The Coode Street Podcast

Avsnitt

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  Episode 726: Jonathan's busiest year ever 26.07.2026 1h 13min

  In this week’s episode, we sort of turn the tables on Jonathan to discuss the art of assembling anthologies, and in particular no fewer than four books he has coming out over the next few months: Revolution in the Heart: Stories Inspired by Ursula K. Le Guin, The Book of the Dead, Vaster Than Empires:, Speculative Fiction of the Eternal and the Ephemeral , and The Locus Best Science Fiction & Fantasy of the Year: Volume 1. Not surprisingly, there is a story behind each of these. One honors one of our greatest writers, another continues a popular series that began with The Book of Dragons and The Book of Witches, a third comes from MIT Press, and the fourth includes stories voted on by jurors at Locus magazine. Along the way we both get to mention some of our favorite writers, along with new discoveries and other surprises—in other words, why anthologies are almost always fun to read. Order links: Revolution in the Heart, Titan Books, September The Book of  the Dead, Harper Voyager, October 2026 Vaster than Empires, MIT Press, November 2026 The Locus Best Science Fiction & Fantasy of the Year: Volume 1, Locus Press, November 2026
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  Episode 725: Amal El-Mohtar and the Seasons of Glass and Iron 12.07.2026 1h 4min

  This week, Jonathan and Gary are joined by multiple award winning writer and critic Amal El-Mohtar, whose first story collection Seasons of Glass and Iron appeared earlier this year, and whose novella The River has Roots has won Nebula and Locus awards for 2026. We talk about our favorite stories in the collection, a diverse range of writers including Patricia McKillip, J.R.R. Tolkien, Hope Mirrlees, Virginia Woolf, and Charle de Lint, and about Amal’s own experiences as a writer of Lebanese descent living in Canada and Glasgow. We hope that what the discussion lacks in focus, it makes up with Amal’s sharp insights as a writer of fiction, poetry, and criticism (in her occasional New York Times Book Review columns).
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  Episode 724: On Jane Yolen, small presses, and more 16.06.2026 1h 7min

  Many podcasts far more professional than ours have offered discrete segments covering different topics, so this week we decided to carefully organize the episode—wait, no we didn’t; we’re just rambling again. But we do begin with a small tribute to Jane Yolen, both a great writer and a great friend, which leads into some musings on how reputations are made and sustained. We then touch upon the recent Nebula Awards, the role of small presses like Subterranean, and some exciting new books we’re reading, including Jacly Moriarty’s Time Travel for Beginners. By our standards, all this is carefully planned and laser-focused.
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  Episode 723: Molly Tanzer and the Nature of Art 24.05.2026 53min

  Jonathan and Gary are delighted to welcome the wonderful Molly Tanzer, whose new novella And Side by Side They Wander is just out this week. Although it involves apparently benign alien visitors, a post-apocalyptic post-United States, corporate overreach, and a fair bit of space opera, the novella's main focus is art, who really owns it, how we interact with it, and whether even a molecularly exact reproduction is ever the same as the original. Molly also shares with us what it's like to revisit the world of C.L. Moore's classic pulp hero Jirel of Joiry in a new series of stories, and what she has planned for the future. As always, it's a wide-ranging discussion which at times almost gets downright philosophical.
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  Episode 722: Jeffrey Ford's Pandemonium Waltz 03.05.2026 1h 7min

  Jeffrey Ford's eight full length collection, Pandemonium Waltz, was published by Lethe Press back in February. Ever since we've been meaning to sit down with him to discuss the new book, his approach to short story writing, how he assembles short story collections, and more. We're delighted to have had the chance this week, to discuss the book, how retirement in rural Ohio is reflected in some of his recent fiction, and why some stories may not have shown up in any of his collections so far. As always, we hope you enjoy the discussion, and our thanks to Jeff for making the time to talk to us. Order Order Pandemonium Waltz from the publisher (with extra art!)  
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  Episode 721: On Ballard, biography and books 19.04.2026 58min

  This week, Jonathan and Gary sit down and talk some new and forthcoming books, including our mutual choices for favorite book of the year so far. Gary starts by describing a book which he just finished and found particularly moving: The Illuminated Man: Life, Death and the Worlds of J. G. Ballard, Christopher Priest and Nina Allan, which he says reads more like a novel than a biography, with Priest’s final illness becoming a significant theme in portions written by Allan. They also discuss The Recollections: Fragments from a Life in Writing, a collection of Priest's writings from Briardene Books. Gary then goes on to recommend Frances Spufford's Nonesuch as his book of the year so far, Jonathan recommends S.L. Huang’s new novella The Language of Liars and then talks about what it’s like to reread The Fellowship of the Ring after a long tome.   Of course, there are the usual digressions into things like the New Wave, the popularity of romantasy, the immense length of some literary classics, and other matters. As always, we hope you enjoy the episode!
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  Episode 720: Alexandra Pierce, Ian Mond, and The Totally Temporary Book Club 22.03.2026 56min

  With Gary away at the International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts in Florida, and celebrating his 80th birthday (!!!!!), Jonathan sat down to chat with Alexandra Pierce and Ian Mond about why we read books, why we talk about and review them, and three great new books from 2026 that we loved. Along the way, we talked about Johanna Bell's The Department of the Vanishing, S.L. Huang's The Language of Liars, and Francis Spufford's Nonesuch, which led to the spontaneous inaugural meeting of The Totally Temporary Book Club, because by sheer chance all three had read and loved it. The books in this episode are: Johanna Bell's The Department of the Vanishing; S.L. Huang's The Language of Liars; and  Francis Spufford's Nonesuch.
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  Episode 719: Ishiguro, Dinniman, and genre expectations in story 08.03.2026 1h 1min

  As usual, Jonathan and Gary raise a number of thorny questions about reading SF and fantasy, and resolve none of them. Beginning with Jonathan’s account of his recent reading of Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go, we speculate on what sort of expectations we bring as readers to novels in which the interiority of the characters is privileged over the SF elements, whether a novel can do both, and whether the reading protocols are different for different genres. This leads toward a customarily rambling discussion that touches upon everything from Jo Walton and Ada Palmer’s new nonfiction book Trace Elements to novels by Le Guin, Wolfe, Bujold and others, and eventually leads us to a consideration of Matt Dinniman’s Dungeon Crawler Carl novels, along with books we’re either reading right now or looking forward to in the next few weeks.
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  Episode 718: Michael Swanwick and The Universe Box 22.02.2026 58min

  Today Jonathan and Gary are joined by Nebula, World Fantasy,  and five-time Hugo Award winner Michael Swanwick to discuss the origins of some of his stories, the life and craft of the professional writer, and his extraordinary new short story collection, The Universe Box. As always, our thanks to Michael for making time to talk to us. We hope you enjoy the conversation!  
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  Episode 717: Activism, reviewing, books to look forward to, and a little about the weather 08.02.2026 1h 2min

  As always, the Coode Street Motel Six bestrides continents, so after briefly comparing notes on the weather in Perth and Chicago, Gary and Jonathan get down to it and chat about the subjects of the moment.   How do you talk about books and what was the weather like? The importance of settings in fiction, especially regarding climate and weather, and the broader question of whether readers can ever fully appreciate a setting dissimilar to their own and how book reviewers might take this into account. This includes a brief discussion of translated fiction—a welcome new category in this year’s Locus Awards.   Anthologies and activism The significance of advocacy anthologies that may reflect anything from feminist SF (as in Vonda McIntyre and Susan Janice Anderson’s Aurora: Beyond Equality (1976) to antiwar works to promoting the New Wave.    Books we’re looking forward to In a new segment,  we list a few books that we are looking forward to that will be published in the coming weeks.   Jonathan talks about A.G. Slatter's A Forest, Darkly, Adrian Tchaikovsky's Pretenders to the Throne of God, Paul McAuley's Loss Protocol, and A.D Sui's debut The Iron Garden Sutra.   Gary’s list includes  Rebecca Roanhorse’s River of Bones and Other Stories and The Best of Adrian Tchaikovsky, a novella by Ian McDonald, Boy, with Accidental Dinosaur, and nonfiction study of SFF by Ada Palmer and Jo Walton, Trace Elements: Conversations on the Project of Science Fiction and Fantasy. 
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  Episode 716: Dystopias, cozy fiction and other dilemmas 26.01.2026 44min

  There are snowstorms blowing where Gary is and Jonathan can see rain falling outside in Perth's midsummer, but the Motel Six has been safely relocated and the Gershwin Room is open once again. Conversation starts off, perhaps incoherently, with dystopias and dystopian fiction, segues to Travis Baldree and the somewhat misdescribed notion of cozy fiction, and then wanders here and there before Jonathan has to head off for a family event. Nothing was resolved, but almost no conversational gambits were harmed during recording. As always, we hope you enjoy the ramble, and will be back with more before you know it!
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  Episode 715: The one we recorded in between recording the other ones 11.01.2026 58h 41min

  Gary and Jonathan start 2026 with an informal chat about reading, re-reading, short story collections, and more.
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  Episode 714: The Year in Books with James Bradley, Ian Mond, and Alex Pierce 28.12.2025 1h 32min

  For our year-end discussion of 2025 books, we’re joined by Locus reviewers Ian Mond and Alex Pierce, and distinguished critic and novelist James Bradley.
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  Episode 713: The Coode Street Advent Calendar 2025 - Day 25 - E. J. Swift 24.12.2025 18min

  E.J. Swift's sixth novel, When There Are Wolves Again, is one of the standout science fiction novels of 2025. For the final instalment of the Coode Street Advent Calendar for 2025, Jonathan chats with Emma about what she has been reading and would recommend, the writing and publication of When There Are Wolves Again, her holiday reading, and what she has coming up next. As always, our thanks to Emma for making time to chat with us. Our thanks also to everyone who has taken part in the Advent Calendar. We hope you enjoy this and all of the other episodes.
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  Episode 712: The Coode Street Advent Calendar 2025 - Day 24 - Ursula Vernon 24.12.2025 23min

  It's December 24, the final day of Advent, and Coode Street has just two more episodes to go before our holiday break. Today, Gary and Jonathan chat with Ursula Vernon about her writing alter-ego T.Kingfisher, about what she's read lately and would recommend, her recent work like Hemlock & Silver, What Stalks the Deep and Snake-Eater, her holiday traditions, and what she's been working on and has coming out including Wolf Worm and Daggerbound. As always, our thanks to Ursula for making time to talk to us today. We hope you enjoy the episode.
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  Episode 711: The Coode Street Advent Calendar 2025 - Day 23 - Tochi Onyebuchi 23.12.2025 17min

  World Fantasy and Ignyte winner Tochi Onyebuchi joins Gary for a brief but wide-ranging discussion that touches upon his genre-hopping 2025 novel Harmattan Season, his fascinating Internet memoir Racebook: A Personal History of the Internet, the virtues of Roberto Bolaño and Dostoevsky, and Tochi’s own work in progress. As always, our thanks to Tochi for making time to talk to us. We hope you enjoy the episode.
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  Episode 710: The Coode Street Advent Calendar 2025 - Day 22 - James S.A. Corey 22.12.2025 27min

  Today Jonathan and Gary spend some time talking to Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck, who write together as "James S.A. Corey", about what they've been reading, what they'd recommend, their seasonal reading and viewing, and their upcoming new novel, The Faith of Beasts. We also touch upon progress on Daniel's third Kithamar novel and their ongoing project to write an entirely new novel right before your very eyes: James SA Corey writes a novel. As always, our thanks to Daniel and Ty for making the time to talk to us. We hope you enjoy the episode.
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  Episode 709: The Coode Street Advent Calendar 2025 - Day 21 - Francis Spufford 21.12.2025 36min

  As both the Advent Calendar and the year move slowly towards a close, Gary and Jonathan chat with Francis Spufford, author of Golden Hill, Light Perpetual, and the wonderful Cahokia Jazz about what he's been reading, what he'd recommend, his holiday reading traditions and his incredible novel, Nonesuch. As always, our thanks to Francis for making time to talk to us today. We hope you enjoy the episode.
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  Episode 708: The Coode Street Advent Calendar 2025 - Day 20 - Becky Chambers 20.12.2025 19min

  For Day 20 of the Coode Street Advent Calendar, Gary and Jonathan talk to Hugo Award winning author of the Wayfarer series, Becky Chambers, about what Becky's been reading and would recommend, holiday reading and viewing traditions, publication of the Monk and Robot, and a brand new novel that should be out in 2026.. As always, our thanks to Becky for making time to talk to us. We hope you enjoy the episode.
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  Episode 707: The Coode Street Advent Calendar 2025 - Day 19 - Natalia Theodoridou 19.12.2025 18min

  Gary talks with World Fantasy and Nebula Award winning writer Natalia Theodoridou, whose Bluebeard-inspired Sour Cherry was one of this year’s outstanding debut novels. We touch upon reading Samantha Harvey’s Orbital and whether or not it’s SF, the brilliance of Vajra Chandrasekera, Natalia’s own first novel, his short fiction, and his current writing plans.  As always, our thanks to Natalia for making time to talk to us. We hope you enjoy the episode.