Episode 136: On Benchmarks, Budrys and awards

In amongst life’s many demands, the intrepid Coode Street team, madly humming the theme to the Muppet Show, once again ascended to the Waldorf Room to take in the view and to discuss science fiction’s many pleasures. This time they touch on a new collection of Algis Budrys reviews, Benchmarks Continued, recently published by Ansible Publications, criticism generally, and the newly released Nebula Awards ballot. As always, they hope you enjoy the podcast!

Eclipse Online: “On the Arrival of the Paddle-Steamer on the Docks of V” by Peter M. Ball

On the Arrival of the Paddle-Steamer on the Docks of V
(c) 2013 by Kathleen Jennings

The second Eclipse Online story for February 2013, “On the Arrival of the Paddle-Steamer on the Docks of V” by Peter M. Ball, has just been published. A powerful fantasy novelette, I think it’s possibly the best story I’ve read from Ball. As always, Kathleen Jennings provides us with another wonderful illustration.

Episode 135: Cecelia Holland on River of Stars

River of Stars coverThis week Gary and Jonathan are joined in the Waldorf Room by the fabulous Cecelia Holland, leading historical novelist and author of Floating Worlds among many, many other fine books, to discuss writing, fantasy, and historical fiction. The podcast features a close to spoiler free  discussion of River of Stars, the excellent new novel from Guy Gavriel Kay which is due out in April.  We’d also like to point out that there will be detailed reviews of  f River of Stars  from both Gary and Cecelia in the April issue of Locus. As always, we hope you enjoy the podcast!

Eclipse Online: “Sanctuary” by Susan Palwick

Illustration for
(c) 2013 Kathleen Jennings.

The first Eclipse Online story for February 2013, “Sanctuary” by Susan Palwick, has just been published. This disturbing novelette about a group of survivors of sorts stuck in a dark future features one of Kathleen Jennings darkest illustrations for us yet. Palwick is a wonderful writer, and I’m delighted to be able to feature her work on Eclipse Online this month.

Susan Palwick’s new novel Mending the Moon is due out from Tor in May.