Episode 714: The Year in Books with James Bradley, Ian Mond, and Alex Pierce

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.