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Recorded in front of a live audience at Continuum 9 in Melbourne, this episode of The Writer and the Critic features special guest N.K. Jemisin alongside your usual hosts, Kirstyn McDermott and Ian Mond. The first part of the podcast is spent chatting — spoiler-free! — about the first book in Nora’s latest duology, The Killing Moon (Book One of the Dreamblood), which Ian has read and heartily recommends. Kirstyn also mentions the awesome Guest of Honour speech which Nora gave at the convention, and Nora in turn references an important article by Samuel R. Delany on “Racism and Science Fiction” — first published in 1998 and sadly still very much relevant in 2013.

Nora has chosen both books up for discussion this month and — listeners beware — spoilers do abound from this point on. A Madness of Angels by Kate Griffin is thrown onto the slab first (starting around 20:20) followed by the graphic novel Saga (Volume 1 only) by Brian K.Vaughan and Fiona Staples (1:00:45). Arachnophobes should also beware — there is extensive discussion of spiders living in laundries as well as their subsequent hairy-legged demise. Kirstyn is very sad about this. She might even get a bit teary.

If you’ve skipped ahead to avoid spoilers, or perhaps spiders, please come back around 1:25:35 for some final remarks, including a new Twitterr-related discovery made by Ian and some basic lessons in the Australian vernacular.

Next month, the two books up for critique will be Hair Side, Flesh Side by Helen Marshall (recommended by Kirstyn) and Light by M. John Harrison (Ian’s pick). Read ahead and join in the spoilerific fun!

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