The Coode Street Podcast

Over the past several years we've been fortunate to record episodes of the Coode Street Podcast in front of a live audience. One of the highlights of MidAmericon 2, the 74th World Science Fiction Convention was when we got to sit down with convention Guest of Honor Michael Swanwick and award-winning author Kij Johnson to discuss the craft of short fiction. Our discussion focusses entirely on the writing of James Tiptree Jr's classic novelette "The Women Men Don't See". We think, modestly, that it's one of our very best episodes yet.  We hope you agree. The episode was recorded live on Friday 29 August 2016 in front of a terrific audience and was recorded by Kathi Overton and the MidAmericon 2 team. We'd like to sincerely thank Michael and Kij for their time and the effort that went into making this a success, Kathi and her team for their hard work, and everyone at MidAmericon 2 for making this possible. We would love to do more episodes on the craft of short fiction like this one, and are seriously considering it. As always, we hope you enjoy the episode. Photo by Kate Savage. Used with permission. (c) 2016 Coode St Productions & Gary K. Wolfe. This may not be copied or transcribed without written permission.

This week, in a quick episode recorded between hiatuses, we are joined by Locus Editor-in Chief Liza Groen Trombi to discuss the upcoming WorldCon, how Locus approaches covering the event, and books we've read recently and liked, and books we're looking forward to. As always, our thanks to Liza for making the time to be on the podcast and we hope you enjoy the episode.

After our longest hiatus so far, Jonathan is back from Italy and Gary is back from Readercon, and we ramble on about such questions as whether modern SF can be characterized as optimistic or pessimistic, how some stories survive as influences despite their obvious flaws, whether modern SF holds on to some of its cherished myths even when they no longer seem feasible, what we’re reading these days, and our own forthcoming public podcast at MidAmericon next month. As usual, any topic that you might find uninteresting will soon turn into another topic entirely.

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, byzantine family: Lynch Ltd. Hwa is of the few people in her community (which constitutes the whole rig) to forgo bio-engineered enhancements. As such, she's the last truly organic person left on the rig--making her doubly an outsider, as well as a neglected daughter and bodyguard extraordinaire. Still, her expertise in the arts of self-defense and her record as a fighter mean that her services are yet in high demand. When the youngest Lynch needs training and protection, the family turns to Hwa. But can even she protect against increasingly intense death threats seemingly coming from another timeline? Meanwhile, a series of interconnected murders threatens the city's stability and heightens the unease of a rig turning over. All signs point to a nearly invisible serial killer, but all of the murders seem to lead right back to Hwa's front door. Company Town has never been the safest place to be--but now, the danger is personal. A brilliant, twisted mystery, as one woman must evaluate saving the people of a town that can't be saved, or saving herself. If you're keen to avoid spoilers, we recommend reading the book before listening to the episode. If you don't already have a copy, Company Town can be ordered from: amazon.com amazon.com.au amazon.co.uk We encourage all of our listeners to leave comments here and we will do our best to respond as soon as possible. Next month The Coode Street Roundtable will return at the end of July with a discussion of Lavie Tidhar’s Central Station.

Before Coode Street goes on hiatus for a few weeks when each of us travel to various exotic realms, we address a question which Jonathan raised about new editions of work by Clifford Simak and Tom Reamy—namely, what happens to the work of older writers in a world in which the midlist has all but disappeared? How do writers “read back” in the genre—or do they need to at all? How do writers as diverse as Joe Abercrombie and Neil Gaiman come across the work of Fritz Leiber, for example, or how do writers like Silvia Moreno-Garcia and Kij Johnson encounter Lovecraft? And for readers and writers who came of age in the 1990s or later, does “reading back” mean the same thing it did for earlier generations? Then we chat a bit about our plans for Coode Street at MidAmericon in August, what we’re reading now, and what we’re looking forward to reading on the break. As always, we hope you enjoy the episode, and hope you don't miss the podcast too much! See you in late July!

This weekend Gary and Jonathan found time amongst their growing commitments to grab an hour or so and sit down over a microphone and discuss the World Fantasy Awards life achievement award, its rules, its recipients, and some people they feel might be considered for the award.  We also have announced that we will be taking an intermittent hiatus during July and August. There will be an episode this coming weekend, then a break of a month. It's possible there may be an episode during this time, but honestly, recording podcasts while on holidays in Tuscany just doesn't seem likely, does it? As always, though, we hope you enjoy this episode. More next week!

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 woman sets out to find vengeance for her lost family. That same spring, from the wealthy city-state of Seressa, famous for its canals and lagoon, come two very different people: a young artist travelling to the dangerous east to paint the grand khalif at his request--and possibly to do more--and a fiercely intelligent, angry woman, posing as a doctor's wife, but sent by Seressa as a spy. The trading ship that carries them is commanded by the accomplished younger son of a merchant family, ambivalent about the life he's been born to live. And further east, a boy trains to become a soldier in the elite infantry of the khalif--to win glory in the war everyone knows is coming. As these lives entwine, their fates--and those of many others -- will hang in the balance, when the khalif sends his massive army to take the great fortress that is the gateway to the western world... If you're keen to avoid spoilers, we recommend reading the book before listening to the episode. If you don't already have a copy, Children of Earth and Sky can be ordered from: amazon.com amazon.com.au amazon.co.uk We encourage all of our listeners to leave comments here and we will do our best to respond as soon as possible. Next monthThe Coode Street Roundtable will return at the end of June with a discussion of Madeline Ashby's Company Town.

We nearly did it. We nearly stayed on topic… This week, we reminisce briefly about six years of the Coode Street Podcast (an anniversary we overlooked a few weeks ago), and then segue, after a few brief diversionary rambles, into a discussion of the books we are both looking forward to in the next six months or so, touching upon new books by Angela Slatter, John Crowley, Peter Beagle, Jeffrey Ford, Kameron Hurley, Alastair Reynolds, Ursula K. Le Guin, Christopher Priest, Yoon Ha Lee, Connie Willis, Ken MacLeod, Nisi Shawl, China Mieville, Michael Swanwick and others, along the way touching upon colonialism and culture, the role of the stand-alone novella, how contemporary writers are dealing with Lovecraft, and what anthologies to look out for. As always, we hope you enjoy the episode. Next week, a new episode of the Coode Street Roundtable and a new episode of the main show.

We don't often do this, but in recognition of Harlan Ellison's 82nd birthday we thought we'd republish the episode from 2015 where Gary and Bill Shafer talked to Harlan about The Top of the Volcano: The Award-Winning Stories of Harlan Ellison. Although Jonathan wasn’t able to join us on this one,they got into some fascinating stories about Thomas Pynchon, Octavia Butler, Harlan’s famous house (including the “grotto”), the role of small-press publishers in the history of the field, and what it all looks like from the perspective of a legendary writer in his 81st year. Note: There's a break at the 42min mark when Gary's cat stepped on his laptop and paused the recording. A few minutes were missed, but conversation continued!!

Winter is coming. Well, in Perth. An early storm huffed and puffed and knocked the power out part way through a ramble on awards and longevity (or something). We persevered. The power came back up and we rambled on.  This is an old-style episode about nothing much. If that's your thing, then have at it! As always, we do hope you enjoy it. And we're planning for MidAmericon!