January 16, 2025

126: I’ve Read Some Novels

1 hour

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 [email protected], 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

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

Grottmata by Thomas Ha

Five Views of the Planet Tartarus by Rachael K Jones

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

Abigail Nussbaum’s review at Strange Horizons

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

Bridge Command

Poems

Sandra Bond

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

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)

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By John Coxon, Alison Scott, Liz Batty

66 ratings