The Coode Street Podcast

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.  

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

With December and the Advent Calendar heading towards their conclusion, Gary and Jonathan chat with recently minted Hugo Award winner Ray Nayler about what he's been reading, what he's been working on, his recent novel Where the Axe is Buried and his upcoming novel, Palaces of the Crow, before talking about ghost stories and year end traditions. As always, we'd like to thank Ray for making time to talk to us, and hope you enjoy the conversation.

It's Day 17 of our Advent Calendar and today Gary and Jonathan chat with Alastair Reynolds about the 25th Anniversary of Revelation Space, his new short story collections, and his latest novel, Halcyon Years. We also touch on his favourite books of the year, what he's planning, and his favourite seasonal reads. As always, our thanks to Al. We hope you enjoy today's episode.

It's been a minute since we last spoke to Kim Stanley Robinson on the podcast, back in 2020 when The Ministry for the Future was new in the world. So today, Gary and Jonathan took some time to chat with Stan as part of the Advent Calendar about what he's been doing (a lot), what he's been reading (a lot!), and what he has coming up. Our discussion touched on first major nonfiction book, 2022's The High Sierra: A Love Story, his forthcoming nonfiction book The Best Journey in the World, and the fabulous news that he's hard at work on a new novel. As always, our thanks to Stan for making time to talk to us. We hope you all enjoy the discussion.

For the 15th day of our Advent Calendar Gary chats with Nebula and five-time Hugo Award winner Michael Swanwick about what he's been reading, how he celebrates the holiday season, what he's had out in the past year and his exciting new short story collection The Universe Box. As always, we'd like to thank Michael for making time to talk to us. We hope you enjoy the episode.

For the 14th day of Advent, Jonathan is joined by Hugo, Nebula and World Fantasy Award nominated writer, Wole Talabi, to discuss the books he's been reading, what he'd recommend, his brand new novella "Descent" and the Sauútiverse, and his forthcoming second novel, The Fist of Memory. As always, our thanks to Wole for taking the time to talk to us. We hope you all enjoy the chat.

For Day 13 of the Advent Calendar, Gary chats with Theodora Goss all the way from Budapest. They talk about re-reading Patricia McKillip, other favorite reading, and Dora's excellent recent story collection Letters from an Imaginary Country, as well as her Athena Club novels and what it's like to write fantasies drawing from and commenting on other classic fantasies. As always, our thanks to Dora for making time to chat with us. We hope you enjoy the episode.

For this episode, Gary chats with the very busy and very talented Nnedi Okorafor, who has had quite a year with the publication of major new novel Death of the Author; One Way Witch, the second novella in her She Who Knows trilogy; Space Cat, a children's book starring her own cat Periwinkle; and The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2025, which she co-edited with John Joseph Adams. We chat about what she's been reading, her fondness for Stephen King and Peter Straub's The Talisman, and what's up for next year, including the final volume of that trilogy, set in the world of her World Fantasy winning Who Fears Death.

For Day 11 of our Advent Calendar, Jonathan calls up long-time friend of the podcast, acclaimed writer James Bradley, to discuss what he's been reading lately, his fabulous new novel Landfall, whether he revisits any favourite books or movies at this time of the year, and what he's been working on. As always, our thanks to James for making the time to talk to us. We hope you enjoy the episode.

As we approach the halfway mark of our Advent Calendar, Jonathan calls Emily Tesh, Hugo Award winning author of Some Desperate Glory and co-host of reigning Hugo Best Fancast Eight Days of Diana Wynne Jones, to discuss the podcast she hosts with Rebecca Fraimow, her year in reading, her wonderful novel The Incandescent, and what she's working on now.

For Day 9 of the 2025 Advent Calendar, Jonathan and Gary called Paul McAuley to discuss the books he's been reading and would recommend, holiday traditions, what he's had out recently, and his exciting new novel, Loss Protocol, which is due out in February. As always, our thanks to Paul for making time to talk to us. We hope you enjoy the episode.

With our provider struggling a little following the various Cloudflare issues of late, Gary and Jonathan call up Nebula and BSFA Award winner Isabel J. Kim to talk about what she's been reading, her holiday favourites, what she had out in the past year, and the upcoming publication of her debut novel Sublimation next year. As always, our thinks to Isabel for making time to talk to us today. We hope you enjoy the episode.

Today Jonathan sits down with British SF Award winner and Arthur C. Clarke Award, BFA, and Tiptree Award nominee Aliya Whiteley to talk about what she's been reading and would recommend as the holidays get underway, as well as her recent collaboration with Oliver K Langmead, and her upcoming novel The Misheard World. As always, our thanks to Aliya for making time to talk to us. We hope you enjoy the episode.

Day 6 of the 2025 Coode Street Advent Calendar sees Gary and Jonathan taking a moment to catch up Hugo and Nebula Award winner Nancy Kress about what she's been reading, her most recent short story collection, and the new fantasy novel she has coming in 2026. As always, our thanks to Nancy for making time to talk to us, and we hope you enjoy the episode.

As we move towards the end of the first week of our 2025 Advent Calendar, Gary and Jonathan take a moment to sit down with Adrian Tchaikovsky to talk about what he's been working on, what he has coming out, and what holiday recommendations he might have. Adrian is the author of the brilliant Tyrant Philosophers series, which has been a highlight of the past couple of years, among many other wonderful books,  and now co-hosts the Starship Alexandria podcast with Emma Newman.  As always, our thanks to Adrian for making time to talk to us! We hope you enjoy the episode.

The end of the year is fast approaching, we're behind on episodes and we're keen to end the year on a high note. So this year we're going back to something we did in 2022. We've invited 24 creators of some of this year's best and most interesting books to join us for ten minutes or so to talk about what they're reading now, their favourite holiday reads, what they had out this year, and what they've got coming out in the year ahead. It's a Coode Street Advent Calendar if that's your thing, or just a run-up to December 24 for book lovers. Today's guest is Martha Wells, whose new novel Queen Demon came out in October. The next Murderbot novel, Platform Decay, is due in May, and season 2 of Murderbot is due in 2027.

The end of the year is fast approaching, we're behind on episodes and we're keen to end the year on a high note. So this year we're going back to something we did in 2022. We've invited 24 creators of some of this year's best and most interesting books to join us for ten minutes or so to talk about what they're reading now, their favourite holiday reads, what they had out this year, and what they've got coming out in the year ahead. It's a Coode Street Advent Calendar if that's your thing, or just a run-up to December 24 for book lovers. Today's guest is China Mieville. We chatted with China recently about Perdido Street Station, and today we get a chance to talk about what he's got coming up.

In amongst the hurly burly of the end of the year and putting together the Coode Street Advent Calendar, Gary and Jonathan found time to sit down with long-time friend of the podcast (and most frequent guest!) Kij Johnson.  We last spoke when Kij's most recent short story collection, The Privilege of the Happy Ending was published. Since then, Kij has been busy working on writing and developing role playing games, most notably the adaption of her fabulous novel The River Bank, which is out now in a gorgeous edition from Kobold Press with stunning art from Kathleen Jennings. In addition to all that, we talked about books, reading, and for a good while, the nature of farce. As always, our thanks to Kij for making time to talk to us. We hope you enjoy the episode as much as we did recording it.

The end of the year is fast approaching, we're behind on episodes and we're keen to end the year on a high note. So this year we're going back to something we did in 2022. We've invited 24 creators of some of this year's best and most interesting books to join us for ten minutes or so to talk about what they're reading now, their favourite holiday reads, what they had out this year, and what they've got coming out in the year ahead. It's a Coode Street Advent Calendar if that's your thing, or just a run-up to December 24 for book lovers. Today's guest is the wonderful Arkady Martine, whose Hugo nominated novella Rose/House is coming out in a brand new edition.

The end of the year is fast approaching, we're behind on episodes and we're keen to end the year on a high note. So this year we're going back to something we did in 2022. We've invited 24 creators of some of this year's best and most interesting books to join us for ten minutes or so to talk about what they're reading now, their favourite holiday reads, what they had out this year, and what they've got coming out in the year ahead. It's a Coode Street Advent Calendar if that's your thing, or just a run-up to December 24 for book lovers. To kick off the Advent Calendar, December 1st's guest is the wonderful Nina Allan whose incredible novel A Granite Silence was released earlier this year.

The World Fantasy Convention was held in Brighton, England two weeks ago. Gary and Jonathan both attended, so we shouldn't be surprised that they were jetlagged and not making to much sense when they recorded this ramble a week ago. As always, we hope you enjoy it!

Our guest this week is the remarkable Kemi Ashing-Giwa, whose new novel The King Must Die is out in November. We talk about science fantasy—or whether genre labels mean much at all to the new generation of writers—her own influences, her well-received first novel, the space opera The Splinter in the Sky, and even her current scientific work on mass extinctions and the loss of her family home in the California wildfires earlier this year. As always, our thanks to Kemi for making time to talk to us today, and we hope you enjoy the episode.

This week we have a lively conversation with the remarkable Ken Liu, whose new thriller All That We See or Seem introduces a new protagonist, the gifted hacker Julia Z, in a tale that explores the growing role of AI, the possibility of a technology of shared dreams, a variety of near-future surveillance tech, and some pretty fearful players with even more fearful schemes. A dramatic shift from his epic fantasy/historical world of the Dandelion Dynasty series or the earlier classic short stories, it seems to represent an exciting new dimension in Ken's career.

In a rare shorter episode, we chat about the late and much missed Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, with whom Jonathan and Gary had strangely similar encounters some years ago, and her early career as an SF writer before her decades-long success with her Saint-Germain series of vampire novels. That leads, briefly, to considering midlist vs. niche authors, before we get into some of the odd features of American copyright law as revealed by the recent Anthropic AI settlement.

With Gary recently returned from Worldcon in Seattle, we chat a bit about the Hugos (mostly avoiding second-guessing the results), which leads to some discussion of the differences between Hugo, Nebula, and World Fantasy Awards.  Jonathan raises an intriguing question about the novella category, with its rather reductive word-length definition of the form. But what, other than length, really distinguishes a novella from a short story or a novel? We talk a bit about favorite novellas, and specifically a 2013 Locus survey in which readers voted on the best novellas from 2000-2010. Which of those would still make the list today, and how has Tordotcom's program of standalone novellas affected our view of the form? Of course, we ramble a bit about other matters and some interesting new and forthcoming books we're excited about. Then, finally, we shut up.

Twenty five years ago China Mieville's second novel, Perdido Street Station, introduced the world to the fantastical city of Bas Lag. It went on to win the Arthur C Clarke and British Fantasy awards, and be nominated for the Hugo, Nebula, World Fantasy, Tiptree, and Locus awards among others. Perdido Street Station was followed by two further novels set in Bas Lag, The Scar and Iron Council and then Mieville turned his attention to other worlds. Today China joins Gary and Jonathan to chat on the podcast for the first time to look back at Perdido Street Station, how it was written and where it came from, and how he feels about it now. We also chat a little about what he's doing next.   As always, our sincere thanks to China for making the time to talk to us, and we hope you enjoy the discussion. Note: The original cover art for Perdido Street Station (shown above) was by British artist Les Edwards (painting as Edward Miller). You can see more of his work here.

In this week's episode, we're joined by two of our most exciting writers, each of whom has a new book out in August. Charlie Jane Anders' Lessons in Magic and Disaster offers a wonderful combination of witchcraft, academia, and generational family tensions, while Annalee Newitz's Automatic Noodle features a team of robots trying to establish a noodle shop in a San Francisco recovering from California's devastating war of secession with the rest of the U.S. We touch upon everything from writing in a believable 18th century voice to the challenges faced by a queer family and a trans protagonist, representing nonhuman points of view, the possibilities of a post-dystopian fiction, and balancing nonfiction and journalism with fiction writing. As always, Annalee and Charlie Jane make for a lively and unpredictable discussion.       

We're almost embarrassed to admit it, but it's been ten years since we last chatted with Silvia Moreno-Garcia, shortly after her first novel Signal to Noise had been published. Now she's back, talking about an excellent new novel The Bewitching. Along the way, we touch upon several of her other novels, including the bestselling Mexican Gothic, Silver Nitrate, The Seventh Veil of Salome, The Daughter of Doctor Moreau, and others. We also discuss her relationships with writers from Lovecraft and James M. Cain to the traditions of Gothic fiction. even touching upon C.L.Moore and some of Silvia's own contemporaries. It's a lively chat with an endlessly surprising writer.

Even though we know that some past episodes have probably spent too much time talking about awards, our latest chat begins with some thoughts on—well, awards. With Nebulas, Hugos, Shirley Jackson, Ignyte, World Fantasy, etc., there are just too many to ignore. We soon drift off into other topics. Gary is looking forward to hosting a panel discussion at the Locus Awards, and is fascinated by Kemi Ashing-Giwa's 2023 novel The Splinter in the Sky, which leads into a discussion of how space opera-like stories have evolved over generations, what else we've read lately, how short story contracts have changed lately, whether there is a dearth of core SF or just an explosion of fantasy, and why Murderbot feels more like classic SF than many franchise properties. As usual, a laser-like focus on nothing in particular.

This week we are joined by an old friend of the podcast, the distinguished Canadian novelist Guy Gavriel Kay, whose wonderful new novel Written on the Dark is out this month. As always, we not only touch upon some details of the novel— which takes place in Kay's own version of an alternate 15th century France, featuring a Parisian tavern poet loosely based on the historical François Villon—but on the perennial question of Kay's unique mix of history, fiction, and the fantastic. This leads to a broader discussion of his fiction, the role of art and artists in his work, how fictional events from centuries ago can still resonate with events today, and even a bit on what it means to be a Canadian writer. Guy is as wise and articulate as always, and we never fail to learn valuable insights that leave us with much to ponder. Previously on Coode Street... Episode 600: The Coode Street Advent Calendar: Guy Gavriel Kay (2022) Coode Street Roundtable 5: Guy Gavriel Kay's Children of Earth and Sky (2016) Episode 216: Guy Gavriel Kay and the Legend of the Lost Podcast (2015)

This week it's just Jonathan and Gary again, in what some listeners might view as an either a classic ramble or a series of rabbit holes from which we never fully escape. We start with a discussion of some current trends such as cozy fantasy and SF, romantasy, and dark academia, noting that these had all been around for decades before getting their present labels, and briefly consider Paul Kincaid's contention that “coziness” seems antithetical to what SF really does. We later touch upon what we're reading, mentioning some forthcoming books by Nicola Griffith, Alix E. Harrow, and R.F. Kuang and the spectacular success of the latest novel by Coode Street goest Joe Abercrombie. Somewhere in there we start chatting about collectible editions, how many copies of a book do you really need,  historical fantasy, and even a bit on Robert Holdstock. Most important, though, is Coode Street's first commercial. Jonathan and Gary's common home in SF has long been Locus magazine, and we want to encourage our listeners to take a look at some of the neat perks being offered by this year's IndieGoGo fundraiser and to make a contribution if you can.  

This week Jonathan and Gary are joined by Silvia Park to discuss her exciting debut novel, Luminous, which started life as a children's novel and connects to the Reactor/Tordotcom novelette "More Real Than Him". We chat about artificial intellligence, writing about robots and how we use them as surrogates in fiction, different perspectives on fiction and how Luminous  might be read by US and Korean audiences. As always, we'd like to thank Silvia for making time to talk to us and hope you enjoy the episode.    

This week Jonathan and Gary are joined by Silvia Park to discuss her exciting debut novel, Luminous, which started life as a children's novel and connects to the Reactor/Tordotcom novelette "More Real Than Him". We chat about artificial intellligence, writing about robots and how we use them as surrogates in fiction, different perspectives on fiction and how Luminous  might be read by US and Korean audiences. As always, we'd like to thank Silvia for making time to talk to us and hope you enjoy the episode.    

In celebration of the thirtieth anniversary of Tachyon Publications, we invited publisher Jacob Weisman to join us in a fascinating exploration of the independent publisher whose list of authors includes classic tales from Stanley Weinbaum, A.E. Van Vogt, and even Mary Shelley, as well as major work from contemporary writers like Peter S. Beagle, Patricia McKillip, Michael Swanwick, Terry Bisson, Jane Yolen, Ellen Klages, Eileen Gunn, Joe Lansdale, Nalo Hopkinson, James Morrow, Lavie Tidhar, and Daniel Pinkwater, and newer writers such as Mary Thompson, Austin Habersahw, Martin Cahill, and Josh Rountree.  We touch upon the challenges of building an independent press in a rapidly changing marketplace, the importance of anthologies in identifying and preserving trends in the field, and what to expect next from Tachyon.  

This week Gary and Jonathan are joined by long time friend of the podcast, Joe Abercrombie.  We last spoke to Joe during the pandemic when he was working on The Age of Madness series. He joins us this week to discuss his brand new novel The Devils, which launches a new series and a new set of characters. As always, we'd like to thank Joe for making time to join us, and we hope you enjoy the episode.   Pre-order The Devils in the UK Gollancz (UK Publisher) Waterstones Waterstones Special Edition WH Smith Pre-order The Devils in North America Tor (US Publisher) Barnes and Noble IndieBound Lit Escalates Special Editions Pre-order The Devils in Australia Booko

With Peter Beagle's 86th birthday upon us, we thought we'd re-share a discussion we had with him last year about writing and story. We wish Peter a happy birthday and hope you enjoy the discussion!   Sunday Apr 14, 2024 This week we are joined by the  legendary author of The Last Unicorn, Peter S. Beagle, who discusses his new novel I'm Afraid You've Got Dragons (published next month by Saga Press & Gollancz), as well as his storied career, his pals from childhood, influential writers such as Robert Nathan and Avram Davidson, and last year's important retrospective collection The Essential Peter S. Beagle. As always, our thanks to Peter for making time to talk to us, and we hope you enjoy the podcast.

As we try to return to some sort of regular schedule, we're delighted to welcome back Joe Monti, vice president and editorial director of Saga Press, to discuss the current state of the publishing business, the effects (if any) of the current economic stresses, and what to look forward to in the coming months (Joe is particularly optimistic about SF and space opera). Along the way we touch on the trend toward glitzy “special editions” of new novels, and various corners of the publishing world, from horror to romantasy and cozy fantasy to audiobooks, ebooks, and what makes a book a breakout bestseller.

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 forthcoming Revolution in the Heart, and, of course, what we've been reading.

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 the BSFA Awards. There's also, news from a major distributor in the US that may mark the beginning of the end of the mass-market paperback, while other publishing news involves the consolidation of three major print magazines—Asimov's, Analog, and F&SF—under a single new publisher. While at this point we don't know more than anyone else, this leads us into discussions of romantasy (and the growing SF or space opera equivalent), how the way readers have discover new writers has changed over time, the value (if any) of promotional letters and blurbs (which Gary is not very good at, it turns out), the growing popularity of premium and collectors' editions, and the difference between casual readers, fans, collectors, and simple accumulators of books. Other topics pop up as well: Jonathan's forthcoming anthology of stories in honor of Ursula Le Guin raises the question of which authors should be recognized with such anthologies, for example, and which have already been recognized and why. 

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

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.

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 radically fluctuate in value depending in part on the author's reputation. But, being us, we also digress into such topics as the thrill of discovering a classic SF idea for the first time—even if it might seem old hat to veteran readers—and the beginnings of our discussion about year-end recommended reading lists, and what they really mean.

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 gain perspective on novels of the past year, and suggests looking instead at important books of the entire past quarter-century from the perspective of 2025.  We only got partway through his list, which included novels by Alastair Reynolds, Kim Stanley Robinson, Octavia Butler, M. John Harrison, Margaret Atwood, Susanna Clarke, Gene Wolfe, Cixin Liu, and Robert Charles Wilson; collections by Kelly Link, Margo Lanagan, and Jeff Ford; anthologies by Sheree R. Thomas and Gardner Dozois—the last of which leads to a discussion of the durability of space opera as a defining SF theme. Plenty of stuff to argue with this week!

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 gain perspective on novels of the past year, and suggests looking instead at important books of the entire past quarter-century from the perspective of 2025.  We only got partway through his list, which included novels by Alastair Reynolds, Kim Stanley Robinson, Octavia Butler, M. John Harrison, Margaret Atwood, Susanna Clarke, Gene Wolfe, Cixin Liu, and Robert Charles Wilson; collections by Kelly Link, Margo Lanagan, and Jeff Ford; anthologies by Sheree R. Thomas and Gardner Dozois—the last of which leads to a discussion of the durability of space opera as a defining SF theme. Plenty of stuff to argue with this week!