We are always casting around for inspiration. After getting ChatGPT to provide a new introduction for the podcast, Gary and Jonathan kick off a discussion about the health of the short fiction field, the scope and variety of short story collections due to be published in 2023, and share some (okay, many) thoughts on the history of short fiction collections in the science fiction field.
As always, we hope you enjoy the podcast. We’ll see you again in two weeks.
This week, in our more-or-less annual discussion of the Locus Recommended Reading List, we are delighted to be joined by Locus Editor-in-Chief Liza Groen Trombi.
We talk about the purpose of the list, how it has changed over the years, how books or stories get on the list, and a few thorny questions about how to decide whether a novel is SF or fantasy if it contains substantial elements of both. In addition to mentioning some of our own favourite works of the year, we touch upon the importance of the First Novels list, which might be a harbinger of what’s to come, and how story collections and YA novels have grown in importance over the years.
As always, our thanks to Liza and we hope you enjoy the episode.
It’s not been that long since they last discussed it, but this week Jonathan and Gary return to the question of space opera, new space opera, and what contemporary SF authors might make of the concept.
Is space opera the core narrative of SF, as Jonathan suggests, or only one of them? What are its essential characteristics? Has the greater diversity of SF over the last decade changed its basic form? It seems that when the term was first coined, it clearly referred to pulp adventure tales that we popular in the 1930s. But later versions have questioned the assumptions of those old chestnuts, redefining the form for each generation.
How, for example, do current writers like Arkady Martine, Charlie Jane Anders, and Emily Tesh make use of the form? We definitely don’t settle any of these questions, but we’ll probably keep trying.
On paper, it was a good weekend. Saturday I took the youngest out to Costco to pick up some things for her short film shoot that’s happening next week. We then stopped at Whisked the Right Wei, one of the better patisseries in Perth, and got coffee at a Kwik drive-through. I then took the eldest daughter out on our regular carpool karaoke trip to Yahava Koffee in the Swan Valley. Saturday evening was fairly quiet, with me watching a little bit of Fleishman is in Trouble and reading more of Emily Tesh’s Some Desperate Glory.
I was up fairly early on Sunday. Not as early as Marianne, who drove the youngest around to do more film shoot prep. I was out at Clancy’s Fish Pub by 9.15 am for a regular meet-up with my dear pal Richard, and then home by noon, to take M and the eldest out for lunch in Guildford (at the Guildford Hotel). Then home and back out again to the Civic Hotel to see Amanda, Dave, Karen, and Chris for drinks. Dinner was a quick barbecue, it being well into barbecue season. Hit the sack at 9 pm, but was awake by midnight, so not sleeping well.
I remain unfocused, but I need to address that. There are some underlying health concerns I need to address, but for the moment socialising overwhelmed work this weekend. As for the week ahead, I need to seriously start on the Tachyon anthology, edit a novella, deal with the day job, and do some other stuff too. Oh, and get a haircut.
I had a fairly quiet weekend by my standards. I had a Locus Board Meeting at 7 am, which is an ungodly hour for something like that, but the only time really to get everyone involved together. We talked about many things, including how Locus can really use your help and support. It was also good to see so many friends that I’ve not seen in so long.
Right after that, I had breakfast with my brother Stephen at Fez in Mt Lawley. It’s had a few ups and downs over the years but serves a pretty solid breakfast right now. Once that was done, home and did some work before a nice lunch out by the sea at Clancy’s Fish Pub, where I scratched my summertime margarita itch. To be honest, it wasn’t a great margarita, but it was fun. Home again to do some stuff before the family went out, M to see Alan Cummings and the girls to see a rooftop screening of Mama Mia. I had a lovely afternoon and evening, cooking up steak on the barbecue before watching some cricket, reading a bit, then having an early night.
Sunday was a little busy too. I was up early as always so breakfast, editing etc. I recorded episode 621 of the Coode Street Podcast with Gary before a long chat with Liza about the recommended reading list. We then had a quiet lunch at home. The girls were all out again so I finished reading Garth’s The Sinister Booksellers of Bath, watched some cricket, the opening of Three Pines, and then we had a power outage just before bed.
On to the week ahead!