Episode 653: Lev Grossman and The Bright Sword

With the Glasgow World Science Fiction Convention behind us, and with Gary back in Chicago and Jonathan back in Perth, our faithful podcasters pick up the task once again. This week we are delighted to welcome long-time friend of the podcast, Nalo Hopkinson, who joins us to discuss her brilliant new novel, Blackheart Man, and her soon to be released short story collection, Jamaica Ginger and Other Concoctions.  As always, our thanks to Nalo for making the time to talk to us. We hope you enjoy the episode. We'll see you in a week or two!

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.

With the Glasgow WorldCon just around the corner, Gary and Jonathan turn their attention to plans for the event. In addition to panel appearances, there'll be a special live recording of The Coode Street Podcast where we are joined by Joe Haldeman, Gay Haldeman, and John Scalzi to discuss 50th anniversary of the publication of The Forever War. Since rambling is unavoidable, there is also a brief discussion of how newer readers discover older SFF texts and writers, both in terms of short fiction and novels, anthologies like The Science Fiction Hall of Fame and Dangerous Visions series (which has been in the news because of the much-delayed publication of  The Last Dangerous Visions,) as well as single-author collections like Harlan Ellison's Greatest Hits. That somehow leads to a chat about how reputations are made and sustained, and Gary and Jonathan touch upon a number of contemporary writers—but you’ll have to listen in order to find out which ones.

We're delighted to welcome a distinguished pair of guests, the legendary Michael Swanwick and writer and critic Alvaro Zinos-Amaro, whose book-length interview Being Michael Swanwick explores Michael’s entire career, and whose debut novel Equimedian has been described as a love letter to the SF of the '70s and '80s. As usual, we wander a bit, discussing not only Michael's life in SF, but how stories are generated, SF and the mainstream, influential editors, what it means to have a career these days,and a number of classic writers who probably ought to be remembered more than they are.      

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.

Multiple Aurealis, Ditmar, and Shirley Jackson award winner Kaaron Warren joins us for this week’s episode, along with old friend of Coode Street and fellow Locus reviewer Ian Mond, mostly to discuss Kaaron’s wonderful new novel The Underhistory, how it does or doesn’t align with traditional genre categories, and what such categories mean anyway. Ian explains his notion of literary horror, and Kaaron suggests her intriguing concept of Gothic crime fiction. As always, the talk takes off in various directions ranging from short stories vs. novels, the challenges of publishing and marketing, and the growing awareness of Australian fiction on the world stage. You can order The Underhistory: in the UK; in Australia.

The distinguished Hugo, Nebula, World Fantasy, and Locus Award winner Paolo Bacigalupi joins us this week to talk about his forthcoming historical fantasy Navola, as well as the challenges of shifting from a focus on environmental SF to epic fantasy, the liberation that comes from being able to invent a world (and partly a language) that echoes Florentine history without being bound by it, the importance of following one’s own choices and needs in writing fiction, and his own earlier classics like The Windup Girl and The Water Knife. We run a bit longer than usual, but that’s a measure of how fascinating it is to chat with Paolo.

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/

For this special short episode, Jonathan and Gary are joined by an old friend, Nebula and World Fantasy winner Ellen Klages, who recently gained an entirely new kind of recognition when she appeared on the long-running TV quiz show Jeopardy and recalled the “scary ham” story, which she first improvised at a Nebula ceremony ten years ago, when called upon to fill time during a technical glitch. We not only touch upon the venerable history of the anecdote, but upon some other midwestern family memoirs, the use of autobiographical material in fiction, and the possibility of future memoirs. As usual, Ellen is a delight. Reactor link to the story: https://reactormag.com/the-scary-ham/ YouTube video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uqvg8N9nc84    

This episode is a wide-ranging discussion with two important guests: the brilliant Vajra Chandrasekera, whose amazing first novel The Saint of Bright Doors is currently nominated for both Hugo and Nebula Awards, and whose even more adventurous Rakesfall will be published in June, and our old friend, the excellent critic, reviewer and fellow podcaster (The Writer and the Critic) Ian Mond. We touch upon some of the sources of Vajra’s fiction, the notion of science fantasy, and how his novels incorporate a wide variety of styles and themes, from almost documentary realism about the brutality of colonialism—especially in his native Sri Lanka—to mythic tales and far-future SF. It’s a pretty lively chat!   Note: We experienced some technical difficulties towards the end of the recording so it does end somewhat abruptly.  We do hope you enjoy the recording and we'll come back to some of the topics soon in another podcast.