A podcast about science fiction and SF fandom from John Coxon, Alison Scott, and Liz Batty.
Episodes
Thursday Mar 13, 2025
Thursday Mar 13, 2025
John is working, Alison is plugging and Liz is ghosting.
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 Mastodon or on Bluesky) when you post about the show on social media.
Content warnings this episode: Capitalism, death (Chapter 8: Picks)
- Please remember that we have recused from consideration for the 2025 Hugo Awards
- Letters of comment
- BSFA
- If you attended please let us know what happened!
- Awards
- Oxford–Bloomsbury Fantasy Summer School
- Free to apply with limited in-person spaces
- Or, wait for the streaming link! (FAQ)
- GUFF: The Incomplete Chronicles
- Liz previously described a Pepper’s Ghost at Tokyo Disneyland
- Picks
- Credits
- Cover art: “Handwriting Analysis Special”
- Alt text: The words “Octothorpe 130: Handwriting Analysis Special” appear three times in the three hosts’ handwriting.
- Theme music: “Fanfare for Space” by Kevin MacLeod (CC BY 4.0)
- Cover art: “Handwriting Analysis Special”
Thursday Feb 27, 2025
Thursday Feb 27, 2025
John thought of something, Alison is educational, and Liz reads contracts.
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 Mastodon or on Bluesky) when you post about the show on social media.
Content warnings this episode: Money (chapter 3)
- Please remember that we have recused from consideration for the 2025 Hugo Awards
- Letters of comment
- Chris Garcia
- DC
- On Blind Chance (skeet, requires sign-in)
- On picking books (skeet, requires sign-in)
- Doug Faunt
- Farah Mendlesohn (Facebook)
- Eastercon 2025: Reconnect in Belfast
- Cancelling non-refundable hotel rooms does not net one a refund
- We get ourselves into knots trying to work out what’s happened here and we’re not sure
- Alison taught John and Liz about complaining about cancellations
- Cancelling non-refundable hotel rooms does not net one a refund
- Worldcon 2025: Seattle
- Virtual Business Meeting details
- Lumi Global
- The meetings are all at 09:00–12:30 (PDT/UTC-7) on 4, 13, 19, 25 July
- Hugo nominations are open
- Virtual Business Meeting details
- Picks
- John: Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge: The Official Black Spire Outpost Cookbook by Chelsea Monroe-Cassel and Marc Sumerak
- Alison: The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley
- Liz: Nova by Samuel Delany
- John Nielsen-Hall’s article, “Running up that Hill: or Life with the Brunners” appears in Prolapse #7
- Credits
- Cover art: “Thailand Positioning Service” by Alison Scott
- Alt text: Words read “Octothorpe 129: Can you pin Thailand on the map?” above a black-and-white world map. The backs of John, Alison and Liz’s heads are shown. John is thinking “Yup!”, Liz is thinking “100%”, and Alison is holding Thailand and thinking “???”.
- Theme music: “Fanfare for Space” by Kevin MacLeod (CC BY 4.0)
- Cover art: “Thailand Positioning Service” by Alison Scott
Thursday Feb 13, 2025
Thursday Feb 13, 2025
John picks too soon, Alison is fully paid-up, and Liz found the comment.
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 X or on Mastodon or on Bluesky) when you post about the show on social media.
Content warnings this episode: COVID (chapter 7)
- Letters of comment
- Andreas Davour (toot)
- Bridget Bradshaw (skeet)
- Chris Garcia
- David Bamford (skeet)
- DC (skeet, requires sign-in)
- Farah Mendlesohn (Facebook)
- Karen Schaffer
- Meg MacDonald (Facebook)
- Raj (toot)
- Short story: “Bond, Bond, and James Bond” by Eric Molinsky
- Novelette: “Lake of Souls” by Ann Leckie (from her new collection, Lake of Souls)
- Novella: Last Stop by Django Wexler
- Tammy Coxen (skeet)
- Eastercon 2025: Reconnect in Belfast
- John has been asked to head up the Discord
- Bursaries
- Deadline is noon on 16 February
- Email finance@easterconbelfast.org with as much or as little detail as you like
- Eastercon 2026: Iridescence, a bid for Birmingham
- BSFA
- BSFA Award Longlist
- Octothorpe 122 has been nominated, thank you very much!
- Review policy rumours
- New chair: Stewart Hotson
- BSFA Award Longlist
- Picks
- John: Severance S2
- Alison: The Brutalist
- Liz: Lady Eve’s Last Con by Rebecca Fraimow
- Credits
- Cover art: “Live From Minidisc” by Alison Scott
- Alt text: A blue Sony MiniDisc Walkman shows, on its LCD screen, “Now playing: Octothorpe_128”.
- Theme music: “Fanfare for Space” by Kevin MacLeod (CC BY 4.0)
- Cover art: “Live From Minidisc” by Alison Scott
Thursday Jan 30, 2025
Thursday Jan 30, 2025
John is incoherent, Alison is excited, and Liz is romantic.
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 X or on Mastodon or on Bluesky) when you post about the show on social media.
Content warnings this episode: None
- Letters of comment
- Abigail Nussbaum
- Ali Baker Brooks
- Andy Openshaw
- Chris Garcia
- Claire Brialey
- David Salter
- Ed Morland
- Farah Mendlesohn
- Irwin Hirsh
- Jonny Baddeley
- Neil Ottenstein
- Roseanna Pendlebury
- We also heard from:
- Fiona Moore, Ivan Sinha
- Readers’ recommendations
- Best Novel
- Private Rites by Julia Armfield
- I’m Afraid You’ve Got Dragons by Peter S Beagle
- Metal from Heaven by August Clarke
- In Universes by Emet North
- The West Passage by Jared Pechaček
- Three Eight One by Aliya Whiteley
- Someone You Can Build a Nest in By John Wiswell
- Best Dramatic Presentation (Long Form)
- Deadpool and Wolverine
- Tim Travers & the Time Travelers Paradox
- Best Game or Interactive Work:
- Tactical Breach Wizards
- Best Fancast
- Eight Days of Diana Wynne Jones by Emily Tesh and Rebecca Fraimow
- Lady Eve’s Last Con by Rebecca Fraimow
- Eight Days of Diana Wynne Jones by Emily Tesh and Rebecca Fraimow
- Astounding Award
- The End of Nobility by Michael Green
- Best Novel
- Briardene Books
- Eastercon 2025: Reconnect in Belfast
- Picks
- John: Sliding Doors
- Alison: Three Men in Orbit by Sandra Bond
- Liz: Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake by Sarah MacLean
- Credits
- Cover art: “Availability Flowchart” by Alison Scott
- Alt text: A flowchart entitled “How to meet John, Alison and/or Liz at Eastercon”. The boxes culminate in “console yourself with Octothorpe 127”, and the various options are listed below, but the original file is here in case that’s more helpful to the partially sighted.
- How to meet John, Alison and/or Liz at Eastercon
- Are you going to Reconnect?
- Of course!/Not sure
- Oh go on it will be a laugh
- Oh all right then/No…
- Are they in the bar?
- Yes!
- I can’t see them
- Are you quite sure? Check again
- Oh wait… there they are
- No sign
- Is there another bar?
- Yes!
- Nope
- Are they on programme?
- Yes!
- No
- Wait till the moderator asks for questions
- But it’s Octothorpe Live!
- Is your joke very funny?
- Obviously!
- Excellent! Good to know.
- COME AND SAY HELLO
- until then…
- Are they asleep or on the loo?
- No, they look chill
- Er, yes?
- Oh, that’s a shame
- Console yourself with Octothorpe 127
- Theme music: “Fanfare for Space” by Kevin MacLeod (CC BY 4.0)
- Cover art: “Availability Flowchart” by Alison Scott
Thursday Jan 16, 2025
Thursday Jan 16, 2025
John is a thief, Alison plays games, and Liz is bullied.
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 X or on Mastodon or on Bluesky) when you post about the show on social media.
Content warnings this episode: None
- Letters of comment
- Andreas Davour
- Bella Garcia
- Constanze Hoffman
- Farah Mendlesohn
- Jonathan Cowie
- June Young
- Mike Scott
- Neil Ottenstein
- Raj
- Tammy Coxen
- Zoe O’Connell
- We also heard from Bridget Bradshaw, Colin Harris, Meg MacDonald, and Shi Lala
- Fan funds
- The 2025 TAFF race has begun
- Zi Graves, Mikołaj Kowalewski, Jan Vaněk jr.
- CUFF comes to an end
- The 2025 TAFF race has begun
- Fowler Award
- Hugo Awards
- 2025 spreadsheet of doom
- Novels
- T**he Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett
- The Sentence by Gautam Bhatia
- The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley
- The Life Impossible by Matt Haig
- Jumpnauts by Hao Jingfang
- The Siege of Burning Grass by Premee Mohamed
- Alien Clay by Adrian Tchaikovsky
- House of Open Wounds by Adrian Tchaikovsky
- Absolution by Jeff Vandermeer
- We Are All Ghosts in the Forest by Lorraine Wilson
- Novellas
- A Mourning Coat by Alex Jeffers
- North Continent Ribbon by Ursula Whitcher
- Short Stories
- Related Works
- Track Changes: Selected Reviews **by Abigail Nussbaum
- Speculative Whiteness: Science Fiction and the A**lt-Right by Jordan S. Carroll
- Series
- The Horus Heresy
- The Southern Reach
- The Tyrant Philosophers
- Graphic Stories
- Warp Your Own Way by Ryan North and Chris Fenoglio
- Dramatic Presentations
- All of Us Strangers
- Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
- I Saw the TV Glow
- Late Night with the Devil
- My Old Ass
- A Quiet Place: Day One
- The Substance
- Timestalker
- Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl
- The Wild Robot
- Games
- Tabletop
- Arcs
- City of Six Moons
- Mothership
- Undaunted 2200: Callisto
- Video
- Animal Well
- Caves of Qud
- Dragon Age: The Veilguard
- The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdo**m
- Slice and Dice 3.0
- Star Wars: Outlaws
- Tale of the Golden Idol
- UFO50
- Other
- Tabletop
- Poems
- Fan categories
- Artists
- Alison Scott
- España Sheriff
- Podcasts
- Fanac Fan History Zooms
- Going Rogue
- Hugo, Girl!
- A Meal of Thorns
- Writers
- Camestros Felapton
- Ersatz Culture
- Roseanna Pendlebury
- Fanzines
- Ancillary Review of Books
- Banana Wings
- Ornithopter
- Unofficial Hugo Book Club
- Artists
- Debut authors
- Moniquill Blackgoose
- [Alison did not write any of her selections into the show notes and I was sorely tempted not to go through and write them all down for her but I did it for you, listener. I did it for you—John]
- Picks [isn’t this a whole episode of picks?—Liz]
- John: Earthborne Rangers
- Alison: The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom
- Liz: Horizon Zero Dawn
- Sorry Mark
- Credits
- Cover art: “Waffle of comment” by Bella Garcia
- Alt text: A picture of a Belgian waffle that looks like an octothorpe, on a white background, with the words “Octothorpe 126” above and “now with added waffle” below.
- Theme music: “Fanfare for Space” by Kevin MacLeod (CC BY 4.0)
- Cover art: “Waffle of comment” by Bella Garcia
Friday Dec 20, 2024
Friday Dec 20, 2024
John is travelling, Alison is coding, and Liz is faithful.
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 X or on Mastodon or on Bluesky) when you post about the show on social media.
Content warnings this episode: Death (chapter 6)
- Letters of comment
- Chris Garcia
- Jt
- Raj
- Rotsler Award
- Seattle 2025
- Upcoming Worldcons
- Vince Docherty reports from Smofcon 41
- There are many links to convention bid websites contained within
- Montréal are continuing for 2027, but Tel Aviv have suspended
- Conventions on cruise ships
- Vince Docherty reports from Smofcon 41
- Vanessa May
- Picks
- Credits
- Cover art: “Christmas Hats” by Alison Scott
- Alt text: John wears an Octothorpe Christmas jumper and a green and red hat with elf ears, Alison wears a red Christmas jumper and a moose/reindeer hat, and Liz wears a blue jumper and a Christmas tree hat. The words “Octothorpe 125” appear at the top in a Christmassy font that looks like it has snow on the letters.
- Theme music: “Fanfare for Space” by Kevin MacLeod (CC BY 4.0)
- Cover art: “Christmas Hats” by Alison Scott
Thursday Dec 05, 2024
Thursday Dec 05, 2024
John is horrified, Alison is spelunking, and Liz is detecting.
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 X or on Mastodon or on Bluesky) when you post about the show on social media.
Content warnings this episode:
- Letters of comment
- Ali Baker Brooks
- Andrew Hogg
- Archipelacon 2
- Caroline Mullan
- Chris Garcia
- Farah Mendlesohn
- Ivan Sinha
- Jonny Baddeley
- June Young
- MonkeyKing
- Roseanna Pendlebury
- Shia Lia
- Tommy Ferguson
- Upcoming conventions
- Eastercon 2026: Iridescence at the Hilton Birmingham Metropole
- Bid chaired by Phil Dyson
- Eastercon 2027: Glasgow
- Bid chaired by Alan Fleming and David Bamford
- Eastercon 2028: Gateshead?
- Novacon 2025
- Conrunner 2026
- To be chaired by Esther MacCallum-Stewart in February
- WisCONline 2025
- Edmonton 2030
- Eastercon 2026: Iridescence at the Hilton Birmingham Metropole
- Picks
- John: Mothership
- Alison: Caves of Qud
- Liz: Rise of the Golden Idol
- (Sorry that they’re all games, Mark)
- Credits
- Cover art: “Ohmudillo” by Sophie van Setten
- Alt text: The Glasgow 2024 logo drawn in pencils and crayon, but across the middle there is a segmented creature with eight eyes and mandibles. At the top, the words “Octothorpe 124” appear in blue.
- Theme music: “Fanfare for Space” by Kevin MacLeod (CC BY 4.0)
- Cover art: “Ohmudillo” by Sophie van Setten
Thursday Nov 21, 2024
Thursday Nov 21, 2024
John is going to Seattle, Alison is going to the Åland Islands, and Liz is going to Belfast.
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 X or on Mastodon or on Bluesky) when you post about the show on social media.
Content warnings this episode: Money, grim darkness
- Belfast Eastercon
- Seattle 2025
- Archipelacon 2
- Back to Our Futures
- Liz’s Adrian Tchaikovsky scoop
- Edmonton Worldcon bid
- Picks
- John: Wrath and Glory
- Alison: Timestalker
- Liz: The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett
- Credits
- Cover art: “Fully Caffeinated” by Alison Scott
- Alt text: A coffee stain on a piece of paper on which are written the words “Octothorpe 123” and “fully caffineated”.
- Theme music: “Fanfare for Space” by Kevin MacLeod (CC BY 4.0)
- Cover art: “Fully Caffeinated” by Alison Scott
Thursday Nov 07, 2024
Thursday Nov 07, 2024
John is on the periphery, Alison is carving, and Liz went to Japan.
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 X or on Mastodon or on Bluesky) when you post about the show on social media.
Content warnings this episode: con artistry, privilege, racism
- Letters of comment
- Jake Casella Brookins
- Ali Baker Brooks
- Christopher J Garcia
- Emily January
- Kat Kourbeti
- Caroline Mullan
- Zoe O’Connell
- Roman Orszanski
- Awards
- Oghenochovwe Donald Ekpeki
- Erin Cairns has reported that Ekpeki stole a story and passed it off as his own
- Cairns tried to sound this alarm on X in June
- Reactions
- Gautam Bhatia
- L D Lewis (requires Bluesky login)
- Ekpeki’s response
- Jason Sanford talks about his reaction to the news: one, two
- Picks
- John: Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
- Alison: Bridge Command
- Alison was given free tickets by the venue’s PR team
- Liz: Japan
- Neat effects like Tokyo Disneyland’s Pepper’s ghost or Shiriki Utundu
- Liz was not given free tickets but if anyone wants to give me free tickets to Disney parks please get in touch
- Credits
- Cover art: “Octothorpe, Octothorpe, Octothorpe” by Alison Scott
- Alt text: A pumpkin carved with an image of Beetlejuice, with the words “Episode 122” at the top of the image and “Octothorpe, Octothorpe, Octothorpe” at the bottom.
- Theme music: “Fanfare for Space” by Kevin MacLeod (CC BY 4.0)
- Cover art: “Octothorpe, Octothorpe, Octothorpe” by Alison Scott
Thursday Oct 24, 2024
Thursday Oct 24, 2024
John, Alison and Liz read Grass by Sheri S Tepper.
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 X or on Mastodon or on Bluesky) when you post about the show on social media.
Content warnings this episode: Rape, consensual interspecies sex, murder, classism, plague/disease
- Adam Roberts’ review of Grass
- Credits
- Cover art: “Three Little Hippae” by Alison Scott
- Alt text: Three hippae stand on a landscape of alien grass and plants in blue, purple, red, teal, and orange underneath a pinkish sky. The words “Octothorpe 121” appear at the top and the words “Grass Sheri S Tepper” appear at the bottom.
- Theme music: “Fanfare for Space” by Kevin MacLeod (CC BY 4.0)
- Cover art: “Three Little Hippae” by Alison Scott