own fiction, but of the kind of reading that helped shape it, from Victorian literature to the SF of the ‘70s and ‘80s. We’d like to the Jo and Eugene for making time to talk to us. As always, we hope you enjoy the episode!

This week we are joined by Hugo and Nebula Award winning author Connie Willis to discuss her new novel, Crosstalk, which is just out in the UK from Gollancz and will be out in the US early next month. The publisher describes Crosstalk like this: Briddey is about to get exactly what she thinks she wants... Briddey is a high-powered exec in the mobile phone industry, overseeing new products from concept ('anything to beat the new apple phone') to delivery. And she works with her wonderful partner, Trent. They've been together for six magical weeks, in a whirlwind of flowers, dinners, laughter and now comes the icing on the cake: not a weekend away or a proposal but something even better. An EDD. A procedure which will let them sense each other's feelings. Trent doesn't just want to tell her how much he loves her - he wants her to feel it. Everything is perfect. The trouble is, Briddey can't breathe a word of it to anyone (difficult, when the whole office is guessing) until she's had two minutes to call her family. And they're hounding her about the latest family drama, but when they find out about the EDD - which they will - they'll drop everything to interrogate her. And it might just be easier to have the procedure now and explain later. The race is on: not just for new, cutting-edge technology, but also for a shred of privacy in a public world and - for Briddey - a chance for love at the heart of it all. This is a brilliant, heart-warming romantic comedy from one of the wittiest and wisest of our authors. Written with a light touch and a smile, we're swept up in Briddey's romance - and into the difficulties of a world just one technological step away from our own, as technology and social media blur (or indeed remove) the line between personal and public. In a spirited and entertaining discussion in a rather noisy hotel room in Kansas City, we discussed the novel, comedy, social media, science fiction, and much more. As always, we'd like to thank Connie for making the time to talk to us, and hope you enjoy the show.