Left once again to their own devices, Jonathan and Gary turn to the question of what was science fiction’s real golden age—not in terms of overall literary history or the old cliché that “the golden age of science fiction is twelve,†but rather what seemed like a golden age in terms of reading habits: when you fell in love with SF, how the genre continued to be rewarding during that time, and what was especially important about it. For Jonathan, that looked more like the 1980s, while for Gary it was basically the 1950s. Both agreed, however, that the current era might itself be seen as a golden age, for many reasons.
Episode 454: Ten Minutes with Adam Roberts
Ten minutes with… is a special series presented by Coode Street that sees readers and booklovers from around the world talk about what they’re reading right now and what’s getting them through these difficult times.
Today Jonathan spends ten minutes or more (somewhat more) talking to Adam Roberts about the joys and challenges of reading every single H. G. Wells book ever written (there were a lot!), being a judge for the World Fantasy Awards, reading and writing during these strange and difficult times (even when you usually stay in a bit), and much more.
Books mentioned include:
- H G Wells: A Literary Life by Adam Roberts
- Purgatory Mount by Adam Roberts (forthcoming in 2021)
- The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow‎
- Ghost Species by James Bradley
- The Raven Tower by Ann Leckie
- The Devil’s Blade by Mark Alder
- By Force Alone by Lavie Tidhar
- Paradise Lost by John Milton
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Episode 453: Ten Minutes with Gregory Norman Bossert
Ten minutes with… is a special series presented by Coode Street that sees readers and booklovers from around the world talk about what they’re reading right now and what’s getting them through these difficult times.
Gary is joined by award-winning author and ILM filmmaker Gregory Norman Bossert to talk about how the changes facing the movie industry may actually help new voices and new forms, the appeal of not-quite-classifiable stories of the New Weird and other contemporary movements, a new anthology in support of the nonprofit RAICES, podcasts and movies, and his own new short fiction.
Short fiction mentioned includes:
- “The Night Soil Salvagers” by Gregory Norman Bossert (Tor.com, July)
- “Dear Boy” by Gregory Norman Bossert (Weird Fiction Review #10)
- “The Hearts of All” by Gregory Norman Bossert (Black Static #73)
- “Zima Blue” by Alastair Reynolds (and its TV adaptation on Love, Death, and Robots)
Books mentioned include:
- The Unnamed Country by Jeffrey Thomas
- The Punktown series by Jeffrey Thomas
- The Troika by Stepan Chapman
- Vermilion Sands by J.G. Ballard
- Made to Order: Robots and Revolution by Jonathan Strahan, ed.,Â
- Rambunctious by Rick Wilber
- Smoke Paper Mirrors by Anna Tambour
- The Finest Ass in the Universe by Anna Tambour
- The Well-Built City trilogy by Jeffrey Ford
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Episode 452: Ten Minutes with Usman T. Malik
Ten minutes with… is a special series presented by Coode Street that sees readers and booklovers from around the world talk about what they’re reading right now and what’s getting them through these difficult times.
Today Jonathan fires up Skype and calls Stoker and British Fantasy Award winner Usman T. Malik to discuss living in Lahore during the current times, how it impacts reading, writing and the ability to work, classic horror, the tales of your culture, and much more.
Books mentioned include:
- The Pauper Prince and the Eucalyptus Jinn by Usman T. Malik
- The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
- The Arabian Nights: Tales of 1001 Nights (in 3 vols) translated by Malcolm Lyons
- The Merman and the Book of Power: A Qissa by Musharraf Ali Farooqi
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Episode 451: Ten Minutes with Aliette de Bodard
Ten minutes with… is a special series presented by Coode Street that sees readers and booklovers from around the world talk about what they’re reading right now and what’s getting them through these difficult times.
Today Jonathan spends ten minutes or so talking with multiple award winner Aliette de Bodard about reading and writing during these difficult and distracting times, the joys of reading romance novels, pirates and the South China Sea, and much more.
Books mentioned include:
- The House of Sundering Flames by Aliette de Bodard
- Of Wars, and Memories, and Starlight by Aliette de Bodard
- Of Dragons, Feasts and Murders by Aliette de Bodard
- Like Froth Floating on the Sea: The World of Pirates and Seafarers in Late Imperial South China by J. Antony Robert
- She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan
- Lord of the Last Heartbeat by May Peterson
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