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.

• Gollancz (UK Publisher)
• Waterstones
• Waterstones Special Edition
• WH Smith

• 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

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

Ian Mond

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

Gary K. Wolfe

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

Jonathan

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