Two Chairs Talking

Episode 22: The best publishing house in Old North Australia

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).

Episode 21: A beautifully illuminated blueprint

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

Episode 20: Don’t need no Saturn V rockets

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).

Episode 19: Perplexed by hailstones

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.

Episode 18: Food for the soul

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

Episode 17: Fiery the angels fell

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

Episode 16: Falling through doorways

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

Episode 15: A great big countdown timer

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

Episode 14: The Misfortunes of Melbourne

Perry and David talk about:
Follow-up
Listening to our own episodes
Getting our facts wrong
Perry's views on diversity in the SF field
Do the awards truly indicate quality?
Other awards in the field
Interview with Lucy Sussex
Discovering Mary Fortune
Ellen Davitt
'Force and Fraud' - Australia's first murder mystery
Mary Fortune's reputation
Anticipates the police procedural
Police looked down on
French writer Émile Gaboriau
Australian interest in true crime
Wilkie Collins and 'The Moonstone'
Fascination with Australian settings
Mary Braddon
Ellen Wood
Marcus Clarke and 'His Natural Life'
'The Mystery of a Hansom Cab'
'Blockbuster'
Fergus Hume
Melbourne the centre of theatre
Nailed colonial Victoria
Unusual structure of the novel
Victoria's Chinese detective
Concept of The Great Detective
Crime novels as commentary on society
Marvellous Melbourne - only for some
'Blockbuster' story of a publishing phenomenon
Frederick Trischler
Print run of 5,000
Hume sells copyright for £50
Kicks off interest in crime fiction
Interest in Australia
Pirated in the United States
Literature a dicey business
Theatrical versions
Hume goes to England
Was Hume gay?
Oscar Wilde
Blackmail?
Theosophy
Spiritualism - Doyle, Houdini
Hume's connections in England
Haddon Chambers
Lucy's further research
Anne Perry
Further research
Windup
Image: section of the cover of The Mystery of a Hansom Cab by Fergus Hume.

Episode 13: Blasts to the Past

David and Perry discuss:
Recent reading
Fire and Blood by George R. R. Martin
Ian Tregillis
The Milkweed Triptych by Ian Tregillis
The Alchemy Wars by Ian Tregillis
Something More Than Night by Ian Tregillis
Binge reading
The Hugo Time Machine 1956
Double Star by Robert Heinlein
Heinlein's sexual attitudes
Other nominees
Three to Conquer by Eric Frank Russell
End of Eternity by Isaac Asimov
The Long Tomorrow by Leigh Brackett
First woman to be nominated
Exploration Team by Murray Leinster
The Star by Arthur C. Clarke
End As A World by F.L. Wallace
Game of Rat and Dragon by Cordwainer Smith
Astounding SF Magazine
John W. Campbell Jnr
Controversy over Award Naming
Criticism by Jeanette Ng
JWC Memorial Award
World Fantasy Award
James Tiptree Jnr Award
Arthur C. Clarke Award
Hugo Gernsback
Perils of naming awards after people
The Oscars
2019 Hugos
The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal
For All Mankind
Artificial Condition by Martha Wells
If At First You Don't Succeed by Zen Cho
A Witch's Guide to Escape by Alix E. Harrow
Wayfarers Series by Becky Chambers
Archive of Our Own
Into the Spider-Verse
The Good Place
Hugo Awards Website
Windup
Image is a composite based on photos from Pexels.com