The Coode Street Podcast

This week we return to the Gershwin Room to discuss what we’ve been reading lately, what we’re anticipating, what do you when you encounter a story by an idol or a good friend which isn’t quite up to standard, and what the state of political science fiction is, with both Orwell’s 1984 and Sinclair Lewis’s It Can’t Happen Here returning to the U.S. bestseller lists for the first time in decades. We also discuss political action within the science fiction field towards the end of the podcast, and touch on Norman Spinrad's new novel. As always, we hope you enjoy the episode.

It's a brand new day. A dark, scary depressing day, maybe, but a brand new one. With the 45th president of the United States of America sworn in, Gary and Jonathan turned their attention to more typical things in the first rambling chat of the year. This week they start by chatting about recent trends in science fiction, most notably science fiction influenced by man-made climate change like Kim Stanley Robinson's New York 2140 and Cat Sparks' Lotus Blue, before talking at length about the upcoming World Science Fiction Convention in Helsinki, nominating for the Hugo awards (with some nomination suggestions), and finishing up talking about the recently released ballot for the Philip K. Dick Award. As always, we hope you enjoy the podcast. And if you do, please consider mentioning it to a friend!  

As promised, the wonderful Ellen Klages reads from her forthcoming book Passing Strange. The short reading starts about halfway into a story about two women living in San Francisco in 1940 and what happens to them. Our sincere thanks to Ellen for taking the time to record the reading. Passing Strange is due out on January 24. © 2017 Ellen Klages. All rights reserved.

And we're back! The bar has been re-stocked, the carpets have been steam cleaned, and we're ready to go. For the first podcast of 2017, long time friend of the podcast Ellen Klages joins us to discuss her wonderful new book, Passing Strange. Described by the publisher like this: San Francisco in 1940 is a haven for the unconventional. Tourists flock to the cities within the city: the Magic City of the World’s Fair on an island created of artifice and illusion; the forbidden city of Chinatown, a separate, alien world of exotic food and nightclubs that offer “authentic” experiences, straight from the pages of the pulps; and the twilight world of forbidden love, where outcasts from conventional society can meet. Six women find their lives as tangled with each other’s as they are with the city they call home. They discover love and danger on the borders where magic, science, and art intersect. Inspired by the pulps, film noir, and screwball comedy, Passing Strange is a story as unusual and complex as San Francisco itself from World Fantasy Award winning author Ellen Klages. Passing Strange is due out January 24, but you can pre-order it now. As always, we'd like to thank Ellen Klages for joining us and hope you enjoy the episode. We should be back next week with  new episode, and regularly through till Worldcon in August. © 2017 Coode Street Productions & Gary K. Wolfe. Please do not copy or reuse without permission.

The end of the year is upon us, and plans are subject to change. Our intention to do a bunch of end-of-the year episodes has been set aside because of deadlines and other commitments. Instead here’s a conversation about the history of the podcast, about our most disappointing and surprising books of 2016, and much more. During the episode we discuss the hiatus, and whether we’ll be returning in 2017 or not. The jury remains out on that, but there’ll be at least one more episode in January. Who knows beyond that? We’ll have to wait and see. Our sincere thanks to everyone who’s been a part of Coode Street this year and in previous years, and our sincerest holiday good wishes to one and all!

It’s the end of the year and time to talk about how it went, what’s worth reading, what could end up on your holiday gift lists, and what could be avoided. To kick off Coode Street’s end of year coverage, this week Roundtablers James Bradley and Ian Mond join Gary and Jonathan to discuss books they’ve loved during the year and would recommend to you, if you’re looking for some great reading. To help you chase down the books, our lists are below: James’s List The Underground Railroad, Colson Whitehead Hold, Kirsten Tranter Children of Earth and Sky, Guy Gavriel Kay Vision, Tom King, Gabriel Hernandez Walta & Mike de Mundo Barkskins, Annie Proulx Goldenhand, Garth Nix Into Everywhere, Paul McAuley Company Town, Madeleine Ashby Children of the New World, Alexander Weinstein Version Control, Dexter Palmer Europe in Winter, Dave Hutchinson Ian’s List Underground Airlines, Ben H. Winters The Sudden Appearance of Hope, Claire North Lovecraft Country, Matt Ruff Vigil, Angela Slatter I Am Providence, Nick Mamatas My Best Friend's Exorcism, Grady Hendrix What is Not Yours is Not Yours, Helen Oyeyemi Martin John, Anakana Schofield Solar Bones, Mike McCormack The Obelisk Gate, N K Jemisin Jonathan’s List Revenger, Alastair Reynolds Goldenhand, Garth Nix Children of Earth and Sky, Guy Gavriel Kay Bloom County XII: A New Hope, Berkeley Breathed Lovecraft Country, Matt Ruff Gary’s List The Underground Railroad, Colson Whitehead Revenger, Alastair Reynolds Children of Earth and Sky, Guy Gavriel Kay Central Station, Lavie Tidhar The Dream Quest of Vellitt Boe, Kij Johnson The Gradual, Christoper Priest The Ballad of Black Tom, Victor LaValle As always, our thanks to James and Ian, and we hope you enjoy the episode.  

This week we find ourselves talking about the resurgence of the novella in fantasy and SF, the possible reasons behind it, the changes in recent print magazines Asimov’s and Analog, the question of why short fiction seems to be moving in a digital direction whereas the novel not so much--and then we segue unconvincingly into questions of what gets reviewed and by whom, finally ending up with the problems in trying to find a workable definition of fantasy as compared to science fiction or horror. As always, we hope you enjoy the episode!

After a week off, we return to discuss just how science fictional the recent American elections are, whether political science fiction has ever had much impact on social attitudes or public policy, what if anything SF has to offer to the disenfranchised, and the representation of women and minorities as characters as well as contributors in recent anthologies like Jonathan’s Bridging Infinity. We also offer some thoughts on the recent World Fantasy Convention, the difficulties World Fantasy seems to be facing in terms of both awards and convention attendance, and whether there are really any professional conventions left in the SF field.

This week, from the World Fantasy Convention in Columbus, Ohio, Gary is joined by Hugo-winning David Levine (Arabella of Mars) and Andre Norton-winning Fran Wilde (Updraft, Cloudbound) to discuss various matters from Regency interplanetary adventures to bone cities to where SF titles come from,and balances between SF, fantasy, pulp traditions, and YA elements in SF’s emerging new eclecticism. As always, our thanks to David and Fran for making the time to talk to Gary. We hope you enjoy the episode!    

The Coode Street Podcast stumbles towards its three hundredth episode with another discursive chat between co-hosts Jonathan Strahan and Gary K. Wolfe. Topics this week include Bob Dylan, the Nobel and accepting awards; baseball in science fiction; and other stuff which, if we were honest, we might admit we don’t remember. Nonetheless, time was spent and we hope you enjoy the episode. Next week, World Fantasy, Columbus, Ohio, and more!