The Coode Street Podcast

Jan 18 2025 675 ep. 49 mins 2.7k

The Coode Street Podcast artwork

Discussion and digression on science fiction and fantasy with Gary K. Wolfe and Jonathan Strahan.

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Episode 670: Why is some work overlooked

Jan 18 2025 59 mins

For those who might have been hoping our 2025 podcasts might get a little more focused and coherent, our apologies. Following up on several discussions on social media about how to learn about overlooked but deserving novels (mostly fantasy), we speculate on the factors that help a book or author gain and keep some sort of traction. Reprint programs like the Gollancz Masterworks or

Episode 666: In which we discuss what to do with books

Jan 10 2025 56 mins

This week’s episode is mostly about books—how do you get them, where do you put them, and how to get rid of them when you need to. You’d think that questions such as the best way to shelve books would be pretty uncontroversial, but apparently that’s not always the case. We also touch upon the differences between collectors, acquirers, and accumulators, and how books can rad

Episode 669: On the importance of books and the beginning of a new year

Jan 10 2025 57 mins

For our first episode of 2025, we touch upon novels we've been reading for the new year, including Charles Stross’s 13th Laundry novel/collection A Conventional Boy and Ray Nayler’s Where the Axe is Buried, as well as the frustrations of reading books on deadlines—as opposed to wallowing in them at leisure, and some non-SF writers we like. Gary then mentions how hard it is to

Episode 669: On the importance of books and the beginning of a new year

Jan 05 2025 56 mins

For our first episode of 2025, we touch upon novels we've been reading for the new year, including Charles Stross’s 13th Laundry novel/collection A Conventional Boy and Ray Nayler’s Where the Axe is Buried, as well as the frustrations of reading books on deadlines—as opposed to wallowing in them at leisure, and some non-SF writers we like. Gary then mentions how hard it is to

Episode 666: In which we discuss what to do with books

Dec 23 2024 56 mins

This week’s episode is mostly about books—how do you get them, where do you put them, and how to get rid of them when you need to. You’d think that questions such as the best way to shelve books would be pretty uncontroversial, but apparently that’s not always the case. We also touch upon the differences between collectors, acquirers, and accumulators, and how books can rad

Episode 668: The Year in Books with James Bradley and Ian Mond

Dec 23 2024 68 mins

For our year-end review of 2024 books, we’re joined once again by fellow Locus reviewer Ian Mond 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

Episode 667: Jo Walton and the most iconic books of the 21st century

Dec 07 2024 58 mins

At the end of October Reactor published their list of The Most Iconic Speculative Fiction Books of the 21st Century, which attempted to list the best/top/favourite science fiction and fantasy books of the past 25 years. Two weeks later Hugo, Nebula, and World Fantasy award-winning writer Jo Walton published a follow-on piece on Reactor, On Selecting the Top Ten Genre Books of the F

Episode 665: Joe Monti and the State of Things

Nov 10 2024 62 mins

Long time friend of the podcast Joe Monti, who was recently promoted to Vice President, Associate Publisher, and Editorial Director at Saga Press, and is now officially a "Big Cheese', stops by for a wide-ranging chat about the impact of the pandemic and other events on the affordability of books; trends in recent science fiction, fantasy and horror and why science fiction may be s

Episode 664: Julie Phillips and talking about Ursula K. Le Guin

Oct 26 2024 82 mins

In celebration of the 50th anniversary of the publication of Ursula K. Le Guin’s classic The Dispossessed, we sit down for a chat with award-winning biographer and writer Julie Phillips, author of James Tiptree, Jr.: The Double Life of Alice B. Sheldon and The Baby on the Fire Escape: Creativity, Motherhood, and the Mind-Body Problem. Julie is currently at work on the authorized

Episode 663: How science fiction responds

Oct 13 2024 54 mins

For our first October episode, we try out another new opening, touch upon the recent catastrophic weather in Florida and the hazards of attempting near future SF in a rapidly changing world, with Norman Spinrad’s Russian Spring as one example. After a brief digression (what else?) on novels that extrapolate political decisions more than technological change—like the two novels