The Coode Street Podcast

This week we are joined by the Hugo and Nebula Award winning Paolo Bacigalupi, who is just about to publish his first science fiction novel for adults since 2009s The Windup Girl.  Picking up from where his harrowing short story "The Tamarisk Hunter" left off, The Water Knife is lean thriller that asks important questions about how global warming will affect us all as seas rise in some places and drinking water becomes scarce in others. The publisher of the book describes  The Water Knife like this: In the American Southwest, Nevada, Arizona, and California skirmish for dwindling shares of the Colorado River. Into the fray steps Angel Velasquez, detective, leg-breaker, assassin and spy. A Las Vegas water knife, Angel “cuts” water for his boss, Catherine Case, ensuring that her lush, luxurious arcology developments can bloom in the desert, so the rich can stay wet, while the poor get nothing but dust. When rumors of a game-changing water source surface in drought-ravaged Phoenix, Angel is sent to investigate. There, he encounters Lucy Monroe, a hardened journalist with no love for Vegas and every reason to hate Angel, and Maria Villarosa, a young Texas refugee who survives by her wits and street smarts in a city that despises everything that she represents.  With bodies piling up, bullets flying, and Phoenix teetering on collapse, it seems like California is making a power play to monopolize the life-giving flow of a river. For Angel, Lucy, and Maria time is running out and their only hope for survival rests in each other’s hands. But when water is more valuable than gold, alliances shift like sand, and the only thing for certain is that someone will have to bleed if anyone hopes to drink. The conversation is, as always, fascinating and provocative. We're very grateful to Paolo for making the time to return to the podcast and, as always, hope you enjoy the episode.

This week we return, without guests, to a topic with which we have annoyed listeners in podcasts for years—the idea of SF canon formation: who gets dropped from the canon, who gets added, and whether such things as Hugo nominations make any difference at all. The decade between 1985 and 1995 (20-30 years ago now), saw the deaths of many of the writers who helped establish much of the "classic" SF canon — Robert A. Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, Theodore Sturgeon, Frank Herbert, Alfred Bester, Fritz Leiber, John Brunner, Roger Zelazny, James Tiptree Jr, Cliffard Simak, Lester del Rey, Philip K. Dick, C.L. Moore, and more. Who among them are still being discovered by new readers, and which writers and books in the last 20 years are likely candidates for a future canon? Does it take 50 years or more to determine what is canonical? Are Hugos any sort of reliable guide? And what difference do canons make anyway, beyond collective lists of personal favorites? We also have decided, as announced in the podcast, to officially support the Helsinki in 2017 and Dublin in 2019 WorldCon bids. Coode St endorses these conventions, will be buying memberships to them, and will attend should they be successful. Both Gary and Jonathan are eager to be part of major international WorldCon events like 2014's Loncon. We hope you'll join us in supporting these great bids. We hope you enjoy this week's episode. Next week: Paolo Bacigalupi and The Water Knife!

This week James Bradley and Ian Mond join Jonathan to discuss the five novels that have made the final Hugo Awards ballot. The shortlisted novels are: Ancillary Sword by Ann Leckie (Orbit US; Orbit UK)  The Dark Between the Stars by Kevin J. Anderson (Tor Books)  The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison (Sarah Monette) (Tor Books)  The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu, translated by Ken Liu (Tor)  Skin Game by Jim Butcher (Roc Books) We almost completely avoid issues surrounding the ballot, and instead focus on discussing the novels and what might make them interesting to read.  Our thanks to James and Ian for making time to record the podcast. As always, we hope you enjoy the episode!

This week’s very special episode is a conversation with the superb and formerly mysterious K.J. Parker, whose newest work The Two of Swords begins serialization this week from Orbit, and whose Savages is due later this summer from Subterranean Press.   We discuss the influence of writers as diverse as E.F. Benson, P.G. Wodehouse, Mercedes Lackey, and C.J. Cherryh, the reason there isn’t much overt magic in Parker’s worlds, the freedom offered by fantasy over straight historical fiction, the relative advantages of novellas vs. novels, where all that wonderful dialogue comes from, and—of course—who K.J. Parker really is... As always, we hope you enjoy the podcast!

This has been a busy year for the Coode Street Podcast, talking to interesting guests, covering a wide-range of issues, and being syndicated by our friends at Tor.com. For a bit of change, Gary and Jonathan decided to sit down together and record an old-fashioned Coode Street Podcast, just two guys rambling about science fiction. Topics covered, or touched on, included awards (of course), politics, the anniversary of SF classics, what makes a a work entertaining, and more.  All in all, a pretty typical episode of the podcast.  As always, we hope you enjoy the episode and will be back for more next week!

With Swancon 40, the 2015 Australian National Science Fiction Convention, in full swing Jonathan sat down with convention guest of honour John Scalzi and Twelfth Planet Press editor/publisher Alisa Krasnostein to discuss science fiction, community, Robert Heinlein, having just finished new novel The End of All Things and more! As always, we'd like to thank John and Alisa for appearing on the podcast. John's next novel, The End of All Things, is out for preorder and you can support the Pozible campaign for Alisa's new project Defying Doomsday here.  We hope you enjoy the episode!

This week Gary* is joined by award-winning author Ken Liu and Joe Monti, Executive Editor at Saga Press, to discuss Ken's exciting debut novel The Grace of Kings, his forthcoming collection The Paper Menagerie, and much more. As always we'd like to thank Ken and Joe for making the time to talk to us. And we hope you enjoy the podcast! The Grace of Kings is in stores next week.* Jonathan missed this episode due to illness.

This weekend Silvia Moreno-Garcia joins us to talk about her debut fantasy novel, Signal to Noise.    Described in an upcoming issue of Locus as “one of the most important fantasy debuts of the year”, it’s an engaging and compelling story of a woman returning to her family home in Mexico for her father’s funeral, and of a time in her teens when she discovered that the right music played just the right way could change the world.    It may be that we grew up at the right time, it may be that Meche’s past overlapped mine in just the right way, but we loved this gentle, moving book quite a bit. If you have any interest in fantasy and music, then we think Signal to Noise is for you. It’s the best genre book about music that Jonathan has read since Lewis Shiner’s Glimpses.    The publisher describes the book like this: A literary fantasy about love, music and sorcery, set against the background of Mexico City. Mexico City, 1988: Long before iTunes or MP3s, you said “I love you” with a mixtape. Meche, awkward and fifteen, has two equally unhip friends -- Sebastian and Daniela -- and a whole lot of vinyl records to keep her company. When she discovers how to cast spells using music, the future looks brighter for the trio. With help from this newfound magic, the three friends will piece together their broken families, change their status as non-entities, and maybe even find love... Mexico City, 2009: Two decades after abandoning the metropolis, Meche returns for her estranged father’s funeral. It’s hard enough to cope with her family, but then she runs into Sebastian, and it revives memories from her childhood she thought she buried a long time ago. What really happened back then? What precipitated the bitter falling out with her father? And, is there any magic left? Silvia was a terrific guest and the conversation we recorded talks about the book in an interesting way that really complements reading the book. Consider picking up a copy of Silvia’s book. It’s Coode Street Recommended.

This week Deborah Biancotti, Margo Lanagan, and Scott Westerfeld join Gary and Jonathan in the Gershwin Room (aka Skype) to discuss their exciting new book project, Zeroes. Our discussion ranges from collaborating, and all of the ins and outs of collaboration, to superheroes and the origins of the new series.  Zeroes will be released in September. As always, we would like to thank Deborah, Margo, and Scott for joining us, and hope you enjoy the episode. Next week: Silvia Moreno-Garcia, strong female characters and Signal to Noise.

This week we welcome the remarkable Kelly Link, celebrating her new collection Get In Trouble, her recent anthology with Gavin Grant , her career in general, and what’s coming up from Small Beer Press.  We talk about the differences (if there are any) between adult and YA fiction, genre and mainstream, the possibility of a new novel, and what we did or didn’t read in school.  In addition to discussing Kelly’s own fiction and her rapidly growing reputation between Stranger Things Happen and Get in Trouble, we touch upon other books and authors from T.H. White’s The Once and Future Kingto Peter Straub’s “Hunger: An Introduction,” from Ray Bradbury to Shirley Jackson.  And Kelly, who loves ghost stories, raises the very good question of why we return to the same stories again and again, even long after we know what’s going to happen.  Listen, and see if any of us come up with a good answer for that.