The Coode Street Podcast

Loncon 3, the 72nd World Science Fiction Convention, has announced the nominees for the 2014 Hugo and Campbell Awards. As is our practice, this week we have a special episode of the podcast devoted to discussing the awards and all of the wonderful nominees. We are very grateful to John De Nardo (of SF Signal) and Tansy Rayner Roberts (Galactic Suburbia and Verity) for joining us for what we think is an interesting conversation.  We would also like to thank all of our listeners for nominating Coode Street for our third consecutive Best Fancast Hugo Award. We could not be happier, or more grateful. As always, we hope you enjoy the podcast and we’ll be back next week with more!Other links: Larry Correia and the Sad Puppy Hugo slate.

With awards season picking up, we try to avoid talking about them and pretty much fail. There is other stuff: on reading Heinlein today and the new bio that's coming out, who would make the Big 5 in SF now etc.It's a bit rambly, it's a bit Coode St. As always we hope you enjoy it!

On the eve of the publication of her new adult science fiction novel, Lagoon, the wonderful Nnedi Okorafor joins our intrepid podcasts to discuss the evolution of the book, what she's been working on since we last spoke in April 2012, Nigerian literature, and much more. As always, our thanks to Nnedi and we hope you all enjoy the podcast. Other books mentioned in the podcast: Wizard of the Crow, Ngugi wa Thiong'o Lagos 2060, Ayodele Arigbabu (ed.) NB: This post was retitled from Lagoon and Nigerian Fiction to more correctly reflect the content of the podcast.=""

As always, we get everything the wrong way round. Having just returned from the glades of Florida, a land of mocktails and alligators, Gary joins Jonathan to discuss the International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts, nominating for the Hugo Awards, and the career of the late Lucius Shepard (which they should have started with, as you'll discover if your patience holds out).As always, we hope you enjoy the podcast!

This week Gary is in Florida at the International Conference in the Arts where he is joined by Steven Erikson, author of the bestselling 'Malazan Empire' series of epic fantasy novels, and Ian McDonald, author of River of Gods, Dervish House, and the Planesrunner series.  The sound quality is not ideal, but the conversation is fascinating, and a rare one Jonathan gets to experience as a Coode St listener.As always, our sincere thanks to Steven Erikson and Ian McDonald for being part of the podcast. We hope you enjoy the episode. See you next week!

This week Jonathan and Gary are joined by Nebula Award winning writer Eileen Gunn to discuss her new short story collection, Questionable Practices, her upcoming article for the Smithsonion magazine on the purpose of science fiction, her novel in progress(!), and much, much more.As always, our sincere thanks to Eileen for being part of the podcast. We hope you enjoy the episode. See you next week!

Battling the fickle beast that is Skype, this week Jonathan and Gary talk to Kelley Eskridgeand Nicola Griffithabout the recently released Nebula ballot and what it might say about SF today, Nicola's recent novel Hild, Kelley's novel Solitaire, science fiction as a way of reading, language, politics and a lot more. In many ways this episode isn't so much a conversation, as what feels like the beginning of a long and interesting one to be continued at conventions and elsewhere in the future.As always, our sincere thanks to Kelley and Nicola for making time to appear on the podcast and for being such interesting and engaging guests. As always, we hope you enjoy the podcast!

Faced with another relentless summer's day in Perth and icy Chicago winter evening, Jonathan and Gary turn to long-time friends of the podcast James Bradley, Garth Nix, and Sean Williams, luxuriating in a cool Sydney summer afternoon, to discuss Australian fiction, young adult fiction, and the works of Neville Shute in a wide-ranging conversation that is only occasionally interrupted by the vagaries of Skype.As always, our thinks to James, Garth and Sean, and we hope you enjoy the podcast!

With a new season of the Coode Street Podcast well under way, Gary and Jonathan connected up between the icy wilds of Chicago and the sunny streets of Melbourne, to discuss "importance" in science fiction. What does "important" mean anyway, what works are "important" and so on. As always, we hope you enjoy the discussion!

As snow and ice freeze the North American heartlands, long-time friend of the podcast Kij Johnson agreed to travel across a frozen Kansas City to find a place where she could Skype in to the Waldorf Room to join Gary and Jonathan in discussion. This time Gary threw out a question to kick start the discussion: which science fiction writer is most likely to win the Booker Prize, and which one is most likely to top the New York Times and Amazon bestseller lists? It proved a good start to a thoughtful discussion that wandered far and wide, although we’d contend not much rambling happened this week. As always, we’d like to thank Kij for joining us, and hope you enjoy the podcast. Next week Jonathan travels to Melbourne, so who knows what will happen there!

Every February US science fiction and fantasy industry trade journalLocus publishes an annual 'Year in Review" issue that includes overviews, summaries, reports and an eagerly awaited 'Recommended Reading List'. With the February issue safely complete and either already in eager digital reader's inboxes or winging its way to them in print courtesy of international postal services, and with the2013 Recommended Reading Listavailable to read on the Locus website, editor-in-chief Liza Groen Trombi joins Gary and Jonathan on the podcast to discuss the year in review issue, the Recommended Reading List, and what it means to try to produce an annual summary of SF/F in 2014. As always, we hope you enjoy the podcast. See you next week!

It's been a long time since the last episode. In late November Jonathan and Gary sat down to record a final episode before commencing a lengthy hiatus. After nearly two months, though, normal service returns!This week Jonathan and Gary announce the winner and shortlist for the 2014 Crawford Award, begin thinking about Loncon3 (the 2014 World SF Convention), and discuss the books they're looking forward to in 2014.Lists will be added, but these are the books Jonathan's Looking Forward to in 2014:Wolves, Simon Ings (Gollancz, January)Annihilation, Jeff VanderMeer (FSG, February)The Best of Ian McDonald, Ian McDonald (PS Publishing, April)The Cuckoo Song, Frances Hardinge (Macmillan, May)The Memory Garden, M. Rickert(Sourcebooks, May)Beautiful Blood, Lucius Shepard (Subterranean, June)Academic Exercises, K.J. Parker (Subterranean, August)War Dogs, Greg Bear (Gollancz, August)The Water Knife, Paolo Bacigalupi (Little Brown, September)Echopraxia, Peter Watts (Tor Books, September)with a bonus title ofThe Just City, Jo Walton (Tor, January 2015) which Jonathan thought was coming in 2014 but isn't. Gary's list will be up shortly.In the meantime, we thank you for your patience, thank Cat Sparks for her help during our hiatus, and hope you enjoy the new episode. See you next week when we will be talking to Locus editor in chief Liza Trombi about the year in review!

The Coode Street Podcast is a full service podcast. While Gary and Jonathan are on vacation, we asked long-time listener Cat Sparks to select some classic episodes that we could send out to entertain and enlighten in their absence.
This week Cat has selected a discussion with award winning author Rachel Swirksy. When we spoke to Rachel it was just following the publication of her major short story collection How the World Became Quiet. We discussed writing short stories, the business of science fiction and much more.We hope you enjoy the podcast and our thanks to Cat!

The Coode Street Podcast is a full service podcast. While Gary and Jonathan are on vacation, we asked long-time listener Cat Sparks to select some classic episodes that we could send out to entertain and enlighten in their absence.
 This week Cat has selected a discussion with multiple award winning editor Ellen Datlow. Last year Ellen was guest of honor at the San Antonion WorldCon. As part of the run up to the event, Gary and Jonathan spoke to her via the wonders of modern technology from Manhattan in what turned out to be a wide-ranging and interesting conversation. We hope you enjoy the podcast and our thanks to Cat!

The Coode Street Podcast is a full service podcast. While Gary and Jonathan are on vacation, we asked long-time listener Cat Sparks to select some classic episodes that we could send out to entertain and enlighten in their absence.Next up are brilliant short story writer Robert Shearman, and living legend Howard Waldrop, who spoke to Gary and Jonathan in July 2013 live from Readercon 24 in Boston.We hope you enjoy the podcast and our thanks to Cat!