The Coode Street Podcast

Loncon 3, the 72nd World Science Fiction Convention, has announced the nominees for the 2014 Hugo and Campbell Awards. As is our practice, this week we have a special episode of the podcast devoted to discussing the awards and all of the wonderful nominees. We are very grateful to John De Nardo (of SF Signal) and Tansy Rayner Roberts (Galactic Suburbia and Verity) for joining us for what we think is an interesting conversation.  We would also like to thank all of our listeners for nominating Coode Street for our third consecutive Best Fancast Hugo Award. We could not be happier, or more grateful. As always, we hope you enjoy the podcast and we’ll be back next week with more! Other links: Larry Correia and the Sad Puppy Hugo slate.

With awards season picking up, we try to avoid talking about them and pretty much fail. There is other stuff: on reading Heinlein today and the new bio that's coming out, who would make the Big 5 in SF now etc. It's a bit rambly, it's a bit Coode St. As always we hope you enjoy it!

On the eve of the publication of her new adult science fiction novel, Lagoon, the wonderful Nnedi Okorafor joins our intrepid podcasts to discuss the evolution of the book, what she's been working on since we last spoke in April 2012, Nigerian literature, and much more. As always, our thanks to Nnedi and we hope you all enjoy the podcast. Other books mentioned in the podcast: Wizard of the Crow, Ngugi wa Thiong'o Lagos 2060, Ayodele Arigbabu (ed.) NB: This post was retitled from Lagoon and Nigerian Fiction to more correctly reflect the content of the podcast.="">

As always, we get everything the wrong way round. Having just returned from the glades of Florida, a land of mocktails and alligators, Gary joins Jonathan to discuss the International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts, nominating for the Hugo Awards, and the career of the late Lucius Shepard (which they should have started with, as you'll discover if your patience holds out). As always, we hope you enjoy the podcast!

This week Gary is in Florida at the International Conference in the Arts where he is joined by Steven Erikson, author of the bestselling 'Malazan Empire' series of epic fantasy novels, and Ian McDonald, author of River of Gods, Dervish House, and the Planesrunner series.  The sound quality is not ideal, but the conversation is fascinating, and a rare one Jonathan gets to experience as a Coode St listener. As always, our sincere thanks to Steven Erikson and Ian McDonald for being part of the podcast. We hope you enjoy the episode. See you next week!

This week Jonathan and Gary are joined by Nebula Award winning writer Eileen Gunn to discuss her new short story collection, Questionable Practices, her upcoming article for the Smithsonion magazine on the purpose of science fiction, her novel in progress(!), and much, much more. As always, our sincere thanks to Eileen for being part of the podcast. We hope you enjoy the episode. See you next week!

Battling the fickle beast that is Skype, this week Jonathan and Gary talk to Kelley Eskridge and Nicola Griffith about the recently released Nebula ballot and what it might say about SF today, Nicola's recent novel Hild, Kelley's novel Solitaire, science fiction as a way of reading, language, politics and a lot more. In many ways this episode isn't so much a conversation, as what feels like the beginning of a long and interesting one to be continued at conventions and elsewhere in the future. As always, our sincere thanks to Kelley and Nicola for making time to appear on the podcast and for being such interesting and engaging guests.  As always, we hope you enjoy the podcast!

Faced with another relentless summer's day in Perth and icy Chicago winter evening, Jonathan and Gary turn to long-time friends of the podcast James Bradley, Garth Nix, and Sean Williams, luxuriating in a cool Sydney summer afternoon, to discuss Australian fiction, young adult fiction, and the works of Neville Shute in a wide-ranging conversation that is only occasionally interrupted by the vagaries of Skype. As always, our thinks to James, Garth and Sean, and we hope you enjoy the podcast!

With a new season of the Coode Street Podcast well under way, Gary and Jonathan connected up between the icy wilds of Chicago and the sunny streets of Melbourne, to discuss "importance" in science fiction. What does "important" mean anyway, what works are "important" and so on.   As always, we hope you enjoy the discussion!

As snow and ice freeze the North American heartlands, long-time friend of the podcast Kij Johnson agreed to travel across a frozen Kansas City to find a place where she could Skype in to the Waldorf Room to join Gary and Jonathan in discussion.  This time Gary threw out a question to kick start the discussion: which science fiction writer is most likely to win the Booker Prize, and which one is most likely to top the New York Times and Amazon bestseller lists? It proved a good start to a thoughtful discussion that wandered far and wide, although we’d contend not much rambling happened this week. As always, we’d like to thank Kij for joining us, and hope you enjoy the podcast. Next week Jonathan travels to Melbourne, so who knows what will happen there!