The Coode Street Podcast

Mar 30 2025 678 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 673: Much Ado About March

Mar 30 2025 50 mins

With apologies for an unplanned hiatus, during which Gary traveled to Florida to attend the International Conference on the Fantastic, we’re back with a discussion that touches upon awards (again, but briefly), SF writers who are also good nonfiction writers, books whose 25th anniversary is this year (including Perdido Street Station), tribute anthologies such as Jonathan’s for

Episode 672: We've probably forgotten something important

Mar 01 2025 62 mins

This week’s episode features a few news items, but as usual you have to listen closely to find them among our usual free-association digressions. Awards season is underway. Nominations/and or votging for the Nebulas, Locus Awards, and Hugo Awards (once again we are eligible in the Fancast category, and Jonathan in the Editor Short Form category) is underway, and just closed for t

Episode 671: Books We're Looking Forward to in 2025

Feb 01 2025 63 mins

Each year, we sit down and look at the year ahead and, inevitably, end up discussing the books we are looking forward to. This year we invited long time friends of the podcast Charlie Jane Anders and Ian Mond to join us. During a lively conversation it became clear that, no matter what else is happening in the world, there's a lot of wonderful work coming out in 2025, and this only

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