John is at Fantasycon, Alison is wrong, and Liz is right.

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: None

• Letters of comment
  • Chris Garcia (email)
  • Paul Weimer (email)
  • Renay! (email)
  • Roseanna Pendlebury (Bluesky)
  • Scott Edelman (email)
  • Simon Bubb (email)
    • Dismaland & Banksy
  • We also heard from Heather Rose Jones, Kevin Anderson, Lilian Edwards, Lori Anderson, Shi Lala, and Tero Ykspetäjä.
• Fantasycon 2026: Glasgow, UK
  • British Fantasy Award winners 2026
• Worldcon 2027: Montréal, Canada
  • The WSFS Business Meeting will be virtual
  • Cory Doctorow and Linda Addison have been added as Toastmaster and Guest of Honour respectively
  • Code of Conduct and Policies
• SFFCONZ statement on CoNZealand 2
  • Their website has gone dark but the Wayback Machine sees all
• Malcolm Edwards has died
  • Malcolm Edwards on Fancyclopedia
  • We know there was only one Malcolm Edwards, but there wasn’t a good edit point to take the mistake out!
• Picks
  • John: Hope
  • Alison: Into the Woods
  • Liz: Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma
• Credits
  • Cover art: “Cross Stitch” by Roseanna Pendlebury
    • Alt text: Beautifully cross-stitched depictions of John, Alison and Liz with black, pink and purple Octothorpe T-shirts on. They have a speech bubble above them reading “Octothorpe #171”.
  • Theme music: “Fanfare for Space” by Kevin MacLeod (CC BY 4.0)

John, Alison and Liz are live from Octocon!

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: It’s a live recording!

• The Ultimate Gene Wolfe Library on Humble Bundle
• Barry’s Tea and Lyons Tea
• Conventions
  • Octocon: 3–4 October 2026 in Cork, Ireland
  • Shake, Battle and Roll: 10–11 October 2026 in Southampton, UK
  • Tyneside Games Expo: 17–18 October 2026 in Gateshead, UK
  • PictCon 2026: 17 October in Perth, UK
  • Stabcon 2027: 8–10 January in Stockport, UK
  • Airecon 2027: 11–14 March (the last one!) in Harrogate, UK
• Picks
  • John: The Waiter by Kwan Ann Tan
    • The Emma Press
  • Alison: (is a bit short of a pick)
  • Liz: CONTROL Resonant
• Credits
  • Cover art: “Live from Octothorpe” by Liz Batty
    • Alt text: Three crocheted Octos – one purple, one green, and one red – sit against a white background. The words “Octocon 170” appear at the top and “Live from Octothorpe” appear at the bottom. (Octo is the Octocon mascot and is an octopus, so these are made from the official Octo crochet pattern.)
  • Theme music: “Surf Shimmy” by Kevin MacLeod (CC BY 4.0)

John parties, Alison queues, and Liz betrays.

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:

• Letters of comment
  • Andrew January (email)
  • Chris Garcia (emails)
  • DC (Bluesky)
  • Ed Morland (Bluesky)
  • Henry Balen (Facebook)
  • Kevin Anderson (Bluesky)
  • Malcolm Hutchison (Facebook)
  • Steve (email)
  • Trish Matson (email)
  • We also heard from Bridget Bradshaw, Farah Mendlesohn, Ivan Sinha, Jake Casella Brookins, Kev McVeigh, Kin-Ming Looi, Mike Scott, Paul Weimer, Roseanna Pendlebury, Scott Edelman, Shi Lala, and Tammy Coxen
• Octocon 2026: Cork and online
  • Octocon Programme
• Bristolcon 2026
  • Left Handed Giant
• The University of Liverpool’s Science Fiction Collection has been awarded Designated status by Arts Council England
  • Special Collections & Archives: Science Fiction Hub
  • Cameron Kunzelman in the Ancillary Review of Books on Joanna Russ and archives
  • “Archiving the Future: Preserving African Speculative Fiction” at LAcon V
• Worldcon 2026: LAcon V
• 4
• Picks
  • John: Pandemic Legacy: Season 1
  • Alison: The Bayeux Tapestry
    • Alison writes about queues
    • The copy held at Reading Museum
  • Liz: Foreigner by CJ Cherryh
    • Humble Bundle
• Swimcast
• Credits
  • Cover art: SKULK! by Sabrina L. Nelson, used under a CC BY-ND licence (original here)
    • Alt text: A photograph of various fans at LAcon V cosplaying foxes to varying degrees, including John wearing some fox ears and his wife España Sheriff wearing a fox mask. Above, orange text on a white background reads “Octothorpe 169” and below it reads “Foxes skulk at LAcon V”. For some reason, Adobe Photoshop is convinced I’ve used an AI-generated image, but given it’s a photograph and some text Adobe Photoshop can get in the sea.
  • Theme music: “Surf Shimmy” by Kevin MacLeod (CC BY 4.0)