The Coode Street Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

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The Coode Street Podcast

Jonathan Strahan & Gary K. Wolfe

Arts

Frequency: 1 episode/8d. Total Eps: 728

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

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🇨🇦 Canada - books
20/05/2026
#93
🇬🇧 Great Britain - books
22/04/2026
#76
🇩🇪 Germany - books
21/04/2026
#78
🇩🇪 Germany - books
18/10/2025
#74
🇨🇦 Canada - books
31/07/2025
#80
🇬🇧 Great Britain - books
06/07/2025
#95
🇬🇧 Great Britain - books
05/03/2025
#75
🇬🇧 Great Britain - books
04/03/2025
#73
🇨🇦 Canada - books
08/02/2025
#90
🇨🇦 Canada - books
07/02/2025
#53

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Score global : 32%

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

Episode 678

Sunday, February 2, 2025 • Duration 01:03:15

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 scratches the surface of it.

As always, our thanks to Charlie Jane and Ian for making the time to join us.

As promised, here are our lists.

Charlie Jane Anders

Oathbound, Tracy Deonn
Harriet Tubman Live in Concert, Bob the Drag Queen
Terms of Service, Ciel Pierlot
Notes from a Regicide, Isaac Fellman
Meet Me at the Crossroads, Megan Giddings
Harmattan Season, Tochi Onyebuchi

Ian Mond

Waterblack, Alex Pheby
The Crimson Road, A. G. Slatter
Exit Zero, Marie-Helene Bertino
Major Arcana, John Pistelli
The Antidote, Karen Russell

Gary K. Wolfe

Written on the Dark, Guy Gavriel Kay
When We Were Real, Daryl Gregory
A Granite Silence, Nina Allan
Frankenstein Rex, Adam Roberts
Lessons in Magic and Disaster, Charlie Jane Anders

Jonathan

Luminous, Silvia Park
Sour Cherry, Natalia Theodoridou
The Devils, Joe Abercrombie
The Everlasting, Alix E Harrow
All That We See or Seem, Ken Liu

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Episode 670: Why is some work overlooked

Episode 677

Sunday, January 19, 2025 • Duration 59:35

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 Tor Essentials might help, but we mention a handful of authors who have written wonderful work that is worth a fresh look, including Tanith Lee, Michael Bishop, Lisa Goldstein, Tim Powers, Michael Moorcock, Graham Joyce, and others. We also touch upon the notion of formula in SF and fantasy, and end with some of our current reading.

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Episode 663: How science fiction responds

Episode 668

Sunday, October 13, 2024 • Duration 54:42

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 that preceded the movie Dr. Strangelove, we touch upon the question of whether J.G. Ballard may catch the current zeitgeist in the same way Philp K. Dick did a generation ago.

Finally, a few more short digressions on whether awards like World Fantasy can significantly influence a book's sales or reputation, on the value of “best of” anthologies, and on what makes a good gift book for the forthcoming holiday season.

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Episode 574: Kickstarters, communities, and more

Episode 580

Sunday, March 6, 2022 • Duration 01:11:21

After reminding listeners that the deadline for Hugo nominations is fast approaching on March 15 (and reminding them once again of the eligibility of this podcast for Best Fancast and of Jonathan for Best Editor, Short Form), we move on to the much-discussed, record-setting Brandon Sanderson Kickstarter, and the question of whether it really matters to anyone other than Sanderson and his readers. Acknowledging that Sanderson readers are fully likely to get exactly what they are expecting, this led us into a brief discussion of reader expectations, also the topic of a recent essay by Molly Templeton on Tor.com. While occasionally we come across a book with almost no prior knowledge or publicity, most books come with expectations based on the author’s previous work, or even the publisher’s reputation.

Some of the authors discussed here, and some that Jonathan and Gary are currently reading or expecting to read, include Guy Gavriel Kay, R.F. Kuang, Kelly Barnhill, Nghi Vo, John Crowley, and Karen Joy Fowler. At the end, we touch briefly upon the question of history in fiction, and the different strategies of using entirely fictional characters, almost entirely historical figures, or a mixture of both.

Episode 573: The 2021 Locus Recommended Reading List

Episode 574

Sunday, February 20, 2022 • Duration 56:01

This week, in our more-or-less annual discussion of the Locus Recommended Reading List, we are delighted to be joined by Locus Editor-in-Chief Liza Groen Trombi.

We talk about the purpose of the list, how it has changed over the years, how books or stories get on the list, and a few thorny questions about how to decide whether a novel is SF or fantasy if it contains substantial elements of both. In addition to mentioning some of our own favourite works of the year, we touch upon the importance of the First Novels list, which might be a harbinger of what's to come, and how story collections and YA novels have grown in importance over the years.

Toward the end, we pay a brief tribute to two Locus Magazine pioneers, reviewer Faren Miller (who was also the magazine's first full-time employee), and bibliographer William G. Contento, who helped establish resources that remain crucial to anyone interested in the SFF field.

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Episode 572: Genre, change, and the passage of time

Episode 573

Sunday, February 13, 2022 • Duration 59:46

This week (episode 3 of season 13) we return to our tradition of almost entirely unstructured rambling. Jonathan and Gary consider such questions as to whether a novel can be good SF, but not much good in literary terms, or a good literary novel not much good as SF.

While we recognize that many popular subgenres, from military SF to heroic fantasy, have plenty of readers loyal to the old traditions, we muse about whether many of today’s writers feel some pressure to meet both traditional literary and SF standards, and Jonathan namechecks R.F. Kuang. Some writers we mention, such as Arkady Martine, seem to effortlessly do both. On the other hand, why were several genre mystery readers of the 1930s and 1940s, like Hammett and Chandler, were later recognized as major literary figures, the same didn’t seem to have to SF writers of the same period.

Toward the end, we touch upon Paul Kincaid's provocative new essay, "A Taxonomy of Reviewing" and his book on Brian W. Aldiss, amongst other things.

As always, we hope you enjoy the episode.

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Episode 571: The New Year and New Books

Episode 572

Monday, January 24, 2022 • Duration 57:04

This week Jonathan and Gary are back, a little early, to talk about the annual science fiction calendar, the awards season, how there are so many awards, what books they’re reading, and what books they’ve worked on. Oh, and for a short moment, they touch on movies and TV too.

All in all, episode two of season 13, sounds pretty much like most of the other episodes we've recorded over the past twelve years, so if they were your jam, this might be too.

As always, we hope you enjoy it and are very grateful to everyone for listening in...

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Episode 570: Coode Street’s Books to Look for in 2022

Episode 571

Saturday, January 15, 2022 • Duration 01:05:05

Welcome to The Coode Street Podcast. With 2021 barely in the rearview mirror, it's time to kick off season 13 with a brand new episode. A little over a month ago we sat down with James Bradley, Alix E. Harrow, and Ian Mond to discuss 2021: The Year in Review in Episode 568. At the end of that chat, we all said we'd back to discuss the books we're looking forward to in 2022, and here we are!

This week we discuss 25 or so books that we are looking forward to or, maybe, have read already and can recommend that you check out (along with a few strays). Pre-order links are below. We also are clear we've definitely missed books we'll end up loving.

As always, our sincere thanks to James, Alix, and Ian for making time to chat with us. We hope you enjoy the episode and that you'll see us again in a couple weeks.

JAMES

The Candy House, Jennifer Egan
To Paradise, Hanya Yanigihara
Goliath, Tochi Onyebuchi
Sea of Tranquility, Emily St John Mandel
A History of Dreams, Jane Rawson

ALIX

Siren Queen, Nghi Vo
Saint Death's Daughter, C.S.E. Cooney

GARY

Episode 569: A Thank You for Supporting Us for So Long

Episode 569

Friday, December 24, 2021 • Duration 30:20

The Coode Street Podcast kicked off in May 2010. Over the next 568 episodes Jonathan and Gary, and far too many friends of the podcast to be named here individually, talked about a shared love of science fiction, fantasy, and horror in all of their many forms.

Just a week ago, the members of the World Science Fiction Convention awarded the Coode Street Podcast with the Hugo Award for Best Fancast. This time out we take a moment, on the very edge of the holidays, to say thank you. Thank you to everyone out there involved, no matter how small or how large your contribution to our ongoing conversation. We will ever be in deeply in your debt for your support.

We'll be back in 2022, but for now we'd like to wish you a safe, happy, and healthy holiday season and a thoroughly magical New Year. See you again soon!

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Episode 568: A Very Coode Street Gift Guide Roundtable

Episode 568

Sunday, December 5, 2021 • Duration 01:00:49

The holiday season is upon us, another strange, unforgettable year is almost done, and here at Coode Street it's time for our annual gift guide/year in review, where we recommend some books we loved during the year.

This time out we invited special guests and good friends James Bradley, Alix E. Harrow, and Ian Mond to join us to recommend just a few of the books we'd loved the most during 2021. Perhaps more than in any other year, this was a time when we all were almost surprised at how much great reading we found.

Because this is Coode Street, traditions are traditions and we had some technical issues. All is good for most of the hour of the recording, but there's a jump or two towards the end. We hope you'll excuse this, and that the recommendations will prove of interest.

As always, our thanks to Alix, James, and Ian for making time to talk to us. We hope you enjoy the podcast and that the guide is of some use. To help, the recommendations are below. And we're in talks to maybe return in January for a books we're looking forward to chat as well...

James Bradley recommended:

Jennifer Mills, The Airways
Elizabeth Knox, The Absolute Book
Nina Allan, The Good Neighbours
Olga Ravn, The Employees: A workplace novel of the 22nd century

and also mentioned:

Alexandra Kleeman, Something New Under the Sun
Laura Jean McKay, The Animals in That Country

The Coode Street Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

Podcast details

Recent rankings

Apple Podcasts

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Shared links between episodes and podcasts

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Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

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The Coode Street Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

Podcast details

Recent rankings

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Shared links between episodes and podcasts

Other99+

Goodreads99+

Amazon72

RSS feed quality and score

Publication history

Latest published episodes

Similar podcasts and content

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Other99+

Goodreads99+

Amazon72