Episode 87: Live with Gary K. Wolfe!

This weekend Gary and I discussed the Locus Recommended Reading list (very briefly), Gwenda Bond’s wonderful news, Saladin Ahmed’s new novel, subgenre’s and answered a lot of reader questions from Twitter. As always, we hope you enjoy the podcast!

5 thoughts on “Episode 87: Live with Gary K. Wolfe!”

  1. A few thoughts from this podcast!

    *Ancient Greeks wouldn’t have thought that Percy Jackson was remotely blasphemous because there was no standard ‘canon’ of mythology – there were often many contradicting versions of particular myths, stories of origin or hero stories, and poets & playwrights thought nothing of messing with previously known versions, for the sake of literary amusement. My favourite Helen of Troy story is Euripides’ play Helen, in which she never made it to Troy, but ran away from Paris at the first opportunity – the story is about how Menelaos finds her again on his return from the war, and it’s basically a slapstick romantic comedy about husband and wife getting back together.

    *I read the Datlow & Windling Fantasy and Horror anthologies long before I knew anything else about the industry and I certainly took note of who edited which story! I was mostly in it for the fantasy, but often found myself sucked in by the horror… and I loved all the ancillary material too!

    *The book you were trying to remember discussing with Alisa for its lack of magical content in an imaginary history/city was SWORDSPOINT BY ELLEN KUSHNER and I was basically yelling it at the podcast while you merrily talked about so many other books that do similar things.

  2. Are there authors whose popularity/bankabilty/familarity has led to a drop in quality due to reduced editorial oversight.
    If Susanna Clarke was not an industry insider would Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell have been a tight and pacy 300 page story instead of a 1000 page exercise in creating atmoshpere (would it have failed if it was)?.

  3. Yes, I complain about your emphasis on award.

    But I do love the February issues of Locus and their recommended reading list. And I enjoyed you covering it in the podcast.

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