Category Archives: Podcasts

Episode 278: Life achievement and such


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!

No episode this week

There won’t be a new episode of the Coode Street Podcast this week. Gary is awak on ICFA business, so with one thing or another, we can’t seem to work out timing. We both figure you’ll all be fine till next week. You will, won’t you? Let us know what you’re going to do instead of listen to the podcast this week on Twitter at @coodestreet

Coode Street Roundtable 5: Guy Gavriel Kay’s Children of Earth and Sky

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:

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.

Episode 277: Books we’re looking forward to…


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.

Episode 218: Harlan Ellison, Bill Schafer and the Volcano

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!!