The Coode Street Podcast

Day six of the Coode Street Advent Calendar sees Jonathan chatting with the incredible Sequoia Nagamatsu about what he's been reading, what he'd recommend, what he might recommend for the holidays, and his fabulous debut novel, How High We Go in the Dark. As always, our thanks to Sequoia and we hope you enjoy the conversation.  

Ten minutes with... is a special series presented by Coode Street that sees readers and booklovers from around the world talk about what they're reading right now and what's getting them through these difficult times. Award-winning novelist and critic Nina Allan talks with Gary about what the lockdown has been like on a Scottish island almost devoid of the usual seasonal tourists, the appeal of golden age crime novels, the fascinating exercise of seeing how contemporary SFF works sometimes map onto older or classic works, the reissue of her collection Stardust (with a new story added!), and her forthcoming novels. Books mentioned include: Ruby by Nina Allan The Good Neighbors by Nina Allan (forthcoming 2021) The Last Astronaut by David Wellington Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke Engine Summer by John Crowley Cage of Souls by Adrian Tchaikovsky The Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe China Mountain Zhang by Maureen McHugh

Ten minutes with... is a special series presented by Coode Street that sees readers and booklovers from around the world talk about what they're reading right now and what's getting them through these difficult times. Over the past decade Daniel Abraham has become famous as half of James S.A. Corey, creators of The Expanse, but in addition to creating incredible space opera and great television, Daniel has crafted some of the best science fiction and fantasy of the past decade. Today he talks to Jonathan about reading, writing, and working during the pandemic, working for television, the work of Tim Powers and Carmen Maria Machado, and much more. You can listen to an excerpt from Daniel's story, "Yuli", right now and if you live in the US and are over 18 you can enter our sweepstakes to win one of ten copies by following this link! Books mentioned include: Tiamat's Wrath by James S.A. Corey Last Call by Tim Powers In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado The Plague by Albert Camus

Ten minutes with... is a special series presented by Coode Street that sees readers and booklovers from around the world talk about what they're reading right now and what's getting them through these difficult times. Today Jonathan fires up Skype and calls sunny New York to talk to the fabulous Nebula Award-winning author of The Only Harmless Great Thing, Brooke Bolander, about reading, writing and living during the pandemic, the comfort of reading somewhat grim nonfiction, and her contribution to The Book of Dragons. You can listen to an excerpt from Brooke's story, "Where the River Turns to Concrete", right now and if you live in the US and are over 18 you can enter our sweepstakes to win one of ten copies by following this link! Books mentioned include: The Only Harmless Great Thing by Brooke Bolander The Perfect Storm: A True Story of Men Against the Sea by Sebastian Junger In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex by Nathaniel Philbrick Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water by Marc Reisner Every Bone a Prayer by Ashley Blooms The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York by Robert A. Caro

This week Jonathan and Gary start out with something resembling a topic: the proliferation of subgenres, movements, and marketing categories in SF and fantasy: from the evolution of space opera in SF to the rise of epic fantasy (and Ballantine’s earlier term “adult fantasy”), as well as consciously developed movements such as the New Wave, cyberpunk, or Africanfuturism and new market categories such as “romantasy". After a wide-ranging discussion of the various ways of slicing up genres, we spend some time musing about the hot market for collectible, special, limited, and subscriber editions from publishers such as the Folio Society or Subterranean Press.

Jonathan and Gary kick off 2026 with no guests, but with the sort of wide-ranging ramble that some listeners seem to enjoy, and that others probably gave up on years ago. We talk about some books due in the new year, especially story collections by Samantha Mills, Amal El-Mohtar and others, how story collections can contribute to an author’s career, and whether it’s necessary to read the stories in the order in which the author presented them. But we also get discuss re-reading old favorites, whether Australian or UK authors get a fair shake in the US these days, and what our listeners would like to hear about in the new year. Feel free to offer ideas, comments, and suggestions at Coodestreet (@) gmail.com.

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. As usual, we mention a lot of authors and titles, and probably forget to mention many deserving others. But you’ll no doubt find some suggestions you hadn’t thought of, and some of our usual digressions about familiar questions of genre, literary ambition, and books that at least some of us think have been overlooked. Alex's list Adrian Tchaikovsky, Shroud Claire North, Slow Gods Darkly Lem, Transmentation | Transgression EJ Swift, When There Are Wolves Again Alastair Reynolds, Halcyon Years Emily Tesh, The Incandescent The Isle in the Silver Sea, Tasha Surii Ian's list Mark Danielewski, Tom’s Crossing Alex Pheby, Waterblack Isaac Fellman, Notes from a Regicide Nnedi Okorafor, Death of the Author Nick Mamatas, Kalivas! James's list Claire North, Slow Gods EJ Swift, When There Are Wolves Again Laila Lalami, The Dream Hotel Nina Allan, A Granite Silence Sarah Hall, Helm Catherine Chidgey, The Book of Guilt. Gary's list Alix Harrow, The Everlasting Laila Lalami, The Dream Hotel Natalia Theodoridou, Sour Cherry R.F. Kuang, Katabasis Silvia Moreno-Garcia, The Bewitching Jonathan's list Alix E. Harrow, The Everlasting EJ Swift, When There Are Wolves Again Emily Tesh, The Incandescent Nina Allan, A Granite Silence Silvia Park, Luminous After a very busy end of the year, that's the final episode for 2025. See you all in early 2026 with something new! And thank you to Alex, Ian, and James for making time to talk to us. We hope you enjoy the episode.  

The Forever War, the debut novel from US writer Joe Haldeman, was first published by St Martins Press in 1974. It was shortlisted for the Locus Award, and was awarded the Hugo and Nebula Awards as Best SF Novel of the year. It went on to become recognised as an essential classic of the science fiction field, was listed as #1 in the Gollancz Science Fiction Masterworks, and has never been out of print. On a Saturday afternoon at the recent Glasgow World Science Fiction Convention, Jonathan and Gary and a boisterous crowd of science fiction fans welcomed John Scalzi, Gay Haldeman, and Joe Haldeman to discuss the 50th Anniversary of The Forever War and why it is so beloved. Our thanks for Joe, Gay, and John for taking part, to the crowd for their support, and to the wonderful tech team from Glasgow 2024: A Worldcon for Our Futures for making the recording possible.

For any listeners who have missed our longstanding tradition of almost unfettered rambling, we turn our attention this week to the questions of how and why certain novels and writers seem to hold up better than others, how younger readers can enjoy some older classics while completely tuning out others, and the difference between books that celebrate old traditions as opposed to books that seek to reinvent the field, or that are simply sui generis. We touch upon a few novels from 50 years ago, like The Mote in God’s Eye, The Dispossessed, Dhalgren, and The Forever War, books that seem to find new readers in each generation, and writers who seem to fade away with time.

We’re delighted to welcome to Coode Street Lev Grossman, bestselling author of The Magicians trilogy, to discuss his major new Arthurian novel The Bright Sword, which appears from Viking in July. We touch upon earlier versions of Arthurian fiction by T.H. White, John Steinbeck, Bernard Cornwell, Nicola Griffith, and others, the balance between historical research and pure fantasy invention, the development of characters based on little or no historical evidence, and even Lev’s earlier career as a critic for Time magazine, when he helped bring fantasy literature into the mainstream. Order it here: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/554241/the-bright-sword-by-lev-grossman/

On the fiftieth anniversary of his groundbreaking anthology Wandering Stars: An Anthology of Jewish Science Fiction and Fantasy, we’re joined by the terrific author and editor Jack Dann. During our conversation, we mention his new collection Islands of Time—published almost exactly 50 years after his first book— as well as his The Fiction Writer’s Guide to Alternate History and some of his classic novels like The Memory Cathedral and The Rebel. Mostly, though, we discuss how that classic anthology evolved, in part from his friendship with Pamela Sargent and George Zebrowski, what the anthology meant in 1974, and how the nature of Jewish science fiction has evolved over the decades.

This week Hugo and Nebula nominee Wole Talabi joins Jonathan and Gary for a wide-ranging discussion celebrating the publication of his wonderful first novel Shigidi and the Brass Head of Obalufon and his Hugo Award-nominated novelette, "A Dream of Electric Mothers". We discuss the recent worldwide recognition of African SFF, his use of Yoruba religion and mythology in his novel, the importance of movies (especially heist movies)to his work, the nature of Africanfuturism, his attraction to SF as a professional engineer, and his future plans—including a new volume of short fiction due next spring.

Aurora award winner Sarah Tolmie chats with Gary about what she's been reading, what she'd recommend, her holiday recommendations, and her fabulous new novella All the Horses of Iceland (Tordotcom), which was one of our favourite books of the year. As always, we'd like to thank Sarah for making the time to talk to us, and we hope you enjoy the episode.

As we move closer and closer to the end of the Advent Calendar, Jonathan sits down with good friend of the podcast Christopher Rowe to discuss what he's been reading, what he'd recommend, his holiday reads, and what he's been working on, including his wonderful new novella These Prisoning Hills, which came out earlier this year. As always, our thanks to Christopher for making time to talk to us, and we hope you enjoy the conversation.

And for the sixteenth day of the Advent Calendar, something a little special. Today Jonathan talks to the delightful C.S.E Cooney about what she's been reading, what she'd recommend, her holiday recommendations, and her absolutely wonderful new novel Saint Death's Daughter and collection Dark Breakers. As always, our thanks to Clare for making the time to talk to us, and we hope you enjoy the episode.

Hugo and Nebula Award winner Charlie Jane Anders joins Gary for the 14th instalment of the Advent Calendar to discuss what she's been reading, what she'd recommend, her favourite holiday reads, and her fabulous new novel, Dreams Bigger Than Heartbreak, the latest in her new Unstoppable young adult space opera series. As always, our thanks to Charlie Jane, and we hope you enjoy the episode.

The holidays are in full swing. Hopefully, everyone is on top of their seasonal shopping and ready to relax and have fun. But if not, we can help. Today Gary sits down with Liz Williams, the award-winning author of Comet Weather, Blackthorn Winter, and the recently released Embertide, to discuss what Liz has been reading, what she'd recommend, what she's been working on, and, maybe, some holiday reading too. As always, our thanks to Liz. We hope you enjoy the episode.

As we move through the first week of December and into day nine of the Advent Calendar series, Gary spends some time chatting with the incredible Rachel Swirsky about what she's been reading, what she'd recommend, what she reads on the holidays, what work she has coming out, and her fabulous science fiction novella January Fifteenth (Tordotcom), which looks at how universal basic income might affect some of us. As always, our thanks to Rachel for making the time to talk to us. We hope you enjoy the episode!

For the eighth day of the Coode Street Advent Calendar, Jonathan called Tamsyn Muir, author of the New York Time Bestselling 'Locked Tomb' series, to talk about her somewhat unexpected novel Nona the Ninth, what she's been reading lately, what she'd recommend, and her thoughts on holiday reads. As always, we would like to thank Tamsyn for taking the time to chat with us and hope you enjoy the episode.

Welcome to episode 25 of Season 12 of The Coode Street Podcast. This week Jonathan and Gary sit down with the very talented and extremely busy Sheree Renée Thomas to discuss her award-winning collection Nine Bar Blues, her first year editing the venerable Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, the lasting impact of her Dark Matter anthologies, her forthcoming anthologies Trouble the Waters: Tales from the Deep Blue (co-edited with Pan Morrigan and Troy L. Wiggins) and Africa Risen: A New Era of Speculative Fiction (co-edited with Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki and Zelda Knight, her own experiences growing up as an SF and horror reader, and the new age of recognizing African and African diaspora SFF.  It’s a pretty lively conversation. As always, our sincere thanks to Sheree Renée Thomas, and we hope you enjoy the episode.   Order now!