The Coode Street Podcast

Episode 403: Ten Minutes with Kim Stanley Robinson

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 one of our most important novelists, Kim Stanley Robinson, joins Gary for a chat that touches upon the challenges of maintaining a consistent narrative voice in longer works, Daniel Defoe and the origins of the historical novel, Stan’s own new monthly column for Bloomberg Green, and his forthcoming novel, The Ministry for the Future.

Books mentioned include:

• Three Californias by Kim Stanley Robinson
• The Years of Rice and Salt by Kim Stanley Robinson
• The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson
• The Mirror and the Light by Hilary Mantel
• Daniel Defoe: His Life by Paul R. Backscheider
• A Journal of the Plague Year by Daniel Defoe

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Episode 402: Ten Minutes with Kate Elliott

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 chatting with Kate Elliott, who calls in from her home high on a hillside overlooking the Pacific to talk about her love of reading history, Alexander the Great, the naval history of the Second World War, the importance of reading what works for you at a time like this, and her forthcoming novel, Unconquerable Sun.

Books mentioned include:

• Unconquerable Sun by Kate Elliott
• Conquest and Empire: The Reign of Alexander the Great by A. B. Bosworth
• Æthelstan: The First King of England by Sarah Foot
• Women and the Making of the Mongol Empire by Anne F. Broadbridge
• Neptune's Inferno: The U.S. Navy at Guadalcanal by James D. Hornfischer
• The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors: The Extraordinary World War II Story of the U.S. Navy's Finest Hour by James D. Hornfischer
• The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells

Episode 401: Ten Minutes with M. Rickert

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 chats with World Fantasy Award-winner Mary Rickert on being cautious during the lockdown, reading Dracula for the first time, the rewards of contemplating individual words and their etymologies, revisiting Ray Bradbury, and Mary’s own forthcoming work.

Books mentioned include:

• You Have Never Been Here: New and Selected Stories by M. Rickert
• The Shipbuilder of Bellfairie by M. Rickert (forthcoming)
• Dracula by Bram Stoker
• House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski
• The Stories of Ray Bradbury by Ray Bradbury
• Thin Places by Kay Chronister

Episode 400: In which we turn 400...

Well, that was unexpected, wasn't it? After kicking off the Coode Street Podcast in May 2010 with no plans, no skills, and no technical knowledge, Gary and Jonathan race towards their 10th anniversary with no real plans, no skills, and pretty much no technical knowledge at all.

And yet, despite being invited to desist on several occasions, they persist. Four hundred episodes. Enough rambling to get you across England and back again! Probably across Australia and back again. And along the way over 150 wonderful guests, some new friends made and old ones lost, a dubious proposition or two taken about the state of the science fiction and fantasy, seven Hugo Award nominations, and enough incredible memories to fill at least an hour of rambling and possibly a couple of lifetimes. Someone should write a book.

So, with no fanfare but a lot of thanks, a guest-free 400th episode recorded in the time of Pandemic, with some thoughts on what might happen next, a short discussion of books being read, coming to you, as always, from the socially-distanced Gershwin Room, high above a temporarily shuttered Motel Six, with thanks to each and every one of you.

Episode 399: Ten Minutes with Karen Joy Fowler

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.

This time out, Gary talks with PEN/Faulkner Award-winning author Karen Joy Fowler, about the challenges of concentrating in times of stress, but also the value of collective co-operation and respect for scientific evidence and the question of whether the current situation might encourage us to think more broadly about our responsibilities as co-inhabitants of this planet.

Books mentioned include:

• The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson

• Eye of the Whale by Douglas Carlton Abrams

• The Widowed Warlock by Helen Sanders

• Burning Girls and Other Stories by Veronica Schanoes (short story at Tor.com)

• The Overstory by Richard Powers

• Nature's Best Hope: A New Approach to Conservation that Starts in Your Yard by Douglas W. Tallamy 

Episode 398: Ten Minutes with Paul McAuley

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 chats for ten minutes (okay, more like 17 minutes) with Paul McAuley, author of some of the most engaging and provocative series of the past few decades, including the Confluence, Quiet War, and "Jackaroo novels and stories, and whose newest novel is the epic War of the Maps, which combines hard-SF ideas with a classic quest narrative.

Books mentioned include:

• War of the Maps by Paul McAuley
• Bone Silence  by Alastair Reynolds
• By Force Alone by Lavie Tidhar
• The Once and Future King by T.H. White
• I Have Waited, and You Have Come by Martine McDonagh
• The Long Drop by Denise Mina
• The Big Sky by Kate Atkinson
• Tropic of Kansas by Christopher Brown
• The Harry Bosch novels by Michael Connelly
• Out of the Wreckage: A New Politics for an Age of Crisis by George Monbiot
• An Ecotopian Lexicon edited by Matthew Schneider-Mayerson & Brent Ryan Bellamy

And not mentioned, but advised: If you can, try to find the time and space to read a little poetry every day.

Episode 397: Ten Minutes with Joe Haldeman

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 it's ten minutes with SF Grandmaster and Hall of Fame inductee Joe Haldeman, who chatted with Gary from his Florida home, discussing what it’s like to be an official Grand Master, the value of reading SF print magazines, the different kinds of trilogies, and the appeal of graphic novels.

Books mentioned include:

• The Worlds trilogy, Joe Haldeman
• The Forever War by Joe Haldeman
• Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
• Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud
• The Alexandria Quartet by Lawrence Durrell

Episode 396: Ten Minutes with Gillian Redfearn and Joe Hill

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 with Gollancz Publishing Director Gillian Redfearn and bestselling writer Joe Hill, who join the conversation live from their secret volcano base on the northeast coast of the United States to discuss the importance of stepping outside every day and just being in the world, the pleasures of reading Joe Abercrombie, Claire North, and others, and much more.

Books mentioned include:

• Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly by Anthony Bourdain
• The Pursuit of William Abbey by Claire North
• The Trouble With Peace by Joe Abercrombie
• Rhythm of War by Brandon Sanderson
• Preludes and Nocturnes: The Sandman by Neil Gaiman et al.
• The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
• The Goldsboro Books Sci-Fi and Fantasy Fellowship

Things to watch mentioned include:

• Tiger King
• Peaky Blinders
• NOS4A2 (Season 2)