Two Chairs Talking

Episode 65: Awesome Awards

David and Perry discuss a number of recent award winners and take the Hugo Time Machine zooming back to the year of 1967
A. Bertram Chandler Award (01:48)
Booker Prize Winner (00:37)
Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award (00:58)
World Fantasy Awards (02:02)
Readings Prize (00:38)
Hugo Voting closes (00:25)
Hugo Time Machine~1967 (01:00:58)
Short Stories (17:09)
“Mr. Jester” by Fred Saberhagen
“Delusion for a Dragon Slayer” by Harlan Ellison
“Rat Race” by Raymond F. Jones
“The Secret Place” by Richard McKenna (Won Nebula)
“Man in His Time” by Brian W. Aldiss
“Comes Now the Power” by Roger Zelazny
“Light of Other Days” by Bob Shaw
WINNER “Neutron Star” by Larry Niven
Novelettes (13:30)
“The Alchemist” by Charles L. Harness
“An Ornament to His Profession” by Charles L. Harness
“The Manor of Roses” by Thomas Burnett Swann
“Call Him Lord” by Gordon R. Dickson
“For a Breath I Tarry” by Roger Zelazny
“This Moment of the Storm” by Roger Zelazny
“Apology to Inky” by Robert M. Green, Jr.
“The Eskimo Invasion” by Hayden Howard
WINNER “The Last Castle” by Jack Vance
Other possible nominees (06:27)
Novels (16:47)
Day of the Minotaur by Thomas Burnett Swann
The Witches of Karres by James H. Schmitz
Too Many Magicians by Randall Garrett
Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
Babel-17 by Samuel R. Delany
WINNER: The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert A. Heinlein
Other possible nominees (01:26)
Other 1967 Hugo awards (01:23)
Windup (00:39)
Photo by RODNAE Productions from Pexels

Episode 64: And gentlemen in England now-a-bed

Perry and David celebrate St. Crispin's Day by discussing recent awards, what they've been reading, both non-fiction and fiction, and summarising their thoughts about this year's Hugo Award nominees.
News (04:36)
Ursula K. Le Guin prize (01:08)
Ditmar Awards (01:14)
Prime Minister's Literary Awards (02:03)
Critic vs Reviewer (02:46)
What we've been reading (41:05)
The Library by Stuart Kells (04:22)
Beeswing by Richard Thompson (07:28)
Dead Wake by Erik Larson (08:02)
A Cook's Tour by Anthony Bourdain (06:35)
The Kingdoms by Natasha Pulley (07:03)
Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir (07:10)
Summary of our 2021 Hugo reading (04:23)
Windup (01:33)
Illustration: production still from Henry V starring Kenneth Branagh.

Episode 63: And after the fire…

David and Perry discuss -- and disagree about -- "The Bass Rock" and "Notes from the Burning Age" as well as two of the novels nominated for this year's Hugo Award.
Saint Wiborada (01:21)
Nobel Prize for Literature (07:32)
The Bass Rock by Evie Wyld (14:13)
Notes from the Burning Age by Claire North (11:18)
Hugo Nominated Novels (26:14)
Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse (13:00)
The City We Became by N. K. Jemisin (12:27)
Windup (01:30)
Photo by Stephen Cavenagh, ABC News

Episode 62: Lord of the Underworld

Perry and David talk about crime novels again, discussing books by Australian writers Garry Disher and Candice Fox, a classic by Dorothy L. Sayers, and others.
Booker Prize Shortlist (02:15)
US National Book Award (01:48)
Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger (08:04)
Hirchausen Series by Garry Disher (09:20)
The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club by Dorothy L. Sayers (10:47) Whose Body? by Dorothy L. Sayers (Free Standard Ebooks Edition)
Hades Trilogy by Candice Fox (09:14)
We Begin at the End by Chris Whittaker (12:11)
Nominative Determinism (01:47)
Science fictional crime (02:58)
Windup (01:55)
Photo by Jeremy Bishop from Pexels
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Episode 61: The joining of three tides

David and Perry discuss recent news and go on to discuss their projects outside the podcast. They also talk about some nominees for this year's Hugo Best Novel award.
Reading in bed (02:46)
Recent news (06:09)
Farewell Judith Hanna (02:45)
Piranesi wins The Women's Prize (01:17) [Interview with Neil Gaiman]
Centenary of the birth of Stanisław Lem (01:09)
Seven hundred years since the death of Dante (00:56)
Our other interests (20:22)
The Alien Review (14:22)
Through the Biblioscope (05:32)
Best Novel nominees for Hugos 2021 (30:36)
Network Effect by Martha Wells (15:39)
The Relentless Moon by Mary Robinette Kowal (12:22)
Wind-up (00:34)
Illustration: painting by Johann Wilhelm Schirmer (1807-1863)
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Episode 60: Tales Twice Told

Perry and David discuss recent award winners, the nominees for the Short Story category of this year's Hugos, and the books they've been reading.
Letters of Comment (04:06)
Awards (07:38)
Ned Kelly Award winners (03:38)
Davitt Awards (01:04)
Children's Book Council of Australia Awards (02:55)
Hugo Awards - Short Story Nominees (26:32)
A Guide for Working Breeds by Vina Jie-Min Prasad (02:41)
The Mermaid Astronaut by Yoon Ha Lee (03:09)
Badass Moms of the Zombie Apocalypse by Rae Carson (02:31)
Little Free Library by Naomi Kritzer (03:11)
Metal Like Blood in the Dark by T. Kingfisher (04:47)
Open House on Haunted Hill by John Wiswell (02:30)
Our Rankings (05:56)
What we've been reading (24:52)
Light Perpetual by Francis Spufford (04:20)
A Stairway to Paradise by Madeleine St. John (04:48)
The End of the World is Bigger Than Love by Davina Bell (04:22)
Say No to Death by Dymphna Cusack (11:15)
New website (01:06)
Windup (01:31)
Illustration by Arthur Rackham, courtesy of Old Book Illustrations.
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Episode 59: Throughly informed

David and Perry discuss the nominees in the Novelette category for this year's Hugo Awards, and go on to talk about their other recent reading.
Cordwainer Smith Rediscovery Award (03:15)
Davitt Award shortlist (02:58)
Hugo Award Novelette Nominees (36:18)
The Pill by Meg Elison (05:03)
Helicopter Story by Isabell Fall (06:43)
Burn or The Episodic Life of Sam Wells as a Super by A. T. Greenblatt (03:10)
The Inaccessibility of Heaven by Aliette de Bodard (05:56)
Two Truths and a Lie by Sarah Pinsker (08:29)
Monster by Naomi Kritzer (06:03)
What we've been reading (30:33)
The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle (07:23)
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari (07:48)
Foundation by Isaac Asimov (07:20)
The End of the Day by Claire North (07:16)
Windup (01:00)
Photo by SHVETS production from Pexels.

Episode 58: An eye on the box

Perry and David discuss recent award shortlists and then go on to talk about television shows they have recently watched.
Awards Season (14:14)
Ned Kelly Awards (03:52)
World Fantasy Awards (03:58)
The Age Book of the Year Award (03:00)
Booker Prize (02:52)
What we've been watching on television (43:41)
Absentia (05:59)
Mare of Easttown (08:17)
Broadchurch (06:35)
Loki (06:52)
Hanna (08:46)
The Falcoln and the Winter Soldier (06:50)
Windup (02:14)
Photo by cottonbro from Pexels
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Episode 57: From a skewed perspective

David and Perry discuss the nominees for Best Novella at this year's Hugo Awards, then talk about some more recent reading.
Miles Franklin Award Winner: The Labyrinth (02:22)
International Thriller Award: Blacktop Wasteland (00:27)
Steel Dagger Award: When She Was Good (01:02)
Hugo Award Novella nominees (33:08)
Upright Women Wanted by Sarah Gailey (03:47)
Ring Shout by P. Djeli Clark (06:33)
Riot Baby by Tochi Onyebuchi (03:43)
Come Tumbling Down by Seanan McGuire (07:28)
Finna by Nina Cipri (04:30)
The Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vo (07:28)
What else we've been reading (24:20)
Slough House by Mick Herron (06:06)
Helgoland by Carlo Rovelli (05:58)
The Kill Artist by Daniel Silva (06:24)
Say You're Sorry by Michael Robotham (05:47)
Windup (00:40)
Photo by Scott Webb from Pexels
Note: some links above are to Amazon.com. We receive a small affiliate commission for any purchases you make on Amazon via such links.

Episode 56: Labyrinths and rooftops

Perry and David nominate their best reads in the year so far and then go on to discuss their recent reading, ranging from children's books to a strange novel by a Japanese author
Locus Awards (03:25)
Arthur C. Clarke Award (01:37)
Other Awards (01:03)
David's top 5 books of the year so far (02:51)
Clarissa Harlowe by Samuel Richardson (00:56)
The Women in Black by Madeleine St John (00:10)
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson (00:13)
Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami (00:08)
Lavengro / Romany Rye by George Borrow (00:25)
Perry's top 5 books of the year so far (04:11)
Earthsea Trilogy by Ursula K. Le Guin (01:24)
Dune by Frank Herbert (00:54)
The Yield by Tara Jane Winch (00:11)
First Love by Ivan Turgenev (00:51)
The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa (00:17)
Emails and Tweets of Comment (01:57)
Why You Should Read Children's Books by Katherine Rundell (04:32)
The Scarecrow and His Servant by Philip Pullman (06:08)
The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa (07:15)
Rooftoppers by Katherine Rundell (07:08)
The Labyrinth by Amanda Lowrey (06:26)
Lavengro, Romany Rye by George Borrow (06:08)
Interlibrary Loan by Gene Wolfe (05:46)
Windup (01:11)
Illustration: rooftops of Paris.