159: Taking a Stand

John ran the Games Room, Alison ran the Newsletter, and Liz was on holiday.

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:

• Ancillary Review of Books
  • Kickstarter ending at 04:59 BST (UTC+1) on 14 May 2026
  • “First of May”
• Eastercon 2026: Iridescence in Birmingham
  • Batik
  • ConRunner
  • Daves Hot Chicken [do not get me started on the lack of apostrophe—John]
  • HaruhiCon
  • Alison’s 365 Play challenge
• Eastercon 2027: Unconfined in Glasgow
• Eastercon 2028: Contract in Birmingham
  • Guests of Honour: Adam Roberts, Aliya Whiteley and Chris Lintott
• Eastercon 2029: Bid for Chronologicon in Chester
  • Aiming to cap at ₆₅₀ people
• Eastercon 2030: Bid from BSFA to join with Eurocon
  • British Science Fiction Association
• Eastercon “early 2030s”: Rumblings from Northern Ireland
• Picks
  • John: Scavengers Reign
  • Alison: What We Are Seeking by Cameron Reed
    • The Fortunate Fall by Cameron Reed
  • Liz: Slow Gods by Claire North
• Credits
  • Cover art: “Thanks Guys” by Alison Scott (comic by Randall Munroe used under a CC BY-NC 2.5 licence, typeface by Phil Elson used under a CC BY-NC 3.0 Unported licence)
    • Alt text: A stack of grey blocks being held up by two small stacks underneath. The stack is labelled “all current Eastercon digital infrastructure”, while the two small stacks are labelled “bits being thanklessly maintained by Andrew January” and “bits being thanklessly maintained by James Shields”. The words “Octothorpe 159” appear at the top.
  • Theme music: “Fanfare for Space” by Kevin MacLeod (CC BY 4.0)