For any listeners who have missed our longstanding tradition of almost unfettered rambling, we turn our attention this week to the questions of how and why certain novels and writers seem to hold up better than others, how younger readers can enjoy some older classics while completely tuning out others, and the difference between books that celebrate old traditions as opposed to books that seek to reinvent the field, or that are simply sui generis.
We touch upon a few novels from 50 years ago, like The Mote in God’s Eye, The Dispossessed,Dhalgren, and The Forever War, books that seem to find new readers in each generation, and writers who seem to fade away with time.
Multiple Aurealis, Ditmar, and Shirley Jackson award winner Kaaron Warren joins us for this week’s episode, along with old friend of Coode Street and fellow Locus reviewer Ian Mond, mostly to discuss Kaaron’s wonderful new novel The Underhistory, how it does or doesn’t align with traditional genre categories, and what such categories mean anyway. Ian explains his notion of literary horror, and Kaaron suggests her intriguing concept of Gothic crime fiction. As always, the talk takes off in various directions ranging from short stories vs. novels, the challenges of publishing and marketing, and the growing awareness of Australian fiction on the world stage.
The distinguished Hugo, Nebula, World Fantasy, and Locus Award winner Paolo Bacigalupi joins us this week to talk about his forthcoming historical fantasy Navola, as well as the challenges of shifting from a focus on environmental SF to epic fantasy, the liberation that comes from being able to invent a world (and partly a language) that echoes Florentine history without being bound by it, the importance of following one’s own choices and needs in writing fiction, and his own earlier classics like The Windup Girl and The Water Knife.
We run a bit longer than usual, but that’s a measure of how fascinating it is to chat with Paolo.
We’re delighted to welcome to Coode Street Lev Grossman, bestselling author of The Magicians trilogy, to discuss his major new Arthurian novel The Bright Sword, which appears from Viking in July.
We touch upon earlier versions of Arthurian fiction by T.H. White, John Steinbeck, Bernard Cornwell, Nicola Griffith, and others, the balance between historical research and pure fantasy invention, the development of characters based on little or no historical evidence, and even Lev’s earlier career as a critic for Time magazine, when he helped bring fantasy literature into the mainstream.
Order it here: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/554241/the-bright-sword-by-lev-grossman/
For this special short episode, Jonathan and Gary are joined by an old friend, Nebula and World Fantasy winner Ellen Klages, who recently gained an entirely new kind of recognition when she appeared on the long-running TV quiz show Jeopardy and recalled the “scary ham” story, which she first improvised at a Nebula ceremony ten years ago, when called upon to fill time during a technical glitch.
We not only touch upon the venerable history of the anecdote, but upon some other midwestern family memoirs, the use of autobiographical material in fiction, and the possibility of future memoirs. As usual, Ellen is a delight.
The Bright Sword