147: What? What?! No!

John is ready, Alison had forgotten, and Liz is surprised.

An uncorrected transcript of this episode is available here. Please email your letters of comment to comment@octothorpecast.uk, join our Facebook group, and tag @OctothorpeCast (on Bluesky or on Mastodon) when you post about the show on social media.

Content warnings this episode: Animal torture (letters of comment)

• Letters of comment
  • Chris Garcia (email)
  • Ed Morland (BlueSky)
  • Farah Mendlesohn (Facebook)
    • Pictcon 2026: PictCon 2 in Perth, 17 October
  • Finbarr O’Reilly (email)
  • Kev McVeigh (Facebook)
  • Kin-Ming Looi (Facebook)
  • Paul Weimer (BlueSky, email)
  • Tammy Coxen (Facebook)
  • Terry Gibbs (Facebook)
  • Raj (Mastodon)
  • We also heard from Mike Scott, Neil Ottenstein and Tammy Coxen
• 2025 Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction
  • Ebon Moss-Bachrach on the red carpet
  • Event broadcast on YouTube
• LAcon V opens Hugo Awards Base Contest
• 36th Galaxy Awards
  • Roderick Leeuwenhart
• Tianwen Awards
  • Ersatz Culture on Mastodon
• BKK Comics Art Festival #4
  • The Blaft Book of Anti-Caste SF
  • Belgian comics
• Asian Board Games Festival (ABGF)
  • “Walking The Walk With RPGs In Malaysia” (paywalled on Rascal)
• Picks
  • John: The Lord of the Rings: Fate of the Fellowship
    • Shut Up & Sit Down’s review
    • Board Game Arena
    • The dice tower
  • Alison: The Word for World exhibition at the Architectural Association
    • Secret Maps at the British Library
  • Liz: Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman
• Star Wars is being properly remastered?
• Credits
  • Cover art: “Nepal Spotter’s Guide” by Paul Weimer (text by Alison Scott)
    • Alt text: A photograph of the mountains of Nepal with text overlaid, reading “Octothorpe 147 Official Octothorpe Nepal Identification Guide* (*apparently never gets old)** (** Liz might like to go to a comics con there)”.
  • Theme music: “Fanfare for Space” by Kevin MacLeod (CC BY 4.0)