Monthly Archives: May 2015

Podcasts

Forthcoming books episode coming!

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As promised, regular guest Locus Editor-in-Chief Liza Groen Trombi will join us on the podcast this weekend to discuss highlights from the next “Forthcoming Books” issue of Locus. We expect to give you an idea of the books we’ll be looking out for during the rest of the year, while also possibly mentioning other surprises.   We record tomorrow, and the episode should be out late Monday.

2015, Podcasts

Episode 235: Elizabeth Hand and Building the Mystery

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Coode235

This week we pay a return visit to World Fantasy Award winning author Elizabeth Hand, discussing her new short novel Wylding Hall, the British folk revival of the 1970s which provides the novel’s background, the use of multiple narrators (and the advantages of audio-books in differentiating them), and such diverse matters as the legacy of Arthur Machen, why there aren’t more fantasy novels about the arts, and what to expect next in her ongoing series of crime novels involving the troubled ex-punk photographer Cass Neary.

As always, our thanks to Liz for making the time to talk to us and we hope you enjoy the podcast!

2015, Podcasts

Episode 234: On World Fantasy Awards, Life Achievement and other rambles

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This week we sit down and discuss the World Fantasy Awards, the Life Achievement Award, and quite a lot more. Another old-fashioned ramble for the Coode Street Archives.

We would mention that members of the 2013, 2014 and 2015 World Fantasy Conventions are eligible to vote for this year’s World Fantasy Awards. A voting form is available, and you may vote via email.  Voting closes 31 May 2015. Support what you think is worthy.
As always, we hope you enjoy the podcast and will be back next week with more.
Science fiction

Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Nine is out!

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bestsff9The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Volume Nine (Solaris) is due out in shops today! It’ll be out in the UK in a week or so. I’m really happy with this book and hope you’ll consider taking a look at it.

The stories in the book are:

1. “Tough Times All Over”, Joe Abercrombie
2. “The Scrivener”, Eleanor Arnason
3. “Moriabe’s Children”, Paolo Bacigalupi
4. “Covenant”, Elizabeth Bear
5. “Slipping”, Lauren Beukes
6. “Ten Rules for Being an Intergalactic Smuggler (The Successful Kind)”, Holly Black
7. “Shadow Flock”, Greg Egan
8. “The Truth About Owls”, Amal El-Mohtar
9. “Cimmeria: From the Journal of Imaginary Anthropology”, Theodora Goss
10. “Cold Wind”, Nicola Griffith
11. “Someday”, James Patrick Kelly
12. “Interstate Love Song (Murder Ballad No.8)”, Caitlin R Kiernan
13. “Mothers, Lock Up Your Daughters Because They are Terrifying”, Alice Sola Kim
14. “Amicae Aeternum”, Ellen Klages
15. “Calligo Lane”, Ellen Klages
16. “The Lady and the Fox”, Kelly Link
17. “The Long Haul From the ANNALS OF TRANSPORTATION”, The Pacific Monthly, May 2009”, Ken Liu
18. “The Vaporization Enthalpy of a Peculiar Pakistani Family”, Usman T Mailk
19. “Four Days of Christmas”, Tim Maughan
20. “The Fifth Dragon”, Ian McDonald
21. “Shay Corsham Worsted”, Garth Nix
22. “I Met a Man Who Wasn’t There”, K. J. Parker
23. “Kheldyu”, Karl Schroeder
24. “Tawny Petticoats”, Michael Swanwick
25. “Grand Jeté (The Great Leap)”, Rachel Swirsky
26. “The Insects of Love”, Genevieve Valentine
27. “Collateral”, Peter Watts
28. “The Devil in America”, Kai Ashante Wilson

I think it’s a terrific lineup,  and makes for a great book.

Where can you buy it?

Glad you asked. If you’re interested in grabbing a copy, these fine retail outlets should have it:

I also would encourage you to try your local independents. My own two favourites here in Perth are:

but there are great retailers everywhere, like Borderlands in San Francisco, Pulp Fiction in Brisbane, Slow Glass in Melbourne, all of whom would be happy to help you out.

If you do pick up the book, I hope you enjoy it.

 

 

 

2015, Podcasts

Episode 233: Paolo Bacigalupi and The Water Knife

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This week we are joined by the Hugo and Nebula Award winning Paolo Bacigalupi, who is just about to publish his first science fiction novel for adults since 2009s The Windup Girl. 

Picking up from where his harrowing short story “The Tamarisk Hunter” left off, The Water Knife is lean thriller that asks important questions about how global warming will affect us all as seas rise in some places and drinking water becomes scarce in others.
The publisher of the book describes  The Water Knife like this:
In the American Southwest, Nevada, Arizona, and California skirmish for dwindling shares of the Colorado River. Into the fray steps Angel Velasquez, detective, leg-breaker, assassin and spy. A Las Vegas water knife, Angel “cuts” water for his boss, Catherine Case, ensuring that her lush, luxurious arcology developments can bloom in the desert, so the rich can stay wet, while the poor get nothing but dust.

When rumors of a game-changing water source surface in drought-ravaged Phoenix, Angel is sent to investigate. There, he encounters Lucy Monroe, a hardened journalist with no love for Vegas and every reason to hate Angel, and Maria Villarosa, a young Texas refugee who survives by her wits and street smarts in a city that despises everything that she represents.  With bodies piling up, bullets flying, and Phoenix teetering on collapse, it seems like California is making a power play to monopolize the life-giving flow of a river. For Angel, Lucy, and Maria time is running out and their only hope for survival rests in each other’s hands. But when water is more valuable than gold, alliances shift like sand, and the only thing for certain is that someone will have to bleed if anyone hopes to drink.

The conversation is, as always, fascinating and provocative. We’re very grateful to Paolo for making the time to return to the podcast and, as always, hope you enjoy the episode.