With the 2018 World Fantasy Convention just weeks away, Gary and Jonathan sit down to discuss the upcoming convention, the life achievement recipients, nominees and much more.

This episode is a bit of ramble and includes digressions on questions like whether this really is an outstanding year for story collections (with new collections from N.K. Jemisin, Michael Bishop, and others) or if great collections coming out regularly is the new norm and whether we should devote any time at all on the podcast to such things as movies and TV (hint: Jonathan is sceptical).

We hope to see many of you in Baltimore. Until then, though, we hope you enjoy the podcast.

Worldcon 76 in San Jose, California this past August was a busy time. Thousands of science fiction and fantasy writers, readers, artists, publishers, and fans of every stripe travelled across the country and, in some cases, around the world to celebrate the best in SF.

We (Gary and Jonathan) had a wonderful time while we were there and managed to record four special episodes. Our final conversation is one of our favourites. Alec Nevala-Lee‘s Astounding: John W. Campbell, Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein, L. Ron Hubbard, and the Golden Age of Science Fiction is a fascinating and probably definitive examination of Astounding, John W. Campbell and the writers who made up that time.  Andy Duncan, a long-time friend of the podcast, also just published “New Frontiers of the Mind”, his first story for Analog (successor to Astounding) which examines the connection between Campbell and Rhine. Both Alec and Andy sat down with us in San Jose to discuss Campbell, Astounding, and their own work. 

As always, we’d like to thank Alec and Andy for making time to talk to us and we hope you enjoy the conversation!

 

 

Worldcon 76 in San Jose, California this past August was a busy time. Thousands of science fiction and fantasy writers, readers, artists, publishers, and fans of every stripe travelled across the country and, in some cases, around the world to celebrate the best in SF.

We (Gary and Jonathan) had a wonderful time while we were there and managed to record four special episodes. This third episode sees us sit down with exciting new writer Rich Larson to discuss his love of short fiction, his forthcoming collection Tomorrow Factory, and his debut novel Annex.

As always, we’d like to thank Rich for making the time to record the podcast, and we hope you all enjoy the episode!

Readers talk to other readers. They share information about the books and stories they love. They recommend. It’s as natural as breathing. Those recommendations lead to a broader commentary, to lists and canons and all sorts of other things. This week Jonathan and Gary discuss the way we talk about books, the nature of recommending, and much more.

As promised, this episode contains recommendations for books published during 2018 that Jonathan and Gary thought were of interest and might make for rewarding reads for Coode Streeters. As always, these are personal recommendations and not a whole lot more. There’s some fine reading on the lists below, which we both hope you’ll seek out. Also, let us know what we missed in the comments!

 

JONATHAN’S LIST

• Frankenstein in Baghdad, Saadawi Ahmed
• Europe at Dawn, Dave Hutchinson
• Pride and Prometheus, John Kessel
• Revenant Gun, Yoon Ha Lee
• Blackfish City, Sam Miller
• Summerland, Hannu Rajaniemi
• Elysium Fire, Alastair Reynolds
• Space Opera, Catherynne Valente
• The Accidental War, Walter Jon Williams

GARY’S LIST

• Red Moon, Kim Stanley Robinson
• Terra Nullius, Claire G. Coleman
• Ahab’s Return, Jeffrey Ford
• Annex, Rich Larson
• Spinning Silver, Naomi Novik
• European Travel for the Monstrous Gentlewoman, Theodora Goss
• Summerland, Hannu Rajaniemi
• The Smoke, Simon Ings
• Space Opera, Catherynne M. Valente
• Blackfish City, Sam J. Miller
• Pride and Prometheus, John Kessel
• Unholy Land, Lavie Tidhar

A re-release of episode 335. This should be 53 minutes long.

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Worldcon 76 in San Jose, California this past August was a busy time. Thousands of science fiction and fantasy writers, readers, artists, publishers, and fans of every stripe travelled across the country and, in some cases, around the world to celebrate the best in SF.

We had a fine time while we were there and managed to record four special episodes. This second one sees us sit down with award-winning writers and long-time friends of Coode Street, Karen Joy Fowler and James Patrick Kelly, to discuss Clarion, Clarion West, and what it was like to be a student and an instructor at one of the most important writing workshops in the SF/F field.

As always, our thanks to Karen and Jim, and we hope you enjoy the episode!