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)