A Meal of Thorns

10/5: Le Guin Prize shortlist w/ @chloroformtea.bsky.social 10/19: Lee's REVENANT GUN w/ Alexandra Pierce of @speculativeinsight.bsky.social 11/2: Szilard's THE VOICE OF THE DOLPHIN w/ @gerrycanavan.bsky.social 11/16: Danielewski's HOUSE OF LEAVES w/ @dynamicsymmetry.bsky.social

Also, Beauman's VENOMOUS LUMPSUCKER more vindicated every day, sheesh

Delighted that @scumbelievable.bsky.social manifested into the HV crypt to talk about politics, transgression in art, body horror and her incredible novel "Black Flame." soundcloud.com/user-3179105...

Next week I'll be holding a book launch event for the paperback version of Wastelands and Wonderlands. If you live near Winchester and are interested in attending let me know. It starts 16:30 on Wednesday 28th on campus (in person only) and will feature a reading, discussion of chapters, and a Q&A.

Really good discussion of a book I adore. But tragically one that made me want to go back and reread the series which I simply do not have time for, to pick at the thoughts raised in the discussion about where these books sit wrt others talking about empire from roughly the same publication time.

Episode 171 arrives! We discuss the most recent Fantasycon and some other bits and bobs including Worldcon news and the sad news of Malcolm Edwards' passing. Thanks to @chloroformtea.bsky.social for this episode's cover art. Listen here! octothorpe.podbean.com/e/171-...

Congratulations to Pip Adam, recipient of the 2026 Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction for Audition!

BIG NEWS: WE'RE DOING A PODCAST!! Hosted by ME. Which means I get to talk to people about books even more than I already do! The first episode is about SWORD LESBIANS & LADY KNIGHTS and it's with Alix E Harrow, CL Clark, and Tasha Suri and it's SO GOOD!! I can't wait for you all to hear it!

Le Guin Prize announcement coming today! Still time to listen to @casella.bsky.social & @chloroformtea.bsky.social's takes on the list:

I reviewed House of Leaves. www.instagram.com/reel/DevHb_F...

Every time I read a book by CJ Cherryh, it's invariably clever, thoughtful, subtle, politically complex and beautifully imagined. Yet somehow I've never got round to reading even a major chunk of her output. So I recently went on a bit of a second-hand binge to get more of her books...

LET'S GO LESBIANS!!! This week the great @amalelmohtar.com joined us to talk about "Metal From Heaven," a truly wild novel about building parallel power structures, workers' uprisings, lesbian sex, gender, and becoming Commie Jesus. Listen for free wherever you get your podcasts!!

“I don’t know what planet they’re on, but I know about the earrings!” We're talking character & style choices in space opera, and how they relate to empire & identity: critic & editor @random-alex.bsky.social is on the show to discuss Yoon Ha Lee's REVENANT GUN (@solarisbooks.bsky.social)!

We return from unreality to tackle, fight, love, and hate How I Killed the Universal Man by @tkendall.bsky.social. It's an excellent and infuriating cyberpunk/noir book about mind-altering drugs, the violence of infrastructure, and how philosophy sucks, actually. soundcloud.com/death-senten...

New Episode! Author Interview: Nostalgic Futures, by Max Dosser, with Christine from Hugo History. @klaxoncomms.com hugospodcast.com/podcast/auth...

This week on @tendersubject.bsky.social, Kayte and @wildeatheart.bsky.social slice into a big cultural artifact of our pod canon, Peter Greenaway's The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover with @thelitcritguy.bsky.social. Join us for John Berger, haute cuisine, fashion, Brecht and more!

On Wednesday, October 21st—Ursula's birthday—please join us as we announce the recipient of the 2026 Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction! The announcement will be on YouTube at 9 am Pacific time. www.youtube.com/@ursula.k.le...

Pete of @chillsatwillpod.bsky.social generously interviewed 3 podcast hosts for his show—Traci (@bitracial.bsky.social) of The Stacks, Brad (@bradlisti.bsky.social) of OtherPpl Pod, and myself. He then created this omnibus edition of our 3 consecutive hours: Audio: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/s...

to misquote @casella.bsky.social, all my faves are literary weirdos and so are my friends

Shortlist discussion time! @chloroformtea.bsky.social returns for the 2026 Le Guin Prize list: 9 of the most interesting speculative fiction books from last year. Lots of opinions, comparisons, and thoughts on what constitutes "Le Guin-y-ness". Listen before the winner is announced Oct. 21!

"My opinion of God has never been lower," "Christopher Tolkien is Morgoth," and "Dragons are boats" are each, in their own way, the most each of our hosts have ever cooked

They read 'em so you don't have to! Tonight in Boston at 630 we host the Worst Bestselles Podcast with Meredith Goldstein portersquarebooks.com/event/2026-1...

Had a really great time chatting (and chatting, and chatting some more) with Casella about the Le Guin Prize shortlist. Honestly I could easily have gone on longer; it’s a list with a lot to discuss, in a great way.

Also, do you like Roseanna Pendlebury? Do you like Roseanna Pendlebury on podcasts? Do you like Roseanna Pendlebury on podcasts talking about award shortlists? Do you like Roseanna Pendlebury on podcasts talking about award shortlists that skew literary? Do ya? Man, is it Christmas for you today.

Had an amazing evening at @blackwellsmcr.bsky.social talking with @ceciliarikap.bsky.social and Eleanor Drage about AI, political economy and the political imagination necessary for a better tech future to a packed out audience

Such an amazing episode, but now I want to read all of these books!

Also: podcasts I’ve read or re-read books because of @mealofthorns.bsky.social, @deathsentencepod.bsky.social, @strangehorizons.bsky.social, and @nochorus.bsky.social (SF Ultra) episodes.

If you're interested, it's @bookshop.org's anti-prime days today and tomorrow, so free shipping! You can support ARB & AMOT by picking up any titles we've talked about through our Bookshop:

Aha, good correction! And looking back through, it looks like the Crawford & the UKLG shortlists *have* overlapped by at least one title, except for the first UKLG list in 2022.

📚 NEW PODCAST EP 📚 In the wake of the @thebookerprizes.com shortlisting both M John Harrison and Rebecca Perry, is it time to ask (again) what relationship exists between the literary and the speculative? Yes. Yes, it is time. @chloroformtea.bsky.social and Ryan Elliott join me to do that (again).

A little longer episode for a little longer shortlist: @chloroformtea.bsky.social & @casella.bsky.social talk through the 9 books on the @ursulakleguin.com Fiction Prize shortlist!

I'll be at @octocon.bsky.social this weekend. Here's my schedule. prog.octocon.com/people/Z0084 Anyone who's going, please feel free to say hi.

We've got an episode on Colson Whitehead's HARLEM SHUFFLE up on the Patreon for FREE in order to improve your Tuesday! Join @ckunzelman.bsky.social and @kearse.bsky.social as they chat about the first book (and come back for the next two eps on the next two books!) www.patreon.com/rangedtouch/...

bring back the corn lady you cowards

Had a lot of fun talking to @lucatrenta.bsky.social on NBN for the impending paperback release of Wastelands and Wonderlands. You can listen to the interview here: newbooksnetwork.com/wastelands-a...

Tin House is sending me on a mini-regional tour for the gorgeous reissue of Ursula K Le Guin: Conversations on Writing. Portland-Seattle-Bay Area friends I hope to see you. Come say hi and celebrate Ursula's legacy with me! @tinhouse.bsky.social @ursulakleguin.com @ebbooksellers.bsky.social

Years ago, I did a search for books signed by arch hepcat James Ellroy because I realised the inscriptions would be nuts. Here they are. (Reheating this from Twitter as it's been 18 months or so since I've really posted/scrolled on there, I'll probably delete it soon and want these to live on.)

People ask: "Does being a writer and niche left podcaster pay well?" Yes, if you're counting the currency of impressing weird gay guys with cool tattoos.

Listening to this interview is fascinating. Two main thoughts: 1) The blessing that is an interviewer so well informed, so thoughtful as Armfield is here. 2) Listening to M John Harrison talk about his books makes me feel very stupid and also that I do very much actually want to read them all now

The prolific, sometimes brilliant, British SF writer John Brunner (1934 - 1995) was born on this day. I've covered his work fairly extensively, most recently his fourth and final "tract novel", The Shockwave Rider (1975). As a prediction of an online society, it is by turns prescient and naive.

New episode! OF ONE BLOOD is a fun, strange book, out of time but full of sympathetic resonance. @jgbridgergilmore.bsky.social returns to talk us through it:

We'd like your help with something. The one hundredth anniversary of Ursula's birth will take place in 2029. This may seem a long time away, but we’re already starting to think about how to celebrate Ursula’s life and art. We’d love to add your ideas to the mix—there's a brief survey here:

Premee Mohamed gave a vivacious, informative, and thought-provoking keynote at the Book Publisher Association of Alberta this morning. We are off to a great start! Her newest book is Wickhills. #authors @abbookpub.bsky.social

Babe, wake up, new Volodin just dropped. (five minutes later) Babe, wake up- www.thetimes.com/culture/book...

More Guynes/Casella commentary on the way, but in the meantime: