THE BEST SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY OF THE YEAR: VOL 10 – TOC REVEALED

The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Vol 10
The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Vol 10

I think this is as late as I’ve ever done this, but here we go! I have the all-clear, so without further ado, here’s the table of contents (in alpha order) for The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Vol 10.

As I said last year, while there are one or two stories that got away, and while if I had a smidgeon more room I might have opted for a novella in one spot, I’m basically very happy with this list.

  1. “City of Ash”, Paolo Bacigalupi
  2. “The Heart’s Filthy Lesson”, Elizabeth Bear
  3. “The Machine Starts”, Greg Bear
  4. “The Winter Wraith”, Jeffrey Ford
  5. “Black Dog”, Neil Gaiman
  6. “Jamaica Ginger”, Nalo Hopkinson & Nisi Shawl
  7. “Drones”, Simon Ings
  8. “Emergence”, Gwyneth Jones
  9. “Dancy vs. the Pterosaur”, Caitlin R. Kiernan
  10. “Another Word for World”, Anne Leckie
  11. “The Game of Smash and Recovery”, Kelly Link
  12. “The Pauper Prince and the Eucalyptus Jinn”, Usman T. Mailk
  13. “Botanica Veneris: Thirteen Papercuts by Ida Countess Rathangan”, Ian McDonald
  14. “Little Sisters”, Vonda McIntyre
  15. “Calved”, Sam J. Miller
  16. “Ghosts of Home”, Sam J. Miller
  17. “The Deepwater Bride”, Tamsyn Muir
  18. “The Empress in Her Glory”, Robert Reed
  19. “A Murmuration”, Alastair Reynolds
  20. “Oral Argument”, Kim Stanley Robinson
  21. “Water of Versailles”, Kelly Robson
  22. “Capitalism in the 22nd Century”, Geoff Ryman
  23. “The Karen Joy Fowler Book Club”, Nike Sulway
  24. “The Lily and the Horn”, Catherynne Valente
  25. “Blood, Ash, Braids”, Genevieve Valentine
  26. “Kaiju maximus®: ‘So Various, So Beautiful, So New’”, Kai Ashante Wilson
  27. “Hungry Daughters of Starving Mothers”, Alyssa Wong

The striking cover art, inspired by an Ian McDonald story, is by Domenic Harman.  The book is available to pre-order in all of the usual places, so please do!

Finally, I am hard at work on finishing the manuscript for the book, but I can announce I’m reading for the 2017 volume.

 

Episode 264: Glen Cook and Steven Erikson

Continuing the series of podcasts we recorded in Saratoga Springs at the World Fantasy Convention, we sat down with distinguished fantasy writers Glen Cook and Steven Erikson, discussing the genesis of Cook’s influential Black Company and Dread Empire series and other novels, and Erikson’s hugely popular Malazan Book of the Fallen. In addition to their approaches to character and world-building, they offer insights into how Steve’s background in archaeology influenced his work, and what it was like for Glen to live with Fritz Leiber many years ago.

Our thanks to Glen and Steve for making time in their busy schedules as guests of honour at WFC2015 to sit down and talk to us for the podcast. As always, we hope you enjoy the episode.

Episode 263: Elizabeth Bear and Scott Lynch

Two of the powerhouse writers of their generation, bestselling fantasy novelist Scott Lynch and award-winning science fiction and fantasy author Elizabeth Bear, sat down with us in a noisy hotel room in Saratoga Springs, New York to discuss their mutual love affair with the genre, their shared awareness of the history of the field and how it influences their work, and much more.

We would, of course, like to thank Scott and Elizabeth for making the time to sit down with us during what was a busy World Fantasy Convention weekend. Coode Street remains on hiatus. Next week a final podcast from Saratoga, where we talk with convention guests of honor Glen Cook and Steven Erikson.

The Coode Street Podcast Year in Review

Audience

Listenership for the Coode Street Podcast (www.coodestreetpodcast.com) grew for the fifth consecutive year in 2015, with a total of 48 full-length episodes and three mini-episodes produced, up from 42 full-length episodes in 2013 and 2014. The audience for the podcast increased by 52.1% over 2014, with a total of 133,501 downloads (episode plays) during the year. The average number of listeners for individual episodes increased by 33.1%, from 2,081 in 2014 to 2,781 in 2015. Interest in the podcast also increased, with feed hits growing by 44% to 1,148,322 across the year.

Guests

Guests appearing on the podcast during 2015 included Adam Roberts, Aliette de Bodard, Alisa Krasnostein, Bill Schafer, Cecelia Holland, Charlie Jane Anders, Cheryl Morgan, Chris Brown, Deborah Biancotti, Eileen Gunn, Elizabeth Hand, Gene Wolfe, Guy Gavriel Kay, Harlan Ellison, Ian McDonald, Ian Mond, James Bradley, James Morrow, Jim Minz, Joe Abercrombie, Joe Monti, John Clute, John Scalzi, Karin Tidbeck, Kelly Link, Ken Liu, Kim Stanley Robinson, KJ Parker, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Linda Nagata, Liza Trombi, Margo Lanagan, Michael Swanwick, Nina Allan, Nisi Shawl, Pamela Sargent, Paolo Bacigalupi, Paul Kincaid, Samuel R Delany, Scott Westerfeld, Sean Williams, Sean Wright, Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Suzy McKee Charnas, Tehani Wessely, William Gibson, and Zen Cho.

Highlights

Highlights for the year included:

  • Tor.com: We trialled syndicating the podcast with Tor.com. Episodes were published on the Sunday of each week on Coode Street, and then republished on Tor.com on Tuesdays. The trial ran from February to November, concluding with Episode 256. Listenership for the podcast via Tor.com is not included in the statistics in this summary. We would like to thank Tor.com and Irene Gallo for partnering with us during the year.
  • K.J. Parker: During the year we presented the first interview with World Fantasy Award winning writer K.J. Parker, revealing Parker as a pseudonym for British writer Tom Holt. The episode was published April 21, 2015.
  • Other highlights included talking to Ian McDonald about Luna, William Gibson about The Peripheral, Samuel R. Delany, Harlan Ellson and Kim Stanley Robinson. We also regularly featured Locus editor Liza Trombi on the podcast discussing forthcoming books.

The most popular episodes of the year were:

  1. Episode 245: Ian McDonald and Luna (3,333)
  2. Episode 246: Aliette de Bodard and The House of Shattered Wings (2,756)
  3. Episode 230: K J Parker and the history of a writer (2,672)
  4. Episode 253: SF Lectures, The Martian and more (2,637)
  5. Episode 238: Kim Stanley Robinson and Aurora (2,634)
  6. Episode 242: Time runs out for the Hugos and more (2,619)
  7. Episode 207: Kameron Hurley (2,508)
  8. Episode 236: On books to look for… (with Liza Trombi) (2,398)
  9. Episode 250: Forthcoming books with Liza Trombi (2,388)
  10. Episode 231: Ian Mond, James Bradley and the 2015 Hugo Novel Shortlist (2,298)

The Coode Street Podcast will resume in January 2016.

Episode 262: Chelsea Quinn Yarbro and Charlie Jane Anders in Saratoga


One of the highlights of the 2015 World Fantasy Convention in November was when Gary and Jonathan got to sit down with Guest of Honor Chelsea Quinn Yarbro and io9 editor-in-chief Charlie Jane Anders to discuss their respective careers, their experiences working in science fiction and fantasy as women, and much more.

This episode was recorded live on 6 November 2015 in from an enthusiastic audience and was recorded by Paul and the WFC team, and made possible by Peter Halasz. Our sincere thanks to Quinn, Charlie Jane, and everyone at WFC. As always, we hope you enjoy the episode!