The Coode Street Podcast

The great Lost Podcasts of 2012 are a part of Coode Street Podcast lore. A sad and painful memory of four wonderful conversations ever lost to perfidious technology. This week one of the participants in those conversations, brilliant short story writer Robert Shearman, and living legend Howard Waldrop, join Gary and Jonathan in a special podcast recorded in Boston at Readercon 24. Much is discussed about the art of the short story, changes in contemporary culture, and more. As always, we hope you enjoy this episode of the podcast!

This week the Coode Street Podcast, or part of it, is on the move! With Readercon 24 in full swing, Gary has travelled to Burlington, Massachusetts and has corralled award-winning author of Little Big and the Aegypt sequence, John Crowley, and long-time friend of the podcast Peter Straub to take part in a fascinating discussion of genre and other things. As always, we hope you enjoy the podcast! 00:00 Introduction (flawed) 02:00 Discussion of reading and being influenced by early science fiction from the '50s and '60s, and the path from there to reading literature. 12:40 On how genre works and what makes the SF ideational space function. Mention of Bob Shaw's classic "Light of Other Days". 19:00 Peter discusses writing about fear, reading Ballard, and other influences. 30:00 On reading work as science fiction, including mention of John's novel The Translator. 35:00 On how writing SF/F is accepted to day in a way that it was not before. 40:00 Peter discusses his novel In the Night Room. 43:00 Story McGuffins and the death of the author. 50:00 Sequels, Lin Carter, book signings. 58:00 A brief discussion of what's next from Peter and John. As discussed in the podcast, you can order the 25th Anniversary Edition of Little Big, or just check it out.

In what is definitely the latest official instalment of the Coode Street Podcast, Gary and Jonathan sneak past the Jerome Kern Memorial Habachi Stand and settle down just near the Richard Rogers Habachi Grill to discuss many things. In an incredible development, this time the Production Gnomes of Coode Street have been able to produce a rough running schedule for the episode. Rejoice! 00:00   Introduction 05:00 Discussion of Kim Stanley Robinson's new novel Shaman, Werner Herzog's film Cave of Forgotten Dreams and prehistoric fiction. (This bit's shorter than you'd think it would be). 13:00:  Locus Awards winners, and Gary drops names. 30:00   Richard Matheson. 38:00   The Year in Fiction to Date (including our favorites and must reads of the year so far [though not really "must", just "we like it a lot and you might too"] 1:13:00 End Please let us know in comments about your favorite books of the year too! Next week we hope to be reporting in from Readercon. Until then, as always, we hope you enjoy the podcast!

As any regular listener knows all too well, hotel wifi is an unreliable friend.  With Gary away in Seattle at the Locus Awards weekend, we recorded this "safety" episode to make sure you'd have your weekly Coode Street fix,  It was recorded on June 23, and amongst other things we discuss the very sad recent deaths of Iain M. Banks, Jack Vance, and Parke Godwin, all of whom made significant contributions to our field  As always, we hope you enjoy this latest ramble.

This week M. John Harrison, award-winning author of Viriconium, The Course of the Heart, the "Empty Space" trilogy, and Climbers, joins Gary and Jonathan on the podcast to discuss publishing his new 'Autotelia' story "Cave and Julia" as a Kindle single, the literalisation of metaphor, pathways to reading the "Empty Space" trilogy, the influence of Arthur Machen on his work, short story as an experimental laboratory and many other things. It is, we think, a fascinating episode of the podcast and, as always, we hope you enjoy it!  Our sincere thanks to Mike for his time. We hope to continue the conversation some time soon.

This week we're delighted to welcome E. Lily Yu to the podcast. We discuss her work, writing, and all sorts of other stuff.  As always, we hope you enjoy the podcast. And, if you get the chance, try some of Lily's terrific new stories! "The Urashima Effect," Clarkesworld (June 2013). "The Forgetting Shiraz," Boston Review (May/June 2013). "Ilse, Who Saw Clearly," Apex Magazine (May 2013). "Loss, with Chalk Diagrams," Eclipse Online (March 2013).

This week, following a failed attempt at Wiscon, the incredible M. Rickert and Christopher Barzak make the long Skype-complicated journey to the Gershwin Room to talk to Gary and Jonathan about Wiscon, fantasy, living in the Mid-West, tribalism, Christopher's fantastic new collection Before and Afterlives,  and all sorts of other interesting things.  Mary also gave the Podcast a huge news scoop. She has sold her first novel, tentatively titled A Taste of Ash and Honey, to Source Books. It should be out in 2014, which is spectacularly exciting news. We can't wait to read the book and to have her back when it comes out.

With Gary just returned from Madiscon, Wisconsin, the glorious Concourse Hotel and the fun of Wiscon 37, where hotel wi-fi frustrated plans for live podcasting, he joined Jonathan in the Waldorf Room high above the Coode Street Motel Six to discuss the role of bookstores in helping readers to find unexpected, books we've not read (The Pride of Chanur and Downwards to the Earth!!), and lifetime achievement.  With nominations closing in just days, they exhorted listeners to nominate for the 2o13 World Fantasy Awards (nomination ballot here), and made special mention of Mary Stewart and Susan Cooper as possible Lifetime Achievement Award recipients. As always, Gary and Jonathan hope you enjoy the podcast!

Once again our hardy commentators, Jonathan Strahan and Gary K. Wolfe, climbed the stairs to the Waldorf Room, high above the Coode Street Motel Six, took in the breathtaking views of the science fiction field that can only be seen from the Gernsback Bar, and held forth on matters SFnal, including new and recent SF, awards and anthologies, and just dipped their toes into the beginnings of a possible discussion of politicised editing. As always, we hope you enjoy the podcast. See you next week!

After an extended break caused by travel and illness, our intrepid science fictioneers return to the Waldorf Room to continue their ongoing discussion of the science fiction field. There's every chance that some week now they'll find something new to talk about, but until now the old topics of awards, anthologies, conventions, and stuff will have to do. As always, we hope you enjoy the podcast! More next week, we promise.