162: Do You Have Stirrups on Your Bicycle?

John wasn’t overcrowded, Alison likes it small, and Liz has never been.

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: Drug use, war (John’s pick)

• Letters of comment
  • Christopher J Garcia (email)
  • DC (Bluesky)
  • Els (Bluesky)
  • Ivan Sinha (Facebook)
    • Premier Inns in Llandudno
  • Jonathan Harden (Bluesky)
  • Nicholas Whyte (email)
    • “Best Related Work eligibility for the Hugo Awards”
  • Scott Edelman (Bluesky)
    • Eating the Fantastic
  • Tommy Ferguson (email)
  • Trish Matson (Bluesky)
    • Shokz OpenSwim Pro
  • Alison: Raj (Mastodon)
  • We also heard from Ali Baker Brooks, aoanla, Jonathan Baddeley, Neil Ottenstein
• Satellite 9
  • Ottoman Coffeehouse
  • Blood on the Clocktower
  • Bristol 1350
  • Codex Naturalis
• Farah Mendlesohn is running a one-day event about Frances Hardinge
• Worldcon 2028: Former bid for Nuremberg, Germany
• Worldcon 2028: Bid for Brisbane, Australia
  • Paul Weimer (email)
  • Clouds and stuff
• UK Games Expo 2026
  • “UK Games Expo 2026 breaks NEC attendance records as infrastructure buckles under massive crowds” at GeekNative by Andrew Girdwood
  • “Stupid Games, Stupid Prizes” by Tim Clare
  • Some discourse on Bluesky
• Picks
  • John: Starship Salvager by Jarrom Strong
  • Alison: Hades II
  • Liz: Play Nice: The Rise, Fall and Future of Blizzard Entertainment by Jason Schreier
    • Game Over by David Sheff
• Credits
  • Cover art: “Scenes of the Village” by Alison Scott
    • Alt text: A photograph of Portmeirion made to look like a stamp or a postcard, with words overlaid saying “Holiday greetings from Portmeirion, be seeing you…”. Above reads “Octothorpe 162” and below reads “Alison has gone on holiday again”.
  • Theme music: “Fanfare for Space” by Kevin MacLeod (CC BY 4.0)