John has shortlisted, Alison has worked in large organisations, and Liz has done a spot-the-difference.

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: LLMs

• Letters of comment
  
  
  
  • Chris Garcia
  
  
  • Clarrie Maguire
  
  
  • Colette Reap
  
  
  • Roseanna Pendlebury
    
    
    
    • Her Death of Stalin review
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Tobes Valois
  
  
  • We also heard from Ali Baker Brooks, Ang Rosin, Brian Nisbet, Caroline Mullan, DC, Doug Faunt, Ed Morland, Esther MacCallum-Stewart, Farah Mendlesohn, Gareth Kavanagh, Ivan Sinha, Jonathan Baddeley, Jonathan Cowie, Kin-Ming Looi, Lilian Edwards, Meg MacDonald, Neil Ottenstein, Phil Dyson, Raj, Sandra Bond, Shi Lala, Tammy Coxen, Tony Keen, TrishEM, ‪Zoë O’Connell‬
  
  
  
  


• Corflu
  
  
  
  • FAAn Award Winners
  
  
  
  


• Ada Palmer runs a class called “The Italian Renaissance: Dante, Machiavelli, and the Wars of Popes and Kings,” better known by students as “pope class” or “pope LARP”
  
  
  
  • Archive.is
  
  
  
  


• Chris Barkley has sued Dave McCarty
  
  
  
  • Shot
  
  
  • Chaser
  
  
  
  


• Locus
  
  
  
  • 2025 fundraiser
  
  
  • Revenue is flat and costs are up 21%
  
  
  
  


• Clarke Award
  
  
  
  • The shortlist has been announced
  
  
  
  


• Worldcon 2025: Seattle
  
  
  
  • “Statement from the Worldcon Chair”
  
  
  • “Apology and Response From Chair”
  
  
  • “May 6th Statement From Chair and Program Division Head”
  
  
  • Resignation statement from WSFS division
  
  
  
  


• Picks
  
  
  
  • John: The Mark by Frìða Ìsberg
  
  
  • Alison: Sinners
  
  
  • Liz: Blue Prince
  
  
  
  


• Credits
  
  
  
  • Cover art: “Sample FAAn Award” by Alison Scott
    
    
    
    • Alt text: A photograph of a yellow square on a mantlepiece. On the yellow square is black text and a red shape with yellow text. The text reads “Corflu 42. 2025 FAAn Awards. Best Immutable Object: Octothorpe”. Text overlaid on the photograph reads ‘Octothorpe 134. “Don’t believe everything you read on ChatGPT.”’
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Theme music: “Fanfare for Space” by Kevin MacLeod (CC BY 4.0)