Episodes

Monday Jun 01, 2020
Episode 435: Ten Minutes with Claire McKenna (corrected audio)
Monday Jun 01, 2020
Monday Jun 01, 2020
ETA: Due to an technical error, only one track on the audio was released earlier. We apologise for that and are providing an updated/corrected podcast now.
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.
Jonathan spends ten minutes talking with Claire McKenna about working, reading, and writing during difficult times, pirate utopias, the joys of old bestsellers, and her debut novel, Monstrous Heart.
Books mentioned include:
- Monstrous Heart by Claire McKenna
- Monsoon by Wilbur Smith
- Gondar by Nicholas Luard
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Monday Jun 01, 2020
Episode 435: Ten Minutes with Claire McKenna
Monday Jun 01, 2020
Monday Jun 01, 2020
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.
Jonathan spends ten minutes talking with Claire McKenna about working, reading, and writing during difficult times, pirate utopias, the joys of old bestsellers, and her debut novel, Monstrous Heart.
Books mentioned include:
- Monstrous Heart by Claire McKenna
- Monsoon by Wilbur Smith
- Gondar by Nicholas Luard
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Sunday May 31, 2020
Episode 434: Occasionally Enlightening - Three Stars
Sunday May 31, 2020
Sunday May 31, 2020
Jonathan and Gary are back with a socially-distanced full-hour podcast. Since last time, Jonathan actually went and read the reviews for the podcast on the iTunes Podcast app where one listener described the Coode Street as being occasionally enlightening, saying when:
"the two hosts are left to their own devices (which is most of the time) they testily chew over a handful of pet topics, usually debating who should win each year's awards and then whether or not awards mean anything".
and rated the podcast Three stars.
Perfectly fair. Today's episode was recorded during the Nebula Awards presentation and days after the announcement of the Locus Awards shortlists. Both feature briefly, but our main topic was not awards. Rather we turned to more fundamental questions involving reasons to be optimistic about science fiction, the role of entertainment in reading SFF, what each of us values most in what we read, and, almost accidentally, some brief previews of exciting novels coming up later this year.
Hopefully the sound on today's episode is a bit better, the testiness is toned down, and you all enjoy!

Saturday May 30, 2020
Episode 433: Ten Minutes with Jack Dann
Saturday May 30, 2020
Saturday May 30, 2020
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 the Nebula and World Fantasy Award-winning 'Hermit of Binghampton", Jack Dann, who checks in from his home in coastal Victoria to talk about life, art, books, and more.
Books mentioned include:
- Shadows in the Stone by Jack Dann
- Pluche or the Love of Art by Jean Dutourd
- The Best of R.A. Lafferty by R.A. Lafferty
- Masters of Science Fiction: Kate Wilhelm (2 vols.) by Kate Wilhelm
- Marque of Caine by Charles E. Gannon
- The Anatomy of Melancholy by Robert Burton
- Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
- Ka: Dar Oakley in the Ruin of Ymr by John Crowley
- A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce
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Friday May 29, 2020
Episode 432: Ten Minutes with John Berlyne
Friday May 29, 2020
Friday May 29, 2020
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 is the point where, at least for Jonathan, it all went off the rails and the 'ten minutes with" became a purely aspirational thing, losing any connection with chronological reality. In a fascinating, sprawling conversation Jonathan spends half an hour or so talking to agent, editor, bibliographer, and reluctant shut-in, John Berlyne of the Zeno Literary Agency, about reading, books, agenting and how to get an agent, how the current situation may affect publishing, and much more.
Books mentioned include:
- Mr Breakfast by Jonathan Carroll
- The Kingdom of Liars by Nick Martell
- By Force Alone by Lavie Tidhar
- Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erikson
- Railsea by China Miéville
- Jack of Shadows by Roger Zelazny
- Bones of the Moon by Jonathan Carroll
- The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman
- Eight Detectives by Alex Pavesi
- The Constant Rabbit by Jasper FForde
- The Anomaly by Michael Rutger
- Galileo's Dream by Kim Stanley Robinson
- Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
- Heroes: Mortals and Monsters, Quests and Adventures by Stephen Fry (audio)
- The Time Traveller's Guide to Elizabethan England by Ian Mortimer (audio)
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Thursday May 28, 2020
Episode 431: Ten Minutes with Cat Sparks
Thursday May 28, 2020
Thursday May 28, 2020
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.
Scholar, photographer, editor, artist, author, and winner of many Ditmar and Aurealis Awards Cat Sparks joins Gary to discuss the comparative experience of Australia vs the US in the current crisis, her own doctoral research in SF and climate fiction, missing out on ICFA this year, the attractions of comfort-reading mysteries, the virtues of Paul J. McAuley, and her forthcoming collection of stories.
Books mentioned include:
- Dark Harvest by Cat Sparks
- The Ruth Galloway series by Elly Griffiths
- The Quantum Magician by Derek Kunsken
- War of the Maps by Paul McAuley
- Monstrous Heart by Claire McKenna
- Repo Virtual by Corey J. White
- The Dublin Murder Squad series by Tana French
Photography mentioned:
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Wednesday May 27, 2020
Episode 430: Ten Minutes with Karen Burnham
Wednesday May 27, 2020
Wednesday May 27, 2020
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 fellow Locus reviewer Karen Burnham, author of Greg Egan in the Modern Masters of Science Fiction series, and occasional pieces for The Cascadia Subduction Zone. We touch upon having kids at home during the lockdown, finding time to do our own reading in between reading for reviews, and favorite literary comfort foods such as Terry Pratchett and Gail Carriger.
Books mentioned include:
- Greg Egan by Karen Burnham
- The Revenger Series by Alastair Reynolds
- Horizon by Barry Lopez
- Arctic Dreams by Barry Lopez
- The Lives of a Cell and the Medusa and the Snail by Lewis Thomas
- Small Gods by Terry Pratchett
- The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents by Terry Pratchett
- Soulless by Gail Carriger
- The Order of the Stick by Rich Burlew
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Tuesday May 26, 2020
Episode 429: Ten Minutes with Fonda Lee
Tuesday May 26, 2020
Tuesday May 26, 2020
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 is joined by the World Fantasy Award-winning author of the Green Bone Saga, the Exo series, and Zeroboxer, Fonda Lee, to chat about life in strange times, adapting how you work in a home suddenly full of family, the joys of reading and writing, and much more.
Books mentioned include:
- Jade City by Fonda Lee
- Jade War by Fonda Lee
- Jade Legacy by Fonda Lee
- Saga by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples
- Monstress by Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda
- Black Bolt by Saladin Ahmed
- The Way of the Househusband by Kousuke Oono
- Patron Saints of Nothing by Randy Riby
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