Gary and I travelled to Reno, Nevada to attend Renovation, the World Science Fiction Convention for 2011. Over the weekend we recorded a handful of podcasts with friends, old and new, that we see to seldom. We’ll be publishing these over the coming month. The first in the series is with Jo Walton, author of Among Others and Farthing, where we discussed that novel, science fiction, her Hugo blogging and many other things. As always, we hope you enjoy the podcast.
I love the podcast, but Gary touched on, what I know is very minor point, made in passing, and not worth commenting on…but…who told him that Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell could have gone on for 100 more pages!
If forced to describe JS&MN I’d say it’s an excellent 300 page novel hidden in 900 pages of self indulgence.
A question I would pose to you and Gary is this – if she wasn’t a publishing insider would it have been a shorter (tighter) book?
Most enjoyable. Jo Walton is a great guest.
A most excellent combination of hosts and guest. You and Gary are most definitely amongst those who I depend on to point out books to read and writers to look out for. Case in point, you talked up Jo so much that I’ve read and enjoyed both Farthing and Ha’penny and can’t wait to finish up the series and go on to Among Others.
Interested to hear that the Hugo posts might be collected. I wonder if the comments will be included. It’s rare to have a comments section almost as entertaining as the blog itself!
I must be one of the four(!) people who Jo Walton claimed have read the Keith Roberts novel set during the setting of the Roman Empire in Britain. It’s called ‘The Boat of Fate’ and I enjoyed it a lot while reading it last year. Having a MA in Ancient History I usually end up tearing my hair out at the inaccuracies and unfounded presumptions in fiction set during this period but I lost very little hair reading this novel.
She is indeed. Possibly the most voracious reader I’ve met.
Glad you’re enjoying the podcast. And very glad you’re enjoying Jo’s work. I like it a lot and think she deserves to be more widely read.
Roberts was always a very careful writer about research, I suspect. While Boat of Fate was never my favorite Roberts work, it is a good novel.
Jo Walton is a fantastic guest on the podcast!
I’m another of the four who’ve read and enjoyed Keith Roberts’ ‘The Boat of Fate”!
Which Roberts collections are you missing Jonathan? I think I’ve got everything of his except the poetry collection A Heron Caught In Weeds.