The Coode Street Podcast

       This week, in celebration of the 200th anniversary of the publication of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, we are joined by two authors whose own recent works celebrate that classic work.  John Kessel’s Pride and Prometheus will be published in February, combining characters from Shelley’s classic and Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, while Theodora Goss’s The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter, featuring a number of classic characters from 19th century fantastic fiction—including Frankenstein’s “daughter”--will be joined by its sequel European Travel for the Monstrous Gentlewoman in July; both are part of her series "The Extraordinary Adventures of the Athena Club.” We touch upon Shelley’s work, the problems of writing narratives that exist within the spaces of earlier novels, whether or not Frankenstein was really the first science fiction novel, and—briefly—on the debt we all own to Ursula K. Le Guin after her passing earlier in the week. As always, our thanks to our guests, Dora and John. We hope you enjoy the episode. See you next week!

Six years ago Gary Wolfe and I were privileged enough to get to chat with Ursula K. Le Guin about science fiction. The reason for the discussion was Margaret Atwood's book of essays, In Other Worlds: SF and the Human Imagination, which discusses her thoughts on science fiction in some detail. It is a marvellous discussion and one we thought we'd repost, given the sad news of Ursula's death today.

Normal service resumes with a rambly episode after last week's chat with Jane Yolen. Having decided what they were going to discuss beforehand, Gary and Jonathan immediately head off and start discussing something else altogether! It's a ramble, it's a chat, it's very much business as usual. Topics discussed this week include novellas, Kelly Robson's "Gods, Monsters and the Lucky Peach", the persistence of fairy tales in modern fantasy, and the new anthology Robots v. Fairies.  The frankly dodgy Western Australian internet connection didn't quite hold out until the end, so the chat ends a little short, though complete.   As always, we hope you enjoy the episode. Next week: John Kessel and Theodora Goss are scheduled to discuss their new novels and the fascination with Frankenstein.

The Coode Street Podcast returns for 2018 with a very special opening episode. Today Gary and Jonathan sat down to talk with SFWA Grand Master, World Fantasy Award Lifetime Achievement recipient, and Nebula Award winner Jane Yolen to talk to her about her life as a storyteller, her new collection The Emerald Circus, her forthcoming Holocaust novel Mapping the Bones, and what it means to have multiple careers as an author of children’s picture books, young adult novels, historical fiction, SF and fantasy, and poetry. As always, we would like to thank Jane for taking the time to talk to us and hope you enjoy the episode. We'll be back next week with more!

In the brief hiatus between Christmas and New Year, a final episode for 2018. Jonathan and Gary take a moment to sit down in the Gershwin Room and discuss the books they're looking forward to in 2018, a range of novels, novellas, collections, and anthologies that should interest any genre reader. Of course, to find out what they recommend you'll need to listen to the episode! Normal service will resume in the second week of January, but until then sincere thanks to everyone who has appeared on the Coode Street Podcast, contributed to it in any way, and special thanks to everyone who has listened in, either live in Helsinki or to any of our regular episodes.  May the rest of the holidays treat you well, and may 2018 be a safe, happy, and healthy year for you and yours.

After our longest break ever, the Coode Street Podcast returns to regular programming with a discussion of the year in review. Gary and Jonathan discuss their favourite novels, collections, anthologies, novellas, and nonfiction books of 2017, and end up sounding pretty optimistic about the year. As always, we hope you enjoy today's episode. We'll see you next week!

This week we are joined by Chesley and World Fantasy Award-winning designer, art director, editor and publisher Irene Gallo to discuss how she came to join Tor Books back in the 1990s, her career as an art director, her role in helping to establish Tor.com, and her work as Associate Publisher at Tor.com Publishing. As always, we'd like to thank Irene for taking the time to talk to us and hope you enjoy the episode. See you in  while!

This week we’re joined by the fabulous Nnedi Okorafor, whose Akata Warrior (sequel to Akata Witch) will be published next week, and whose Binti: The Night Masquerade (concluding her award-winning Binti trilogy of novellas) is due in January. We discuss not only these books, but the ongoing excitement about the possible TV adaptation of Who Fears Death?, the forthcoming novel Remote Control, the growing awareness of African and Naijamerican SF and fantasy, her work in comics and graphic novels, her Star Wars short story, and the problems of juggling academic work with writing. Nnedi is one of the busiest writers in the field these days, and her insights, as always, are fascinating.

This week, we are joined by distinguished critics Niall Harrison, late of Strange Horizons, and Liz Bourke, whose latest collection of reviews and essays is Sleeping With Monsters: Readings and Reactions in Science Fiction and Fantasy (Aqueduct), to discuss the debut novels of 2017 that we’re all excited or curious about. Here are some of the titles that come up in the discussion: Annalee Newitz, Autonomous Theodora Goss, The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter Karin Tidbeck, Amatka Robyn Bennis, The Guns Above Lara Elena Donnelly, Amberlough Ruthanna Emrys, Winter Tide Cat Sparks, Lotus Blue Nicky Drayden, The Prey of Gods Marek Sindelka, Aberrant Prayaag Akbar, Leila Rivers Solomon, An Unkindness of Ghosts Megan Hunter, The End We Start From Mohsin Hamid, Exit West Christopher Brown, Tropic of Kansas Sam Miller, The Art of Starving N.J. Campbell, Found Audio There's a long list of debuts with links to reviews and ordering here.  Here are specific recommendations and shout-outs from Liz and Niall: Liz Bourke The Guns Above, Robyn Bennis (Tor) Amberlough, Lara Elena Donnelly (Tor) The Prey of Gods, Nicky Drayden (HarperVoyager) Winter Tide, Ruthanna Emrys (Tor.com) The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter, Theodora Goss (Saga) Lotus Blue, Cat Sparks (Talos) Strange Practice, Vivian Shaw (Orbit US) Gods & Monsters: Food of the Gods, Cassandra Khaw (Rebellion/Abaddon US) The Tiger’s Daughter, K Arsenault Rivera (Tor) Barbary Station, R. E. Stearns (Saga) Autonomous, Annalee Newitz (Tor) Niall Harrison Books that I have read and recommend: Leila by Prayaag Akbar (Simon & Schuster India) Spaceman of Bohemia, Jaroslav Kalfar (Sceptre) Aberrant, Marek Šindelka (Twisted Spoon Press) Amatka, Karin Tidbeck (Vintage) Books that I am particularly keen to read that other people did not mention (i.e. excluding Goss, Newitz, Brown): An Unkindness of Ghosts, Rivers Solomon (Akashic Books) American War, Omar Al Akkad (Picador) An Excess Male,  Maggie Shen King (Harper Voyager) A first fantastic novel rather than first novel, but excellent: Exit West, Mohsin Hamid (Penguin) Not a novel at all, but a notable debut: Her Body and Other Parties, Carmen Maria Machado (Graywolf Press) As always, our thanks to Liz and Niall.   

Annalee Newitz, who writes on the cultural impact of science and technology for Ars Technica and who founded and edited io9.com, delivers her debut novel Autonomous this month. Annalee joined Gary and Jonathan in Helsinki, Finland where they were all attending WorldCon 75, to discuss Autonomous, science fiction, and the power of being able to tell stories about how science influences the world. As always,Gary and Jonathan would like to thank Annalee for joining us, and hope you enjoy the podcast.