The Coode Street Podcast

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 Adelaide to chat to one of Australia's best and most adept writers of speculative fiction, Sean Williams, about reading, writing and working during the pandemic, what he's reading, what he'd recommend, what he's working on, and his terrific new middle grade novel, Her Perilous Mansion. Books mentioned include: Her Perilous Mansion by Sean Williams Busman's Honeymoon by Dorothy L. Sayers Murder Must Advertise by Dorothy L. Sayers Deeplight by Frances Hardinge Frankenstein by Mary Shelley Songs for Dark Seasons by Lisa L. Hannett      

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 calling farthest Brisbane to talk to national treasure and author of the Obernewtyn Chronicles, Isobelle Carmody, about reading and writing during the pandemic, the creative challenges of writing, what she's been reading, and much, much more. Books mentioned include: Evermore by Isobelle Carmody Aurora by Kim Stanley Robinson The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon The Speed of Dark by Elizabeth Moon Remnant Population by Elizabeth Moon Grass by Sheri S. Tepper Raising the Stones by Sheri S. Tepper Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel Watchmen by Alan Moore, Dave Gibbons and John Higgins The Jack Reacher Series by Lee Child The Wave in the Mind: Talks and Essays on the Writer, the Reader, and the Imagination by Ursula K. Le Guin      

Left once again to their own devices, Jonathan and Gary turn to the question of what was science fiction’s real golden age—not in terms of overall literary history or the old cliché that “the golden age of science fiction is twelve,” but rather what seemed like a golden age in terms of reading habits: when you fell in love with SF, how the genre continued to be rewarding during that time, and what was especially important about it. For Jonathan, that looked more like the 1980s, while for Gary it was basically the 1950s. Both agreed, however, that the current era might itself be seen as a golden age, for many reasons.

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 more (somewhat more) talking to Adam Roberts about the joys and challenges of reading every single H. G. Wells book ever written (there were a lot!), being a judge for the World Fantasy Awards, reading and writing during these strange and difficult times (even when you usually stay in a bit), and much more. Books mentioned include: H G Wells: A Literary Life by Adam Roberts Purgatory Mount by Adam Roberts (forthcoming in 2021) The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow‎ Ghost Species by James Bradley The Raven Tower by Ann Leckie The Devil's Blade by Mark Alder By Force Alone by Lavie Tidhar Paradise Lost by John Milton    

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 award-winning author and ILM filmmaker Gregory Norman Bossert to talk about how the changes facing the movie industry may actually help new voices and new forms, the appeal of not-quite-classifiable stories of the New Weird and other contemporary movements, a new anthology in support of the nonprofit RAICES, podcasts and movies, and his own new short fiction. Short fiction mentioned includes: "The Night Soil Salvagers" by Gregory Norman Bossert (Tor.com, July) "Dear Boy" by Gregory Norman Bossert (Weird Fiction Review #10) "The Hearts of All" by Gregory Norman Bossert (Black Static #73) "Zima Blue" by Alastair Reynolds (and its TV adaptation on Love, Death, and Robots) Books mentioned include: The Unnamed Country by Jeffrey Thomas The Punktown series by Jeffrey Thomas The Troika by Stepan Chapman Vermilion Sands by J.G. Ballard Made to Order: Robots and Revolution by Jonathan Strahan, ed.,  Rambunctious by Rick Wilber Smoke Paper Mirrors by Anna Tambour The Finest Ass in the Universe by Anna Tambour The Well-Built City trilogy by Jeffrey Ford    

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 Stoker and British Fantasy Award winner Usman T. Malik to discuss living in Lahore during the current times, how it impacts reading, writing and the ability to work, classic horror, the tales of your culture, and much more. Books mentioned include: The Pauper Prince and the Eucalyptus Jinn by Usman T. Malik The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson The Arabian Nights: Tales of 1001 Nights (in 3 vols) translated by Malcolm Lyons  The Merman and the Book of Power: A Qissa by Musharraf Ali Farooqi      

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 multiple award winner Aliette de Bodard about reading and writing during these difficult and distracting times, the joys of reading romance novels, pirates and the South China Sea, and much more. Books mentioned include: The House of Sundering Flames by Aliette de Bodard Of Wars, and Memories, and Starlight by Aliette de Bodard Of Dragons, Feasts and Murders by Aliette de Bodard Like Froth Floating on the Sea: The World of Pirates and Seafarers in Late Imperial South China by J. Antony Robert She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan Lord of the Last Heartbeat by May Peterson    

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 takes ten minutes or so to talk with Hugo and British Fantasy Award winner Zen Cho about reading and writing during the time of the pandemic, the comforts of British wartime children's stories, Murderbot, the perennial attraction of Jane Austen, and her upcoming novella, The Order of the Pure Moon Reflected in Water. Books mentioned include: The Sorcerer to the Crown by Zen Cho The True Queen by Zen Cho The Order of the Pure Moon Reflected in Water by Zen Cho Good Night, Mr. Tom by Michelle Magorian  The Skylarks' War by Hilary McKay The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells The Novels of Jane Austen       

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 winner Tobias S. Buckell talks with Gary about life in a small town during the lockdown, the terrific South Korean TV series The Kingdom, the advantages of audiobooks and graphic novels, new stories coming up in Escape Pod ("The Machine That Would Rewild Humanity"), Slate ("Scar Tissue"), and Motherboard ("Zombie Capitalism"), and the problems of dealing with wild boar. Books mentioned include: The Tangled Lands by Paolo Bacigalupi & Tobias S. Buckell The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien The Aeneid by Vergil The Gentleman Bastard Series by Scott Lynch      

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 about thirty minutes talking to Dave Hutchinson about reading and writing during the Great and Terrible Pause, the novels of Len Deighton, an unexpected follow-up to The Fractured Europe Sequence, a brand new Fractured Europe novelette "Nightingale Floors" (from Ian Whates's forthcoming anthology London Centric: Future Tales of London), and much more. Books mentioned include: The Return of the Incredible Exploding Man by Dave Hutchinson The Fractured Europe Sequence by Dave Hutchinson The Thomas Cromwell Trilogy by Hilary Mantel The Martian by Andy Weir The Bernard Samson Series by Len Deighton