The Coode Street Podcast

Latest Episodes:

Episode 399: Ten Minutes with Karen Joy Fowler Apr 27, 2020

Show notes

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 Apr 26, 2020

Show notes

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 Apr 25, 2020

Show notes

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 Apr 24, 2020

Show notes

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)

Episode 395: Ten Minutes with Christopher Rowe Apr 23, 2020

Show notes

Today Jonathan spends ten minutes with Hugo, Nebula, and World Fantasy Award nominee Christopher Rowe to discuss the great agricultural SF novel, the pleasures of Kim Stanley Robinson’s one comic novel, Garth Nix's fabulous Angel Mage, and much, more more. Christopher's new story "The Parable of the Tares" has just been released by Arizona State University's Center for Science and the Imagination as part of its Us in Flux series. CSI has also released a Conversation with Michael Bell about the inspiration for the story.

Books mentioned include:

"The Parable of the Tares" by Christopher Rowe
Us in Flux: Conversations by Christopher Rowe & Michael Bell
Telling the Map by Christopher Rowe
Angel Mage by Garth Nix
Escape from Kathmandu by Kim Stanley Robinson

Episode 394: Ten Minutes with Sofia Samatar Apr 22, 2020

Show notes

Today Gary chats with World Fantasy Award-winning Sofia Samatar about the great German writer W.G. Sebald, returning to formative books in times of stress, the literary prehistory of robots as explored in her wonderful story "Fairy Tales for Robots", and her upcoming story "The New Book of the Dead" in Philosophy Through Science Fiction Stories.

Books mentioned include:

Tender by Sofia Samatar
The Rings of Saturn, Austerlitz, and Vertigo by W.G. Sebald,
The Dark is Rising series by Susan Cooper
Silver Road: Maps, Essays and Calligraphies by Ali Kazim

Episode 393: Ten Minutes with Charles Stross Apr 21, 2020

Show notes

Today Jonathan spends ten minutes with Charles Stross, bestselling author of the Hugo award-winning Laundry Files series and the critically acclaimed Accelerando, to discuss working in the time of pandemic, whether authors are the people to turn to for reading recommendations, his upcoming work and return to space opera, and much more.

Books mentioned include:

Dead Lies Dreaming by Charles Stross
Invisible Sun by Charles Stross
The Unspoken Name by Alison Larkwood
Middlegame by Seanan McGuire
The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow

Episode 392: Ten Minutes with Cory Doctorow Apr 20, 2020

Show notes

Today Jonathan spends ten minutes with Cory Doctorow talking about reading and writing in the time of pandemic, what a practical utopia might actually be, the utopian novel he's working on right now, what books he has coming out in the coming year, and the pleasures to be had from listening to Terry Pratchett books.

Books mentioned include:

Attack Surface by Cory Doctorow
Poesy the Monster Slayer by Cory Doctorow (art by Matt Rockefeller)
Little Brother & Homeland by Cory Doctorow
Afterland by Lauren Beukes
Or What You Will by Jo Walton
Uncanny Valley by Anna Wiener
King Rat by James Clavell
Terry Pratchett audiobooks

Episode 391: Ten Minutes with Martha Wells Apr 19, 2020

Show notes

This time Jonathan spends ten minutes with the fabulous Martha Wells, whose Murderbot Diaries first appeared in 2017 and quickly went on to become one of the most popular and beloved series of recent times, winning the Hugo and Nebula Awards along the way. Martha discusses working in time of lockdown, upcoming work (including a new short story, "The Salt Lick" coming from Uncanny), and the joys of reading.

Books mentioned include:

Network Effect by Martha Wells
Echo in Amethyst by Sharon Shinn
Finna by Nino Cipri
Stormsong by C L Polk
Jade War by Fonda Lee
The Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vo
The Rivers of London series by Ben Aaronovitch
The City We Became by N K Jemisin
The Gilded Wolves by Roshani Chokshi
Null Set by SL Huang
Unconquerable Sun by Kate Elliott

Episode 390: Ten Minutes with Alastair Reynolds Apr 18, 2020

Show notes

Today Alastair Reynolds spends ten minutes talking with Jonathan about unexpectedly sunny weather in Wales, the challenges of focussing on reading and work at the moment, the immersive pleasures of diving into an enormous book by Neal Stephenson, and much more.

Books mentioned include:

Bone Silence by Alastair Reynolds
Anathem by Neal Stephenson
The Best of Gene Wolfe by Gene Wolfe
The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas
Made to Order by Jonathan Strahan
Comet Weather by Liz Williams

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