

The Coode Street Podcast
Jonathan Strahan & Gary K. Wolfe
Discussion and digression on science fiction and fantasy with Gary K. Wolfe and Jonathan Strahan.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Aug 25, 2020 • 17min
Episode 496: Ten Minutes with John Crowley
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.
World Fantasy Life Achievement winner John Crowley chats with Gary about his oddly prescient horror story “Spring Break” (which he says is his only horror story), the evocative prose of Graham Greene’s thrillers, the terror of Flannery O’Connor’s “Everything That Rises Must Converge, and his own recent collections of essays and stories.
Books mentioned include:
And Go Like This: Stories by John Crowley
Reading Backwards: Essays and Reviews 2005-2018 by John Crowley
This Gun for Hire (aka A Gun for Sale) by Graham Greene
The Ministry of Fear by Graham Greene
The Confidential Agent by Graham Greene
Everything That Rises Must Converge: Stories by Flannery O’Connor
The Patrick Melrose Novels by Edward St. Aubyn
The Invisible Valley by Su Wei (trans. by Austin Woerner)

Aug 24, 2020 • 17min
Episode 495: Ten Minutes with Charles de Lint
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.
World Fantasy Award Life Achievement recipient and WorldCon Guest of Honor Charles de Lint joins Jonathan to discuss living, working, and reading in these strange times, what he's been working on, the relationship between his work and contemporary urban fantasy, the rewards he's found in taking control of his own publishing, and a new series of urban fantasy novels set in Newford, starting with Juniper Wiles, which he is planning for later this year.
Books mentioned include:
The Wind in His Heart by Charles de Lint
Ballistic Kiss: A Sandman Slim Novel by Richard Kadrey
Ink & Sigil by Kevin Hearne
Melissa F. Olson is creating stories: A Patreon by Melissa F. Olson
Bury My Heart at Chuck E. Cheese's by Tiffany Midge

Aug 23, 2020 • 17min
Episode 494: Ten Minutes with Christopher Priest
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.
One of the UK's most distinguished novelists, Christopher Priest, joins Gary to discuss how from the beginning he strived for consistency in his body of work, how the lockdown seems to represent a historical discontinuity comparable to World War II, the war's effect on writers such as John Wyndham, H.E. Bates, and Rex Warner, his frustrating experiences with the film version of The Prestige, his recent retrospective story collection, and his forthcoming novel.
Books mentioned include:
The Prestige by Christopher Priest
An American Story by Christopher Priest
Episodes: A Collection by Christopher Priest
The Evidence by Christopher Priest (forthcoming October)
The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel
Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
V for Victory by Lissa Evans (forthcoming 2021)
The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham

Aug 23, 2020 • 17min
Episode 493: Ten Minutes with Nina Allan
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.
Award-winning novelist and critic Nina Allan talks with Gary about what the lockdown has been like on a Scottish island almost devoid of the usual seasonal tourists, the appeal of golden age crime novels, the fascinating exercise of seeing how contemporary SFF works sometimes map onto older or classic works, the reissue of her collection Stardust (with a new story added!), and her forthcoming novels.
Books mentioned include:
Ruby by Nina Allan
The Good Neighbors by Nina Allan (forthcoming 2021)
The Last Astronaut by David Wellington
Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke
Engine Summer by John Crowley
Cage of Souls by Adrian Tchaikovsky
The Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe
China Mountain Zhang by Maureen McHugh

Aug 23, 2020 • 15min
Episode 492: Ten Minutes with Charles Vess
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 is joined by multiple award-winning artist and illustrator Charles Vess, chatting about country living during the lockdown, working with authors such as Ursula K. Le Guin and Neil Gaiman (including a new collector’s edition of Stardust from Lyra's Books with new illustrations and handmade paper), and Charles’s own novel, The Queen of Summer’s Twilight, available on his Green Man Press website.
Books mentioned include:
Stardust by Neil Gaiman and Charles Vess
Honeycomb (forthcoming 2021) by Joanne Harris (ill. Charles Vess)
The Queen of Summer’s Twilight by Charles Vess
Flyaway by Kathleen Jennings
The Old Ways: A Journey on Foot by Robert McFarland
The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal
The World that We Knew by Alice Hoffman
The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow
Reservation Blues by Sherman Alexie
The Mermaid and Mrs. Hancock by Imogen Hermes Gowar

Aug 20, 2020 • 20min
Episode 491: Ten Minutes with Sarah Gailey
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 a while chatting with Hugo Award winner Sarah Gailey about reading, writing, and getting through these strange times; the attractions of reading immersive texts (whether fiction or non-fiction); rediscovering The Hunger Games, reading the prequel, and her Medium article "Everything is The Hunger Games now"; her fabulous story from The Book of Dragons; writing YA and her upcoming novels, and more!
You can listen to an excerpt from Sarah's story, "We Don’t Talk About the Dragon", right now and if you live in the US and are over 18 you can enter our sweepstakes to win one of ten copies by following this link!
Books mentioned include:
Upright Women Wanted by Sarah Gailey
When We Were Magic by Sarah Gailey
The Echo Wife by Sarah Gailey
Why Fish Don't Exist: A Story of Loss, Love, and the Hidden Order of Life by Lulu Miller
Camp by Lev A.C. Rosen
On the Come Up by Angie Thomas
The Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins

Aug 20, 2020 • 16min
Episode 487: Ten Minutes with Maureen McHugh
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.
Hugo, Tiptree, and Shirley Jackson Award winner Maureen McHugh joins Gary to talk about online teaching during the lockdown, the benefits of Zoom work sessions with fellow writers, the reissue of her classic novel China Mountain Zhang, researching the 13th century, and completing a draft of her first novel in almost two decades(!)
Books mentioned include:
China Mountain Zhang by Maureen F. McHugh
The Mirror and the Light by Hilary Mantel
The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells
The Rivers of London series by Ben Aaronovitch
A Perfect Spy by John Le Carré

Aug 19, 2020 • 22min
Episode 490: Ten Minutes with Amal El-Mohtar
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 fires up Skype and calls Hugo and Nebula award winning writer, poet, and critic Amal El-Mohtar, whose novella This Is How You Lose the Time War (co-written with Max Gladstone) has been sweeping all of the awards this year, to chat about reading, working and living during the pandemic, the pleasure of reading graphic novels, and some great new books. Amal's poem "A Final Knight to Her Love and Foe", appears in The Book of Dragons.
If you live in the US and are over 18 you can enter our sweepstakes to win one of ten copies by following this link!
Books mentioned include:
This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone
Dance on Saturday by Elwin Cotman
The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson
Die by Kieron Gillen and Stephanie Hans
The Wicked + The Divine by Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie

Aug 18, 2020 • 23min
Episode 489: Ten Minutes with Daniel Abraham
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.
Over the past decade Daniel Abraham has become famous as half of James S.A. Corey, creators of The Expanse, but in addition to creating incredible space opera and great television, Daniel has crafted some of the best science fiction and fantasy of the past decade. Today he talks to Jonathan about reading, writing, and working during the pandemic, working for television, the work of Tim Powers and Carmen Maria Machado, and much more.
You can listen to an excerpt from Daniel's story, "Yuli", right now and if you live in the US and are over 18 you can enter our sweepstakes to win one of ten copies by following this link!
Books mentioned include:
Tiamat's Wrath by James S.A. Corey
Last Call by Tim Powers
In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado
The Plague by Albert Camus

Aug 17, 2020 • 17min
Episode 488: Ten Minutes with Brooke Bolander
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 fires up Skype and calls sunny New York to talk to the fabulous Nebula Award-winning author of The Only Harmless Great Thing, Brooke Bolander, about reading, writing and living during the pandemic, the comfort of reading somewhat grim nonfiction, and her contribution to The Book of Dragons.
You can listen to an excerpt from Brooke's story, "Where the River Turns to Concrete", right now and if you live in the US and are over 18 you can enter our sweepstakes to win one of ten copies by following this link!
Books mentioned include:
The Only Harmless Great Thing by Brooke Bolander
The Perfect Storm: A True Story of Men Against the Sea by Sebastian Junger
In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex by Nathaniel Philbrick
Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water by Marc Reisner
Every Bone a Prayer by Ashley Blooms
The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York by Robert A. Caro


