The Coode Street Podcast

A little late due to technical issues, but here is Episode 155 of The Coode Street Podcast. This week we asked master storytellers Andy Duncan and Ellen Klages to join us in the Gershwin Room to discuss the writing life, short fiction, collaboration and their forthcoming Tor.com novella "Wakulla Springs". As always, our sincere thanks to Andy and Ellen for taking the time to talk to us. We hope you enjoy the episode!

With WorldCon looming in the near future and news of the World Fantasy Awards just around the corner, award-winning writer and critic James Bradleyjoins Jonathan and Gary in the Waldorf Room to discuss the best in recent science fiction and fantasy. As always, we hope you enjoy the podcast!00:00 Introduction01:50 On Neil Gaiman'sThe Ocean at the End of the Lane, The Lord of the Rings and consolation in modern fantasy.16:10 Arthur C Clarke Award winner Chris Beckett'sDark Eden.18:00 On Paul McAuley,Evening's Empires, and the mission of modern science fiction.33:00 On the movies Oblivion and Pacific Rim.36:00 Climate change, recent science fiction and Patrick Flanery's Fallen Land.43:00 On Margaret Atwood'sMaddaddam53:00 On Graham Joyce'sThe Year of the Ladybird.

It was another typical day in the office for the Coode Street team. Having taken the time and made the effort to ascend to the Gershwin Room (there are a LOT of stairs), having avoided the temptations of the Tiki Lounge, having decided not to simply spend their time gossiping, Gary and Jonathan instead turn their attention to pressing issues like Sharknado and modern SF, whether British SF is more political than its US counterparts, and the growning prominence of non-Anglo SF with a minor sidestep into what it is to be an insider in the SF field. Naked attempts to persuade readers to buy new books are truncated by the sudden termination of the podcast due to Jonathan's PC crashing. Fortunately they were close to done. Still, they hope you enjoy the podcast and remain, now as ever, the mullahs of Coode St.

After all of the excitement of broadcasting from ReaderCon with Rob Shearman and Howard Waldrop, Gary and Jonathan turn back to more typical discussion of matters science fictional in an all new podcast that, as always, comes to you live from the Waldorf Room. As always, we hope you enjoy the podcast.

This week the Coode Street Podcast, or part of it, is on the move! WithReadercon 24in full swing, Gary has travelled to Burlington, Massachusetts and has corralled award-winning author of Little Big and the Aegypt sequence, John Crowley, and long-time friend of the podcast Peter Straub to take part in a fascinating discussion of genre and other things. As always, we hope you enjoy the podcast! 00:00 Introduction (flawed) 02:00 Discussion of reading and being influenced by early science fiction from the '50s and '60s, and the path from there to reading literature. 12:40 On how genre works and what makes the SF ideational space function. Mention of Bob Shaw's classic "Light of Other Days". 19:00 Peter discusses writing about fear, reading Ballard, and other influences. 30:00 On reading work as science fiction, including mention of John's novel The Translator. 35:00 On how writing SF/F is accepted to day in a way that it was not before. 40:00 Peter discusses his novel In the Night Room. 43:00 Story McGuffins and the death of the author. 50:00 Sequels, Lin Carter, book signings.58:00 A brief discussion of what's next from Peter and John.As discussed in the podcast, you canorder the 25th Anniversary Editionof Little Big,or just check it out.

In what is definitely the latest official instalment of the Coode Street Podcast, Gary and Jonathan sneak past the Jerome Kern Memorial Habachi Stand and settle down just near the Richard Rogers Habachi Grill to discuss many things. In an incredible development, this time the Production Gnomes of Coode Street have been able to produce a rough running schedule for the episode. Rejoice!00:00 Introduction05:00 Discussion of Kim Stanley Robinson's new novelShaman, Werner Herzog's filmCave of Forgotten Dreamsand prehistoric fiction. (This bit's shorter than you'd think it would be).13:00: Locus Awardswinners, and Gary drops names.30:00 Richard Matheson.38:00 The Year in Fiction to Date (including our favorites and must reads of the year so far [though not really "must", just "we like it a lot and you might too"]1:13:00 EndPlease let us know in comments about your favorite books of the year too! Next week we hope to be reporting in from Readercon. Until then, as always, we hope you enjoy the podcast!

As any regular listener knows all too well, hotel wifi is an unreliable friend. With Gary away in Seattle at the Locus Awards weekend, we recorded this "safety" episode to make sure you'd have your weekly Coode Street fix, It was recorded on June 23, and amongst other things we discuss the very sad recent deaths of Iain M. Banks, Jack Vance, and Parke Godwin, all of whom made significant contributions to our fieldAs always, we hope you enjoy this latest ramble.

This week M. John Harrison, award-winning author of Viriconium, The Course of the Heart, the "Empty Space" trilogy, and Climbers, joins Gary and Jonathan on the podcast to discuss publishing his new 'Autotelia' story "Cave and Julia" as a Kindle single, the literalisation of metaphor, pathways to reading the "Empty Space" trilogy, the influence of Arthur Machen on his work, short story as an experimental laboratory and many other things. It is, we think, a fascinating episode of the podcast and, as always, we hope you enjoy it!  Our sincere thanks to Mike for his time. We hope to continue the conversation some time soon

This week we're delighted to welcome E. Lily Yu to the podcast. We discuss her work, writing, and all sorts of other stuff.  As always, we hope you enjoy the podcast. And, if you get the chance, try some of Lily's terrific new stories! "The Urashima Effect," Clarkesworld (June 2013). "The Forgetting Shiraz," Boston Review (May/June 2013). "Ilse, Who Saw Clearly," Apex Magazine (May 2013). "Loss, with Chalk Diagrams," Eclipse Online (March 2013).

This week, following a failed attempt at Wiscon, the incredible M. Rickert and Christopher Barzak make the long Skype-complicated journey to the Gershwin Room to talk to Gary and Jonathan about Wiscon, fantasy, living in the Mid-West, tribalism, Christopher's fantastic new collection Before and Afterlives,  and all sorts of other interesting things.  Mary also gave the Podcast a huge news scoop. She has sold her first novel, tentatively titled A Taste of Ash and Honey, to Source Books. It should be out in 2014, which is spectacularly exciting news. We can't wait to read the book and to have her back when it comes out

With Gary just returned from Madiscon, Wisconsin, the glorious Concourse Hotel and the fun of Wiscon 37, where hotel wi-fi frustrated plans for live podcasting, he joined Jonathan in the Waldorf Room high above the Coode Street Motel Six to discuss the role of bookstores in helping readers to find unexpected, books we've not read (The Pride of Chanur and Downwards to the Earth!!), and lifetime achievement.  With nominations closing in just days, they exhorted listeners to nominate for the 2o13 World Fantasy Awards (nomination ballot here), and made special mention of Mary Stewart and Susan Cooper as possible Lifetime Achievement Award recipients. As always, Gary and Jonathan hope you enjoy the podcast

Once again our hardy commentators, Jonathan Strahan and Gary K. Wolfe, climbed the stairs to the Waldorf Room, high above the Coode Street Motel Six, took in the breathtaking views of the science fiction field that can only be seen from the Gernsback Bar, and held forth on matters SFnal, including new and recent SF, awards and anthologies, and just dipped their toes into the beginnings of a possible discussion of politicised editing. As always, we hope you enjoy the podcast. See you next week!

After an extended break caused by travel and illness, our intrepid science fictioneers return to the Waldorf Room to continue their ongoing discussion of the science fiction field. There's every chance that some week now they'll find something new to talk about, but until now the old topics of awards, anthologies, conventions, and stuff will have to do. As always, we hope you enjoy the podcast! More next week, we promise.

There really wasn't much excuse, except that our two heroes found themselves in the Gershwin Room with no idea at all about what they would discuss and so, with apologies, they ended up discussing awards again.  It wasn't intended, the discussion is being had elsewhere anyway, and solemn promises have been made that it will not happen again (at least for a while). If, however, this doesn't put you off, then sit back and relax while Gary and Jonathan discuss just what the point of awards is anyway and whether there's anything left to say about science fiction

This week we invited award-winning writer and anthologist Nalo Hopkinson to join us in the Waldorf Room to discuss her writing career, science fiction and fantasy, her upcoming visit to Australia as Guest of Honour at Conflux: The Australian National Science Fiction Convention, and her new novel Sister Mine. We'd like to thank Nalo for being a wonderful guest and, as always, hope you enjoy the podcast.