This week Gary and I invited Ian Mond from The Writer and the Critic to join us to discuss recommending books and how buzz is generated around new or upcoming books each year. We discuss the very welcome feedback we received on the subject before we began to ramble in earnest, going on to discuss currently overlooked writers like Thomas M. Disch, Michael Bishop and Zenna Henderson, sport in science fiction and fantasy, the delicate balance between literature and science in hard SF, and many other things. Gary and I would like to thank Ian for joining us, and I’d like to make it clear, personally, that I was only joking about Alisa and the knitting needles. Really :)
It doesn’t feel like it, but the end of the science fiction year is not too far away, so Gary and I thought, in response to Ian Mond’s of Writer and the Critic, that we’d discuss possible award-likely texts, how books get buzz, and much more. As always, we hope you enjoy the podcast.
After a sojourn due to Father’s Day, when we ran the very well received Jo Walton episode, Gary and I are are back on deck to discuss young adult science fiction, Ian McDonald, his new novel Planesrunner, Daryl Gregory and his new collection, robots and computerised houses, and a bit of waffle on the subject of Orson Scott Card and “Hamlet’s Father”. As always we hope you enjoy the podcast. See you next week!
Gary and I travelled to Reno, Nevada to attend Renovation, the World Science Fiction Convention for 2011. Over the weekend we recorded a handful of podcasts with friends, old and new, that we see to seldom. We’ll be publishing these over the coming month. The first in the series is with Jo Walton, author of Among Others and Farthing, where we discussed that novel, science fiction, her Hugo blogging and many other things. As always, we hope you enjoy the podcast.
Last weekend Gary and I were in the slightly surreal space station environment of the Atlantis Casino in Reno, Nevada for the World Science Fiction Convention, where we recorded upcoming podcasts with Ian McDonald, Alastair Reynolds, Kim Stanley Robinson, and Jo Walton. This weekend we’re home and discuss the con (briefly), vow to avoid discussing awards too much, look at the work of Caitlin R. Kiernan and discuss the use of language in SF. As always, we hope you enjoy the podcast.