I discovered from Twitter this morning that the latest edition of the Guardian Books Podcast features Ann Leckie. Naturally I had a listen, and I think it is well worth your time too.

The podcast actually starts with an interview with astrobiologist, Caleb Scharf, who has written a book about the place of life in the universe, and his view on the never-ending debate as to whether we humans are something special, or just one of thousands of examples of the variety of intelligent life.

Ann gets the second 15 minutes of the podcast. Some of that is spent reading from Ancillary Sword, but there’s enough interview to be of interest. The host, Richard Lea, has clearly done his research, because he manages to skewer Resnick & Malzberg (though not by name). Who knew that SFWA’s little internal disputes had become so famous?

Quite what American listeners will make of Lea describing Breq as something of a “Commie”, I don’t know. Americans and Guardian journalists have very different understanding of the meaning of “Communist”.

For my part I was pleased to hear some discussion of Breq’s love of music. I am, after all, moderating a panel on music in fiction at BristolCon on Saturday. Now I have an excuse to mention Ann. Yay!

You can listen to the podcast, and download the mp3, here.