Episodes
Sunday Aug 01, 2021
Episode 559: Partway through the pandemic, a ramble
Sunday Aug 01, 2021
Sunday Aug 01, 2021
Welcome to episode 17 of Season 12 of The Coode Street Podcast. For those very few of you who might be wondering what Jonathan and Gary ramble on about when they’re not recording or talking to guests, here's a taste—especially if you make it all the way to the last ten minutes or so, when we end up talking about our vaccination cards and possible travel plans.
Before we get there, however, we touch upon the new Lavie Tidhar novel The Hood, which we’re both in the midst of reading and is due out in October. That leads to a broader discussion of Tidhar's work and an even broader discussion about how historical material is handled differently in fantasy from the way it is in SF, and whether the classic view of SF’s manifest destiny even holds up anymore, given the variety of voices and perspectives now available.
Some of the authors we touch upon are Arkady Martine, John Varley, C.J. Cherryh, Isaac Asimov (and the forthcoming Apple TV+ series derived from the Foundation series), Kelly Robson, John Varley, and a few others. A mixed bag, for sure.
Sunday Jul 25, 2021
Episode 558: M. Rickert and The Shipbuilder of Bellfaerie
Sunday Jul 25, 2021
Sunday Jul 25, 2021
Welcome to episode 16 of Season 12 of The Coode Street Podcast. This week, Jonathan and Gary chat with the marvellous M. Rickert, whose new novel The Shipbuilder of Bellfaerie is out next week from Undertow Publications.
We touch upon how the novel draws from traditions as varied as nautical legends, mysteries, and even Frankenstein, and on the virtues and challenges of the novel as a form compared to novellas and short fiction, the importance of letting the reader use their own imaginations, whether or not M. Rickert fiction is horror fiction (depending, of course, on how horror is defined), whether a reader missing the point is really such a bad thing, and some earlier classic M. Rickert stories like “The Chambered Fruit,” “Bread and Bombs,” and “The Mothers of Voorhisville.”
As always, our thanks to Mary for making the time to talk to us. We hope you enjoy the episode!
Sunday Jul 18, 2021
Episode 557: All This and Dystopia Too
Sunday Jul 18, 2021
Sunday Jul 18, 2021
Welcome to episode 15 of Season 12 of The Coode Street Podcast.
For the first time in more than two months, it’s just Jonathan and Gary again, talking about science fiction of the anthropocene, whether science fiction has shifted its “consensus future” away from the optimism of past eras, the notion that forms such as space opera have begun to look more like heroic fantasy than old-fashioned extrapolation, and the rapidly multiplying meanings of the term dystopia.
In an unusual departure from our usual literature-based rambles—we also touch on what we both think of recent MCU contributions like Loki, Black Widow, and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier—and what they may tell us about corporate storytelling, along with chatter about Miracle Workers and Jonathan's rewatch of The Lord of the Rings.
As always, we hope you enjoy the podcast.
Friday Jul 02, 2021
Episode 556: Lavie Tidhar and a World of Science Fiction
Friday Jul 02, 2021
Friday Jul 02, 2021
Welcome to episode 14 of Season 12 of The Coode Street Podcast. This week Jonathan and Gary are joined by multiple award-winning author and editor Lavie Tidhar to discuss his brand new anthology, The Best of World SF: Vol 1, his years working to bring SF from around the world to North American and UK audiences, the value of reading widely and from different perspectives, and much more. Along the way we also touch on his forthcoming new novels The Escapement and The Hood, and much more.
As always, our thanks to Lavie for making time to talk to us and we hope you enjoy the episode. See you again soon!
Saturday Jun 26, 2021
Episode 555: Catherynne M. Valente and Telling Tales
Saturday Jun 26, 2021
Saturday Jun 26, 2021
Welcome to episode 13 of Season 12 of The Coode Street Podcast. This week Jonathan and Gary are joined by the wonderful Catherynne M. Valente to talk about her new book The Past is Red, which continues the tale of Tetley Abednego, first introduced to readers in the Sturgeon Award-winning "The Future is Blue" from Jonathan’s anthology Drowned Worlds.
We discuss the origins of that story, of the Hugo-nominated Space Opera and its forthcoming sequel Space Oddity, the thriller Comfort Me With Apples (also forthcoming this October), and the importance of working with supportive editors and agents
As always, our thanks to Cat for taking the time to talk to us. We hope you enjoy the episode!
Monday Apr 05, 2021
Episode 547: Nominating for the World Fantasy Awards
Monday Apr 05, 2021
Monday Apr 05, 2021
Welcome to episode 5 of Season 12 of The Coode Street Podcast. After three weeks of unexcused absences, Jonathan and Gary return, just as the world starts re-emerging with the announcement that the Montreal World Fantasy Convention, at least at present, expects to host an in-person event in early November. That led us to return to our occasional discussion of possible candidates for Life Achievement Awards (limited to those over 62 years of age), with Jonathan again presenting his case for Howard Waldrop, which Gary finds it hard to disagree with. But Gary also mentions several other eligible possibilities.
That leads us toward the other categories on the ballot, and we name some possible candidates for novel, novella, anthology, collection, and artist, as well as the more mysterious categories of special achievements, professional and nonprofessional. As always, we welcome reminders of those we have inevitably overlooked, some of which we will undoubtedly embarrassed about.
As always, we hope you enjoy the podcast. We'll see you again soon!
Sunday Mar 07, 2021
Episode 546:Veronica Schanoes and Burning Girls and Other Stories
Sunday Mar 07, 2021
Sunday Mar 07, 2021
Welcome to episode 4 of Season 12 of The Coode Street Podcast. Despite an unexpected glitch that caused Jonathan to disappear partway through, he and Gary are joined by Veronica Schanoes, whose Burning Girls and Other Stories is just out, with endorsements from writers and scholars as diverse as Karen Joy Fowler, Jack Zipes, Jane Yolen, Catherynne Valente, Jeffrey Ford, and Roz Kaveny. We talk about fairy tales, anti-Semitism, feminism, labour history, immigrant history, punk rock, and many other elements that go to make up her remarkable short stories.
As always, we'd like to thank Veronica for making the time to talk to us, and hope you enjoy the podcast.
Saturday Feb 20, 2021
Episode 545: Aliette de Bodard and Fireheart Tiger
Saturday Feb 20, 2021
Saturday Feb 20, 2021
Welcome to episode 3 of Season 12 of The Coode Street Podcast. This week the brilliant Aliette de Bodard joins us from Paris to discuss her new Fireheart Tiger, which is already gathering stellar reviews, as well as the challenges of writing a complex romance with significant political themes, how much world-building is needed for a particular story, her use of mystery plots in recent novellas like Seven of Infinities and The Tea Master and the Detective, and the importance of the city of Paris to her well-received Dominion of the Fallen trilogy.
As always, our thanks to Aliette for making time to talk to us. We hope you enjoy the episode and see you next time!