Two Chairs Talking

David and Perry discuss:

The Coronavirus Epidemic

How we rate books

Touch~Claire North

Hugo Awards for 2020

A Memory Called Empire~Arkady Martine

Infinite Detail~Tim Maughan

The Wicked Girls~Alex Marwood

The Mermaids Singing~Val McDermid

The Ten Thousand Doors of January~Alix E. Harrow

Daemon Voices~Philip Pullman

Clockwork~Philip Pullman

I Was a Rat~Philip Pullman

Blue Moon~Lee Child

Interview with Lucy Sussex

The Arsonist~Cloe Hooper

Kinglake-350~Adrian Hyland

The Wasp and the Orchid~Danielle Clode

Viv Albertine

Patrick Parker's Progress~Mavis Cheek

Farthing, Ha'Penny, Half a Crown~Jo Walton

Swastika Night~Katharine Burdekin

Generation Loss~Elizabeth Hand

Peace~Gary Disher

Interview with W. H. Chong

Black Leopard, Red Wolf~Marlon James

Red Moon~Kim Stanley Robinson

Lanny~Max Porter

Grief is a Thing With Feathers~Max Porter

Best SF of the Year~Strahan

Blackfish City~Sam J. Miller

The Wandering Earth collection~Liu Cixin

On the Beach~Neville Shute

How to Write an Autobiographical Novel~Alexander Chee

In the Garden of Beasts~Eric Larsen

Agency~William Gibson

The Rain Heron~Robbie Arnott

Windup.

In this special episode, Perry and David speak to Rob Gerrand, Bruce Gillespie and Carey

Norstrilia Press Interview

How Norstrilia Press got started

Coming up with the name

Philip K. Dick - Electric Shepherd

Stanislaw Lem article sets off controversy

The Altered I (workshop book)

Rob Gerrand's involvement

The View From the Edge

Moon in the Ground by Keith Antill

Other SF publishers in Australia

Typesetting

Sales and Distribution

Roles of Carey, Bruce and Rob

Dancing Dragons by Damien Broderick

Transmutations

Stellar Gauge - Dreaming Dragons - Roger Zelazny poems

Academic studies of SF in the U.S.

Dreaming Dragons

Lavington Pugh by Jay Bland

Getting Reviews

The Plains by Gerald Murnane

Dreamworks anthology

An Unusual Angle by Greg Egan

In the Heart or in the Head by George Turner

Landscape with Landscape by Gerald Murnane

Funding problems

Down Deep scandal

Looking back on it

The role of Hyland House

Wind-up

Image: the logo of Norstrilia Press against a starry background (composite created by David Grigg).

David and Perry discuss 1961, an amazingly good year for science fiction:

Hugo Time Machine (1961)

Novel nominees

Rogue Moon by Algis Budrys

The High Crusade by Poul Anderson

Venus Plus X by Theodore Sturgeon

Deathworld by Harry Harrison

A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jnr

Other books which might have been nominated

Short Fiction nominees

Need by Theodore Sturgeon

The Lost Kafoozalum by Pauline Ashwell

Open to Me, My Sister by Phillip Jose Farmer

The Longest Voyage by Poul Anderson

Other possible nominees

Windup

Perry and David discuss:

Follow-ups

What we've been reading

Dark Emu by Bruce Pascoe

The Lost City of Z by David Grand

Nova Mob - Ian Mond's recommendations

Infinite Detail by Tim Maughan

Ordinary People by Sally Rooney

Voices by Ursula Le Guin

The Blind Contessa's New Machine by Carey Wallace

Amsterdam by Ian McEwan

The Shelflife of Zora Cross - Interview with Lucy Sussex

Interstellar - the movie

What we have planned

Click here for more details and indexes

Image from Interstellar movie poster. Copyright Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros Pictures. Used here for review purposes only (fair use).

Perry and David discuss:

Follow-ups

What we've been reading

Dark Emu by Bruce Pascoe

The Lost City of Z by David Grand

Nova Mob - Ian Mond's recommendations

Infinite Detail by Tim Maughan

Ordinary People by Sally Rooney

Voices by Ursula Le Guin

The Blind Contessa's New Machine by Carey Wallace

Amsterdam by Ian McEwan

The Shelflife of Zora Cross - Interview with Lucy Sussex

Interstellar - the movie

What we have planned

Image from Interstellar movie poster. Copyright Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros Pictures. Used here for review purposes only (fair use).

David and Perry discuss:

Best movies 2019 -- Perry

Avengers - Infinity War

Captain Marvel

All Is True

Knives Out

John Wick Chapter 3

Best Movies 2019 -- David

Mortal Engines

First Man

Re-watched movies

Best TV 2019 --Perry

Game of Thrones

For All Mankind

Mr Mercedes

Best TV -- David

For All Mankind

Morning Wars

Good Omens

The Boys

Goliath

Trying to keep up

The Hugo Time Machine -- 1960

Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein

Fantasy and Science Fiction Magazine

Short Fiction nominees

Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes

The Twilight Zone

The Outsider by Stephen King

Wind-up

Photo of hailstones by Hornbeam Arts on Flickr.

Our longest episode yet! Perry and David discuss the Australian bushfire crisis and look back at the best books they read in 2019:

Australian bushfire crisis

Overview of 2019 reading -- David

Overview of 2020 reading -- Perry

SF and Fantasy -- David

Bitter Seeds by Ian Tregillis

Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman

The Power by Naomi Alderman

The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North

The Sudden Appearance of Hope by Claire North

SF -- Perry

Blackfish City

Red Moon by Kim Stanley Robinson

The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal

Farenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

Embers of War by Gareth Powell

Honourable Mentions -- Perry

Honourable Mentions -- David

Fantasy -- Perry

Summerlong by Peter S. Beagle

Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik

Fire And Blood by George R. R Martin

Witchmark by C. L. Polk

Literary Fiction -- David

Standard Ebooks

Tono-Bungay by H. G. Wells

Middlemarch by George Eliot

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

Boy Swallows Universe by Trent Dalton

Honourable Mentions -- David

Literary Fiction -- Perry

To the Islands by Randolph Stowe

Possession by A. S. Byatt

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime by Mark Haddon

The Old Man And The Sea by Ernest Hemingway

The Plains by Gerald Murnane

Honourable Mentions -- Perry

Horror -- Perry

Experimental Film by Gemma Files

Doctor Sleep by Stephen King

The Outsider by Stephen King

Crime/Thriller -- David

The Woman in the Window by A. J. Finn

Lady Audley's Secret by M. E. Braddon

Moskva by Jack Grimwood

Crimson Lake and Redemption Point by Candice Fox

Honourable Mentions -- David

Crime -- Perry

Sands of Windee by Arthur Upfield

The Talented Mr Ripley by Patricia Highsmith

Kill Shot by Garry Disher

The Lost Man by Jane Harper

Redemption Point by Candice Fox

Honourable Mentions -- Perry

Best Thriller/Spy -- Perry

Smiley's People by John Le Carre

The Chain by Adrian McKinty

Young Adult -- David

The Secret Commonwealth by Phillip Pulman

Fever Crumb trilogy by Phillip Reeve

Young Adult -- Perry

Gifts by Ursula K Le Guin

Greenwitch by Susan Cooper

Anthologies and Single-Author Collections -- Perry

The Years Best Science Fiction : 33rd Annual Collection Edited by Gardner Dozois

The Best Science Fiction of the Year Volume 2 Edited by Neil Clarke

The Best SFandF of the Year: Volume Eleven Edited by Jonathan Stahan

Short Fiction by H. G. Wells

The Overneath by Peter S. Beagle

The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories by Ken Liu

The Custodians and Other Stories by Richard Cowper

Novellas -- Perry

Rogue Protocol by Martha Wells

Time Was by Ian Mcdonald

Perihelion Summer by Greg Egan

Permafrost by Alastair Reynolds

Honourable Mentions -- Perry

Non-Fiction -- David

Blockbuster by Lucy Sussex

Doing Justice by Preet Bharara

South by Ernest Shackleton

Eggshell Skull by Bri Lee

A Mind Unraveled by Kurt Eichenwald

Honourable Mentions -- David

Non Fiction -- Perry

On Writing by Stephen King

Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen

Sagaland by Kari Gislason and Richard Fidler

Underland by Robert Macfarlane

The Shelf Life of Zora Cross by Cathy Perkins

Honourable Mentions -- Perry

Best Overall -- David

Best Overall -- Perry

Looking forward to -- David

Looking forward to -- Perry

Food for the soul

Wind-Up

Photo by Ylanite Koppens from Pexels

David and Perry discuss:

Taking a break/Next Year

The perils of Alternate History

Alternate histories in general

The Plot Against America

Lord Darcy Books by Randall Garrett

Recent Reading

Witchmark

The Sudden Appearance of Hope

Hugo Time Machine 1959

A Case of Conscience by James Blish

Who? by Algis Budrys

The Big Front Yard by Clifford Simak

That Hell-Bound Train by Robert Bloch

The Man Who Murdered Mohammed by Alfred Bester

Blade Runners

Blade Runner - Original

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K. Dick

Tears in the Rain

Fiery the angels fell

Versions of the film

Blade Runner 2049

Arrival (the movie)

Sicario

Ryan Gosling

First Man

Wind-up

Image by William Blake

Perry and David discuss:

Intro

The NBN

Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman

Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch

Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire

Borderline by Mishell Baker

Experimental Film by Gemma Files

The Blood Doctor by Barbara Vine

Possession by A. S. Byatt

The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North

The Sudden Appearance of Hope by Claire North

The Boys (Amazon Prime)

Watchmen (HBO/Foxtel)

His Dark Materials (BBC/HBO)

For All Mankind (Apple TV+)

Hugo Time Machine 1958

The Big Time by Fritz Leiber

Other books in the genre in 1958

Big Planet by Jack Vance

Cosmic Puppets and Eye in the Sky by P.K.Dick

Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury

The Deep Range by Arthur C. Clarke

Door Into Summer and Citizen of the Galaxy by Heinlein

The Black Cloud by Fred Hoyle

Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham

On the Beach by Neville Shute

Wasp by Eric Frank Russell

Or All the Seas With Oysters

The Incredible Shrinking Man

Windup

Photo by Aidan Roof from Pexels

David and Perry discuss:

Intro

Follow-up

Making of the Hugo rocketships

Naming of the Hugos

Don't use us as a reference!

Hugo Time Machine 1957

Best Fan Magazine

Why no fiction awards?

What were the magazines publishing?

Alien (1979)

Aliens (1986)

The Ridley Scott Alien Trilogy

Blade Runner

The Duelists

Fire and Blood

Are the Hugos a good guide to best SF?

The Power by Naomi Alderman

The Wanderers by Meg Howrey

Station Eleven by Evelyn St.John Mandel

1Q84 by Haruki Murakami

Life After Life by Kate Atkinson

The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North

Self-Published works

Interview with Daniel Scott White

DSW: Unfit Magazine, Unreal Magazine

DSW: Platform Revolution

Wind-up