The Coode Street Podcast

With Gary's commitments fulfilled, we once again headed to the Gershwin Room, where we were joined by award-winning writer Nancy Kress to discuss writing, science fiction, the future, and all sorts of other interesting stuff. As always, we hope you enjoy the podcast and will see you next week!

The quiet days after the New Year, when Coode Street scribes spend their days slowly summarising the moments of the  year just gone and contemplating what the year ahead might bring, pass slowly in the chill of Chicago and the sweltering heat of the Antipodes. With little specific to discuss, we nonetheless headed to the Waldorf Room high atop the Coode St Motel Six, with no clear intention of what would unfold. Moments before podcasting began, though, a query came through from James Bradley, asking our thoughts on excellent contemporary fantasy. Interest piqued, we discussed, we listed and we chatted. While we would love to hear listeners recommendations, these are the books we discussed (and recommended) during the podcast: Contemporary Fantasy Novels (in the order mentioned on the podcast) Mythago Wood, Robert Holdstock The Drowning Girl, Caitlin R. Kiernan Last Call, Tim Powers Ysabel, Guy Gavriel Kay The Limits of Enchantment, Graham Joyce The Wizard Knight, Gene Wolfe The Golden Compass, Philip Pullman Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, Susanna Clarke Perfect Circle, Sean Stewart Waking the Moon, Elizabeth Hand Wizard of Pigeons, Megan Lindholm The Scar, China Mieville The Prestige, Christopher Priest Who Fears Death, Nnedi Okorafor The Brides of Roll-Rock Island, Margo Lanagan Was, Geoff Ryman The list has its flaws and omissions (one we reason we'd love your recommendations), but it's a starting point for discussing an interesting subject. Our thanks to James for his question. At podcast's end we briefly also discuss some points of comparison with the Locus All-Time Poll recently released, and encourage others to run their own similar polls. As always, we hope you enjoy the podcast!

This week we headed up to the Gershwin Room to discuss the recently announced Locus All Time Poll results, writing for the end of the year and other similarly pre-New Year's Eve kinds of things. As always,  we hope you enjoy the podcast!

This week we're joined in the Gershwin Room by newly annointed SFWA Grand Master Gene Wolfe to discuss writing, his work, his new novel, and much more.  We had hoped to feature listener questions, and would like to sincerely thank everyone who sent questions in, but they ended up not quite fitting the format. We are sincerely grateful, however, to everyone who wanted to be involved.  As always, we hope you enjoy the podcast!

This week we return to the Gershwin Room to chat with Maureen McHugh, award-winning author of novels China Mountain Zang, Half the Day is Night, Mission Child, and Nekropolis, and the short story collections Mothers and Other Monsters and After the Apocalypse. We discuss her time in Los Angeles and how it is affecting her writing, the nature of story, and many other things.  As always, we hope you enjoy the podcast! PS: This podcast is usually cross-posted at www.jonathanstrahan.com.au/wp, however that site is unavailable at the moment. The episode will be published there when service is restored.

After a long delay due to technical issues with our hosting service, Podbean, we are now able to bring you the latest episode of The Coode Street Podcast. Episode 126 was recorded on Sunday, 9 December by Jonathan Strahan and Gary K. Wolfe, who rambled about various subjects to do with science fiction and fantasy. The recording was done so long ago, though, that neither podcaster quite remembers what they discussed or is willing to listen to the podcast to find out what.  If you do listen to the podcast, please consider describing this episode in the comments. "General rambling", commenters are reminded, is a category and not a description.  Although we don't remember the podcast, we still hope you enjoy it. We'll be back next weekend, technology permitting, with a new episode!

In one of our most problem-free podcasts of recent times, Gary Wolfe and Jonathan Strahan return to the Waldorf Room high atop the corporate tower that is the Coode Street Motel Six to discuss lists, the Locus All-Time Poll that has just closed, and essays/articles by Paul McAuley on "Lets Put the Future Behind Us" and Jonathan McAlmont on "Annoyed with the History of Science Fiction", with passing reference to Gary Westfahl and Paul Kincaid (but only passing). Along the way lists were made, recommendations avoided, and a laugh or two was had. It's one of our longest podcasts of recent times, for which apologies, but as always we hope you enjoy it. See you next week!

And now the podcast that technology did not want you to hear! When the Coode Street team traveled to Toronto, Canada for the 2012 World Fantasy Convention we planned and recorded a series of podcasts that have become known as the Great Lost Coode St Podcasts. Five podcasts cruelly wiped by idiosyncratic technology (and definitely not incompetent users) featuring Jo Walton, Guy Gavriel Kay, Robert Shearman & Ellen Klages, James Blaylock & Tim Powers, and Graham Joyce. This week Graham Joyce incredibly kindly agreed to try again, to join us via Skype and have an entirely new conversation about fiction, fairy tale and much, much more.  And five minutes into recording Skype, for the first time in 124 podcasts, crashed.  Ignoring all of the signals from the universe that this podcast was not meant to happen, we pushed forward and despite a slightly tinny connection and the accidental return of the dreaded stereo, ended up with a conversation that we think totally rewarded our persistence. We hope you'll agree. Our sincere thanks to Graham Joyce who persisted despite our incompetence and was exceediingly kind and generous with his time.

With jetlag slowly disappearing into the haze of memory, we once again ascended to the Waldorf Room high above the Coode St Motel 6 to discuss science fiction, list making, new writers, C.J. Cherryh, recnogition and other stuff. As always, we hope you enjoy the podcast!

And just like that, World Fantasy Convention is a thing of the past. Awards were won, podcasts lost, and good times had by all.  This week, suffering from terrible jetlag, we muddle through a rambling discussion of some of the high points of the week in Toronto. Apologies for the odd stereo on this one. Another technical glitch, but it will be remedied next week. As always, we hope you enjoy the podcast.