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Ok fine, I’ll go with 2018’s “Fantasy Novel that Takes Place Entirely Within One City” – The City in Glass by Nghi Vo (HM “secondary world fantasy,” yes definitely)
(1,702) Nghi Vo is maybe my favorite fantasy author working today, she simply takes my breath away with everything she writes. This is definitely her most abstract work to date, the story of a demon who loved a Calvino-style fictional city and was there when it was destroyed by angels. In the present, she forms a relationship with one of the angels who destroyed it, but much of the joy of the book is her memories of that fantastical city that now lies in ashes. Nghi Vo is a joy – 6/5
2. Cozy SFF: A Rival Most Vial: Potioneering for Love and Profit by R.K. Ashwick (HM, although I did read the sequel after this)
(655) “relatable characters, low stakes, minimal conflict, and a happy ending” check to all of those! Add in the “queer romance” and “rivals to lovers” that are not requirements of the subgenre genre but certainly staples, and we’re set. Grumpy master potioneer is angry when a young (but handsome . . .) guy opens up a rival potion shop across the street from him. Cozy fantasy (grumpy cozy fantasy) ensues. And most importantly, it largely escapes the trope I find most frustrating about this subgenre, which is inexperienced people opening a shop and managing to turn a profit in like a month or two. At the very least, the author has a sense of how hard running a small business is. Nice little snackable book – 3.5/5
3. ~~Generic Title: Sword & Thistle by S.L. Rowland (not HM, but kind of close)~~ I liked “S&T”, but there were other books I read that I liked more, so I’ll use my other swapsie to grab 2019’s “A SFF Novel Featuring a Character With a Disability” – Dragon Kings of Oklahoma: A Backwoods Adventure by Ferrett Steinmetz (HM “main protagonist,” check)
(39 reviews for Book 1, and Book 3 only has 7 reviews) This novella, first in a series, about some good ol’ boys in rural Oklahoma who come across a baby dragon, is fantastically underrated. It qualifies for the square because the main character has chronic pain from an old accident that has led to a pill addiction, a very real problem in a lot of rural America, and I will say the book treats the subject with a lot of compassion. This book could so easily have been much less good, as it would have been no problem for Steinmetz to lean on stereotypes. Pretty much everyone has an image of rural Americans—both godless liberal elites who disdain them if they think of them at all and performative conservatives wearing cowboy boots that have never gotten a speck of mud on them. Instead, this is a tight narrative with very three-dimensional characters who feel like real people dealing with real problems, oh and also a baby dragon – 4/5
4. Not A Book: “Dark Angel” (HM, I wrote a review!)
So, downloaded this old show on a whim, basically expecting it to be fun just for nostalgia’s sake. But honestly, it holds up way better than I expected. Badass character with a mysterious background, postapocalyptic oppressive government, solid action scenes. What’s not to like? – 4/5
5. Pirates: Arm of the Sphinx by Josiah Bancroft, Book 2 of the Books of Babel series. (HM sky pirates, fuck yeah!)
(1,862, although the first in the series has 4,938, so again kind of cheating. But Book 2 is the one that has the sky pirates?) This is my one reread of the year, not necessarily for bingo just because I loved these books and felt like rereading them. This series is fantastic, one of those where the world itself is the main character. As our main character explores the Tower of Babel and learns how it works, style and unique flair just permeate through the entire book. Love this whole series, for sure, even if the pacing can be off at times – 4.5/5
In conclusion, this was a really fun year of reading! Thanks so much to the bingo team for all of this, I’ll
interested, you and I clearly have different taste in books. While I don’t think it quite achieves its potential, it had enough flair and style to be a fun read – 4/5
Third Row:
1. Parent Protagonist: The Lives of Tao series by Wesley Chu. (HM in later books)
(1,139 for Book 1; although he becomes a parent in Book 2, 345 reviews; and his child becomes a main character in Book 3; 219 reviews) The premise of these is fun. There are aliens on Earth who are unable to live in our atmosphere and thus must occupy a living host, and they have secretly been guiding all of human history (apparently, there was apparently some debate whether to support the Neanderthals or Cro-Magnons). Our main character is an out-of-shape IT technician who is inhabited in an emergency by one of the aliens (whose previous hosts include Genghis Khan and the Marquis de Lafayette) and drafted into the war against the rival faction of aliens. Think “Chuck” if you remember that show, but with the fun history aspect and better martial arts action. This book doesn’t take itself seriously at all, and because of that it’s a solid adventure. Borrowing tropes from everything fromclassic Kung Fu cinema to James Bond, it knows what it’s doing and makes for a fun read – 4/5
(that said, shoutout to “Our Share of Night” by Mariana Enriquez, which would have been my selection for this square if I weren’t trying to feature unknown books. One of the best books I read last year)
2. Epistolary: Remember You Will Die by Eden Robins. (HM in a big way, almost the entire book is told via obituaries. So damn cool)
(202 reviews) One of the most incredible books I’ve read in a while. Very, very modern, as the framing device is an AI reading through obituaries trying to process the death of her daughter. Each one is connected to previous ones, as a character mentioned as a friend or mentor or student or etc. in the previous obituary is often the subject of the next—it almost reads like someone browsing Wikipedia links, in a pretty amusing way. But this structure means that the novel jumps backwards and forwards in time revealing an absolutely wonderfully-constructed world that is similar to our own, a Borgesian tangle of real people and fictional ones looping around each other. While not perfect, deliberately confusing (very glad I read an ebook so I could search for names in previous chapters), it was a supremely enjoyable experience to read – 5/5
3. Published in 2025: The Library at Hellebore by Cassandra Khaw (not HM)
(1,927) I love Cassandra Khaw, can I start off by saying that? I absolutely love them, I’ll read anything they write. But I also have a hard time recommending them to people, because they are gory. That’s Khaw’s whole thing, they take sheer and utter delight in describing viscera with the most flowery, poetic language possible. It’s great. This is their take on dark academia, with the twist being that this school is reserved for students who are prophesied/etc. to be Anti-Christ style figures in the future. Your Omega-level mutants, your walking Ragnaroks, all that. The ones who are destined to destroy the world. So put them all in one place and see what happens, I guess? God, I love Cass Khaw – 5/5
4. Author of Color: The Gurkha and the Lord of Tuesday by Saad Z. Hossain (not HM. “Hellebore” above would have been HM, but I really wanted to talk about “Lord of Tuesday”)
(510) I absolutely love this book. An ancient Djinn wakes up in a surveillance-state technodystopia (post climate disaster, so much of the world is uninhabitable) version of Katmandu, and hilarity ensues. The book didn’t take itself seriously, while simultaneously ramping up to a pretty spectacular conclusion (the last two chapters are perfection). And novella-length, only 107 pages, you could read this in an afternoon at a café if you wanted to – 5/5
5. Small Press or Self Published: Demonology and the Art of Pickling Demons by Matt Moore, published by Dream Cannon Publishing (HM)
(4) Yup, only 4 reviews,
2025 Bingo: All books with fewer than 2,000 goodreads reviews
Hi r/Fantasy! This last year, I made a big effort to read as many “unknown” books as I could. It was a ton of fun, and I discovered some real hidden gems. I realized I could probably put together a Bingo board, so here’s my attempt. I had to make the line 2,000 to get everything in, but most of them are under 1,000 and there's a few under 100. I'm pretty proud of myself!
First Row:
1. Knights and Paladins: Cassiel’s Servant by Jacqueline Carey (HM, as his oath is kind of the character’s Whole Thing)
(478 reviews, so technically meets my criteria, but feels like cheating since it’s part of a very well-known series. Not happy to be starting off with this one, and it’s also my lowest-rated book on this card) Wanted to like this book, since I’m a fan of the original series. Jacqueline Carey tackled what’s actually a fairly ambitious goal—re-telling her own book from a different perspective and making it feel fresh instead of just a re-tread. While props for the attempt . . . she did not succeed. It’s just kinda boring, doesn’t really add much to the original – 2.5/5
2. Hidden Gem: Corporate Gunslinger by Doug Engstrom (HM, published 2020)
(73 reviews, 277 ratings) In the near future, America has added a new feature to the legal system: Once the medical insurance company has denied your final appeal, you have the option of challenging a legal representative to a duel to the death in order to clear your debt. Thus, insurance companies hire and train corporate duelists, and the best among them become famous celebrities in their own right (because of the course the fights are televised, and discussed by pundits, and gambled on. This is America, after all). This book is a satire and a black comedy but it doesn’t make any jokes—the joke is that we look at this fucked-up system and are forced to admit that it’s not all that different from our current system, really – 4.5/5
3. Published in the 80s: The Shore of Women by Pamela Sargent (Not HM, but it is written by a woman, so I’m giving myself Medium Mode on this one?)
(171 reviews, although it was definitely well-known when it first came out) One of the foundational stories of feminist scifi, but largely forgotten by modern readers. I’m sad that I waited so long to read it. It’s set in a postapocalyptic dystopia (as so many Cold War Era scifi books are . . .) where our main character is a woman exiled from women-run technologically advanced cities into the brutal wasteland ruled by men. The social commentary is excellent, a pushback against misogyny in feminism by basically saying, “it’s less about gender and more about power—if women were in charge, there’s a good chance they’d be just as selfish” – 4/5
4. High Fashion: A Necromancer Called Gam-Gam by Adam Holcombe. (HM, our main character knits accessories for her zombies, which is amazing)
(144 reviews) Very, very fun book. I mean, she knits accessories for her zombies, that should tell you pretty clearly the tone this book is going for. But mixed in with that is a very nice story with an emotional heart, centered around the relationship between a scared young girl and the kindly old woman she meets (who also happens to be a terrifying necromancer) – 4/5
5. Down With the System: Escape Velocity by Victor Manibo (HM as, it’s more about the capitalist elite than about a specific government)
(334) This was a clever novel, I really enjoyed it! Set on a space station, a premier luxury resort, which is host to an alumni reunion of the prestigious Rochford Institute boarding school. As some of the wealthiest and most powerful people in the world meet up, talk gets to unravelling the mystery of a murder that occurred while they were in school. It’s a classic “two timelines” story, as the narrative switches back and forth between the happenings on the space station and the flashbacks 25 years prior. The themes of classism and oligarchy are not subtle, but are well-done. That said,
antiquarian things basically. And in a bid to save money he takes the bus to the creepy village rather than the train somewhere else, and starts wishing he hadn’t. The old man talking in a heavy accent lasted a little longer than I had the patience for, but I coped.
Unique read? I don’t think so. Lovecraft is a well known name, this is reasonably short and works well on its own, someone else is bound to have picked it up.
Not A Book
# A Message from Mars directed by J.Wallett Waller (1913)
Realistically, it was always going to be a film for this square. In this case a silent film that is the first British science fiction film. In case you were wondering, despite being silent, the plot is very easy to follow, it's basically A Christmas Carol but with a Martian instead of ghosts. And I thought of that before reading the wikipedia article. Which I should have read first, because if I had, I would have discovered the link to the BFI where they had a restored version with a new sound scape (rather than the slightly annoying utterly silent version that’s actually on the wikipedia page). Silent films weren’t actually silent back in the day, they had live music.
It’s based on a popular play from the time, and even without dialogue it's quite easy to follow what’s going on from the interstitial titles, acting, and occasional shots of letters, slow enough you can easily read them. The story follows a miserly, selfish man, who manages to be so horrid his fiancée breaks things off with him, and a Martian out of favour with his god, who’s sent to sort him out. I can’t say I found the plot too believable, as he turns around in attitude from not helping a ‘down on his luck’ labourer sent by a friend to saving random children from burning buildings fairly quickly, but I’d say the novelty of watching a more than 100 year old film compensated for that (and I imagine there was a bit more development in the play that wasn’t really practical in a film at the time, it is quite short).
There’s some special effects done to show the Martian’s powers, and some mime acting on that front. There’s also some serious colour grading done I think to denote night and the burning building. I suspect audiences of the day would have been more attuned to the intention for these things.
Unique watch? Yes, I deliberately hunted down early spec-fic films. I think I am fairly alone in doing this.
Pirates
# Triplanetary by E.E. Doc Smith (1934)
I figured if I did my searching right, I would find the hard mode easier than the easy one (because, surely back then a pirate story would be a pirate story, no need for fantasy elements). And I was certainly right that the right category on Gutenberg made this easy (there is a section for space pirates). I’ll specify I read the project gutenberg version of this, which is the relevant sections of four science fiction magazines put together, rather than the apparently longer book published version which came out in 1948, so too late for me!
When people think of early twentieth century science fiction written for boys, this is definitely the sort of thing they’re thinking of. Very action based plot with cardboard characters. Manly men heroes. Way more tractor beams than I’m used to! Obviously in hindsight the science fiction is a bit funny in where it didn’t predict the future we live in now. Bit sexist and genocidal for my tastes, but the most piratey book I have read all bingo, and I have three cards worth.
Unique read? It’s got to be. I don’t know why you would read this if it wasn’t to fill a particular niche, or if you are really into pulp fiction.
# Stats and Discussion
Totting up all the possibilities, and discounting short stories, I estimate when the data comes out, I will have 17-18 unique items on my card. Which actually feels a little low, so I won’t be surprised if I’m wrong by it being more.
Book and page count by bingo month
If you compare my reading habits
in anything truly historical) which is nebulously bordered by Elfland, ruled by a king (who is an elf, but Elfland is inhabited by other magical beings as well).
The language is gorgeous in a way that a good narrator would make a delight to listen to, but with longer sentences and more unusual words requires your wit about you more than modern books. The tropes come straight from a fairy tale (magical sword from a kind witch, elf princess falling in love at first sight, be careful what you wish for) but there's also a tension between magic and religion displayed. And things like the unicorn hunting didn't work for me the way I expect it would have done for a contemporary audience.
Given when they were both published, and the fact they deal with the clash of the familiar and the other, I couldn't help but think of Lud-in-the-Mist when reading it. So I'll say this book seemed much more straightforward, and focused on telling a fairy tale in a lush way.
Unique read? Probably not. Lord Dunsany is frequently mentioned as a pre-Tolkien author on the sub, and this is probably his most famous work and clearly fits a square.
LGBTQIA Protagonist
# Carmilla by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu (1872)
Early vampire book (pre-Dracula) and popularised the lesbian vampire trope, with the titular Carmilla. It's set in a remote, continental European castle and narrated by Laura, a young woman who lives there with her aging father and various servants. Though short, it's not fast paced, but is very firmly in the 'gothic horror' side of things, aka read this one for the atmosphere held throughout. I enjoyed reading it well enough, and found it interesting what was being done so early in the genre.
Unique read? Maybe, maybe not. It’s not exactly unknown, but probably not many’s first pick.
Five SFF Short Stories
Rather than chase hard mode (which as we have established I am not doing this year…definitely not doing hard stuff this year) I thought I would make use of this square to read bits and pieces that interested me and from authors I hadn’t had a chance to get to but had in mind.
# The Masque of the Red Death by Edgar Allan Poe (1842)
I’ve been meaning to read this for a while, so this seemed a good excuse. It’s all about rich people locking themselves away to party while there’s a plague. So glad times have changed that we couldn’t imagine that now. Very gothic and famous.
# The Signal-Man by Charles Dickens (1866)
Ghost story on a train line. A signal-man (controls the passage of trains to avoid collisions) is haunted by a ghostly apparition which comes just before tragedy strikes, and is told from the perspective of a visitor.
# The Elf-Trap by Gertrude Barrows Bennett (1919)
Set in rural America, a professor sent to the country for his health gets drawn into a magical world. Feels like Faerie in nature.
# The Golden Key by George MacDonald (1867)
A (modern?) fairy story, involving the quest of a girl and a boy across a magical land. The fish thing was pretty new to me.
# The Phoenix on the Sword by Robert E. Howard (1932)
I’ve seen Conan the Barbarian mentioned in the sub many a time, but never read any myself. So I thought I would start at what seemed to be the beginning. I honestly thought I might seriously dislike it, but while I’m probably never going to be the biggest Conan fan, I found it entertaining enough to read.
Unique reads? I think there’s a strong possibility that someone might have read The Masque of the Red Death or The Phoenix on the Sword, but not the others.
Stranger in a Strange Land
# Herland by Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1915)
And now we get to why I highlighted The Lost World, because this has the exact same trope (although it’s less plateau and more area surrounded by impenetrable mountains). Though this one is less ‘boys own adventure’ and more utopian fiction.
In this book, three young American men find a country populated solely of women deep in South America. To very briefly sum up the book, “what if no patriarchy?”. There's ideas in there that I can recognise;
Which doesn’t work out when fairy fruit makes its way in. There’s still definitely layers going on I don’t quite understand (fairy fruit good, people who introduce it bad) but I enjoyed reading it none-the-less.
Unique read? I don’t think so, there’s been a resurgence of interest from the last printing (where I found it from) and I expect people are steadily reading it.
Parent Protagonist
# The Island of the Mighty (The Virgin and the Swine) by Evangeline Walton (1936)
I do believe this is the first book I came across in my hunt for female authors, and even as it just squeaks in to my cut-off point, I am so glad I found it.
This is a retelling of part of The Mabinogion that was first published in 1936. I was only familiar with part of the events covered (though I can't remember if it was originally from The Owl Service by Alan Garner or somewhere else again), but it definitely has both the feel of a fairy tale in its logic whilst being written to modern sensibilities in terms of character. Which is what a review I came across before reading gave as one of the strengths of the book. And having recently read a translation of a norse saga where the motivations of the people in it made no sense to me, I can definitely appreciate what the author has done in that regard.
The story starts with Math, king of Gwynedd, having his feet held by a virgin woman whenever he is not at war, and one of his nephews, Gilfaethwy, fancying the footholder, and another of his nephews, Gwydion, conspiring to start a war so his brother can rape her. The rest of the story spirals out from the consequences of that, as well as background culture clash between Gwynedd and Dyfed with its newcomers.
Lots of Welsh names were used throughout, as you might imagine, though how they were rendered was charmingly inconsistent. Many are just given, some are given a little pronunciation guide, and a few others are somewhat anglicised in a way that certainly stood out to me!
Unique read? Even odds? I think I influenced someone to read it in a Tuesday thread, so someone may have counted it.
Epistolary
# Orlando by Virginia Woolf (1928)
I’ve been meaning to read this book for quite a while, after it was featured in a documentary about books I saw. I think it's definitely the English literature people who know what's special about this book more than me. (I know the writing is unusual, but I don't know too much about how precisely.) It’s not the most ploty of books, with the narrative going off in fanciful directions. The story follows a young Tudor nobleman, who has a disastrous love affair, gets into literature, doesn't have success there, goes to Turkey as an ambassador, and while there randomly turns into a woman. And goes on being introspective. For me, this book is in the category of ‘interesting to read, but I didn’t really love it’.
Unique read? Maybe, maybe not. It’s pretty famous, so there’s a decent chance someone will read it, but whether it makes it to a bingo board is hard to say.
Published in 2025
# Journey to the Moon by Jules Verne translated by William Butcher and David Coward (1869, 2025)
How do you find a pre-Tolkien spec-fic book that’s been translated so recently? I decided the best thing to do would be to find the literature section of an academic press, sort by most recent, and scroll through until something plausible comes up. (This is an excellent method to add interesting looking literature non-fiction books to your TBR as well…) This one puts together the generally separately published works From the Earth to the Moon and Around the Moon, though according to the notes, the author considered them to be two parts of the same book.
The novel starts off by presenting Americans as gun-toting maniacs, I don’t know where he got that idea. After the end of their civil war, members of the gun club who make cannons for a hobby are out of sorts, until the bright idea of firing a projectile to the Moon is brought up. What proceeds is the planning and execution of such a feat, along with some jibes and
(1889)
Probably the perfect book for this square. A fairly slow moving satire, that I think it’s fair to say, makes no attempt at historical accuracy. I will admit, I preferred Gulliver's Travels for this sort of thing, but I think a large part of it is that I don't really get along with swaggering protagonists that well, so very much a taste thing. The title is fairly self-explanatory, a modern day (for time of writing) American ends up in a dark ages Britain that resembles Le Morte d'Arthur more than any real place (I assume, it was definitely referenced). And because he’s an engineer with astronomical calendars memorised, he sets about trying to create a democratic society from one with an entrenched class system. Plenty of funny moments.
Unique read? Nah, someone else will get it into their head to read it.
Impossible Places
# Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift (1726)
Another parody, and my favourite of the two. The obvious part of the parody (very directly at some points, where the author goes on about how truthful he’s been) is of the travel writings of the era, where people who went on long journeys for whatever reason wrote and published accounts of them. But there’s also political parody there, which is much more subtle to the modern reader. (That being said, while I went in expecting the political stuff, it is Swift after all, from my experience reading The Blazing World by Margaret Cavendish, where you need to be a researcher in 17th century science to understand it, I expected that aspect to be impenetrable. But it was more on the level of I got some and missed others.) Our protagonist of this story is a middle-class surgeon who has perpetual itchy feet, but is forever met with disaster, leading him to many fantastical places (and fortunately, he has a good head for languages, as he’s forever learning new ones). There’s the famous Lilliput, but also a land of giants, a land of flying islands (clearly impossible, if the rest hadn’t convinced you), and finally the land of civilised talking horses, all with something different to say about people.
Unique read? Probably not. Not as certain as A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, but strong possibility someone else has read this.
A Book in Parts
# The History of the Kings of Britain by Geoffrey of Monmouth translated by Lewis Thorpe (~1136, 1973)
Yes, this was technically written as a history book, but no one has taken is seriously on that for hundreds of years, and it popularised King Arthur, so I didn’t want to pass that up. It supposedly covers about 2000 years, starting with how some Trojans fought their way across much of Europe to settle in Great Britain. I knew going in that some of this book would be familiar to me, as growing up I had a children's book of myths and legends that I realised later was retellings of bits of this book from the contents. From what I recall, it definitely picked out the highlights, and fleshed out the story of the bits it did into a more modern kid friendly writing style. (And cut out an awful lot of genocidal fighting and people being weird and power-grabby.)
After more preamble than I expected, we got to a couple of brief mentions of giants, including one being thrown off a cliff. (And the sassy translator’s notes were definitely a highlight. Pointing out how many miles the giant would have to be carried to reach the coast, other failures in geography, hypocrisies, and the fact that in this first popularising of the Arthurian legend, Arthur and Merlin never meet.) After that it’s a lot of repetitive fighting, before we get to Vortigern being told what to do by child Merlin, showing up his advisors (a story I remember well from my kid’s book), Uther making use of Merlin in questionable ways, and so on. As can be imagined from the scope and the relatively short length of the book, nothing is lingered upon. Definitely something to read for cultural context reasons (aka, I think I am not ultimately a fan of medieval literature that’s trying to tell history).
Unique read? It’s not really
2025 Pre-Tolkien bingo: summaries and some stats
In my previous bingo post I alluded to my calming it down not quite working out, and this is how. A casual thought of ‘that will give me the opportunity to catch up on my TBR, including getting to some classic novels I’ve been putting to the side’ went to ‘some of them could count for bingo’, to a ‘I could do a partial bingo card (my first!) of pre-Tolkien works’ to ‘well I’m this far in, I might as well finish the damn thing’. Reader, why do I do this to myself.
Ah, I hear you cry, but bingo has a published in the 80s square AND a published in 2025 square, with only one opportunity for substitution, and neither of those could possibly be pre-Tolkien. (For reference, I am taking the 1937 publication of The Hobbit as my cut-off.) Well, I reply back, the year of translation also counts for the published year (I checked), and if I haven’t quite got all the details there right, it’s not like this is my main card anyway.
I decided since I was doing a ‘pre-Tolkien’ card, that meant reading western cannon type stuff, so no taking the easy way out for Author of Colour and reading The Journey to the West. I did make a concerted effort to add some female authors in there, as that’s something that’s harder to come across naturally. But apart from that I picked up stuff that interested me, that I came across, or that looked like a reasonable fit for a difficult square. This is after all, my low effort year (maybe I’ll actually have one next year, I look like I’m about to start a second themed card, somebody stop me).
Collage of covers. Note: not necessarily the cover of the version I read, as many wouldn't fit the format well.
Knights and Paladins
# The Well at the World's End by William Morris (1896)
If you’ve heard of William Morris, it is probably for his central role in the Arts and Crafts movement, and his famous prints (currently very popular) in particular. And if you know a bit more about him, you probably know of his socialist political views and work there. But what many probably don’t know is he was a fantasy author, heavily inspired by his interest in medievalism. I actually read a couple of other of his works this bingo period, and I’ll admit The Story of the Glittering Plain was my favourite.
But bingo board finangling meant I needed a knight, and Morris was a good place to source me one. And for a pre-Tolkien bingo, Morris is also a good place to start, as Tolkien was so obviously inspired by him. The Well at the World’s End is written in an archaic style of English (if you think Tolkien is bad, you’ve seen nothing), and is very medieval romance in story. It starts off with a small kingdom with four sons of the king who all want to go out adventuring. The king lets three of them go, keeping one to stay on and be a safe heir, but off he goes anyway. Very early on our main character Ralph is introduced to the concept of the well at the world’s end, which grants health, long life and and end to worries, and eventually he decides to go there, ensuing a long journey with plenty of events happening on the way (which he eventually gets more involved with). It’s a slow moving book, and sometimes even I had to go ‘well I don’t know what definition of the word he’s using there, but I have enough context to figure out what’s going on’. Not a book you can speed-run, even when you’re trying to get bingo finished.
Unique read? I’m going to guess yes. It’s among his more famous works, but long enough and difficult enough I doubt anyone else has gone for it.
Hidden Gem
# The Mummy!: A Tale of the Twenty-Second Century by Jane C. Loudon (1827)
One of the books I would never have dragged up if I hadn’t specifically been looking for a few female authors, and I accidentally picked a good year for it, as the book is set in the year 2126, and I think written in 1826. So from that, you can tell it’s a sci-fi book, and it’s one that while not
For each member of the fantasy trinity (mage, rogue, warrior) kindly suggest one book each.
I am fascinated by the fantasy trinity (mage, rogue, warrior). Could you please suggest one book (more welcome!) that represents each individual archetype well?
Alternatively, if there are really smashing reads that encompass them all, that would be quite welcome also!
Thanks so much for your recommendations!
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Who are your comfort authors?
Going on year 3 of reading fantasy and I am finally coming to the conclusion that Brandon Sanderson is my comfort author. Haven't read a Sanderson book in a little over a year. Tried a bunch of different authors/series but now that I'm coming back, I find it so easy and enjoyable reading Brandon Sanderson. Anyone else have similar experiences? If so let me know what authors you can always rely on.
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@r_fantasy
The Will of the Many (The Hierarchy series) is honestly some of the best reading i've had since the Brandon Sanderson books.
Man, I don't even know where to start with these books.
Honestly, the storytelling is great. It unfolds slowly and deliberately, never handing you all the answers up front. The magic system is complex and opaque, shrouded in mystery, yet it's just accepted as part of everyday life in this world. That restraint in the worldbuilding really drew me in.
I'd say the first half of Book 1 gave me strong Red Rising vibes, but those similarities disappeared quickly. Before I knew it, I was completely enthralled by world that has been built here. It really does stand on its own.
I genuinely have not been this locked into a series since maybe The Stormlight Archive. There are shades of Brandon Sanderson's "Sanderlanches" in here, but they come around a lot quicker. Everything in a scene will feel relatively normal, and then it just spirals out of control, fast, into absolute chaos. It's a rush every time.
I've seen some complaints that people felt Vis was a bit of a Mary Sue type character, but I'd reject that. The story clearly develops his trials and tribulations, which shape him into a closed-off, quiet kid who is purely the product of survival. Someone who has pushed himself from day one just to stay alive.
That's the missing ingredient that separates him from all the high society types he encounters later in life. He's also pushed to extremes by Lanista, because this wasn't just "going to school" for Vis. It was a mission. He was essentially being trained as their soldier.
If you're on the fence about this series, please just give it a go. It is, in my honest opinion, superb.
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fans!
**ONCE AGAIN,** the Bingo submission form will close at midnight on April 1st, PST time. Be sure to get your card in before then!
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Souls and She Commands Me and I Obey, which expands on Breq from Ancillary Justice's backstory. Narrated by the incredible Adjoa Andoh.
Stranger in a Strange Land - The Left Hand of Darkness (4.5/5)
It was a 4/5 when I read it, but the more I think about it the more I appreciate all of the commentary on gender and society, as well as the seamless incorporation of the myth to the overarching narrative. Ursula K. LeGuin once said that if she could go back, she would've made the pronouns gender-neutral, and I do think the male pronouns subconsciously influenced my perception of the characters.
Recycle a Bingo Square (Space Opera) - A Memory Called Empire (4/5)
Loved the mystery at the heart of the narrative, and the imago (sorry, no clue how to spell) concept was fascinating. The use of literature/poetry as a tool of empirical homogenization really made me think. The one thing I would've appreciated more of is exploration of political opinions of characters outside the main 3, and the naming conventions sounded so silly in audiobook that they kept breaking my immersion.
Cozy SFF - A Psalm For the Wild-Built (2/5)
I completely understand how some would really like this. For me, the concept of a whole separate robot society was so exciting, and I was incredibly disappointed at the way the robot seemed to know more about what it means to be human than the MC, to the point of lecturing them and making a lot of assumptions about the MC, which he had literally just criticized the MC for doing to him. If you're going to have a robot society, its characters should not be functionally identical to humans, in my opinion. There were much more interesting directions to pursue.
Generic Title - The Song of Achilles (4.5/5)
The flow of the writing really enhanced the experience of seeing a well-known myth from a new perspective. It was human, but also beautiful and poignant.
Not a Book - Expedition 33 (5/5)
I do play a lot of video games, but the unique reaction mechanic for a turn-based game caught my attention, and then the artistic style and overall cohesion of storytelling through characters, art, and events made this an unforgettable experience to me.
Pirates - The Quantum Thief (1.5/5)
The actual sci-fi concepts were so interesting and I didn't even mind the jargon, because the information that I needed to comprehend the actual plot was mostly revealed as I read. However, the book seems to think that complexity and confusion for its own sake enriches the plot, and the characters and dialogue were completely wooden plot-drivers. The only time that the main character had an internal monologue was to mention his attraction to another character, or his erection.
Overall, I really appreciate this Bingo experience for pushing the boundaries on what I would typically read. These books do lean towards my favorites and preferences, because I swapped out books that fit some squares multiple times when I read something I liked better. As for unexpected favorites, I had to take some time for The Left Hand of Darkness and Annihilation to percolate in my head before revising my original post-read opinions.
Honorable mentions that didn't make it to the card are Leech by Hiron Ennes (fantastic narrator), and Service Model and Shroud by Adrian Tchaikovsky.
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2025 Bingo Card: First time was a good time!
https://preview.redd.it/akdld4cp6oog1.png?width=1077&format=png&auto=webp&s=862cfcde31ed5acb845a1fd53044c98ac6454eb9
I'm so glad I decided to hop into the bingo challenge after I realized I'd filled half the card with my normal reading choices. I wouldn't have found some of these gems otherwise! I also consumed all of these in audiobook format, and so the overall rating also includes my opinion of narrator. In terms of ratings, anything 3.5 and above is a book I really enjoyed.
I didn't keep track of honor mode at all, but maybe next year!
Knights and Paladins - The Starving Saints (3.5/5)
Medieval gothic horror is a strong draw to me, as well as a nightmarish fever dream of a plot. The writing is evocative and immersive, but the atmosphere was much stronger than the plot, and the ending wrapped everything up far too neatly for me. I enjoyed this one, and the bees.
Hidden Gem - The Great Work (2.5/5)
I love a Weird Western, which is what this book was originally recommended as. It's got good character work, but it's more of a historical fantasy with a giant salamander and musings on environmentalism. The monster itself is originally described as a reality-bending eldritch being, but this fails to carry through, so my disappointed expectation is coloring my opinion. The prose is functional but too plain for me.
Published in the 80s - Shadow of the Torturer (??/5)
After long deliberation, I can't rate this knowing that it's part 1 of 4. The prose was excellent and I know there's so much more lurking beneath the surface that hasn't come into its own yet. Part of my conflict stems from loving an unreliable narrator, but Severian in specific makes me so uncomfortable; I'm psyching myself up to the rest of the books.
High Fashion - The Night Circus (4/5)
This book is much more vibes-based than plot-driven, and I felt like I could see the circus and smell the popcorn and mulled cider. I don't think the plot was poorly done, it's just clearly not the focal point of the writing. Great narrator, beautiful prose.
Down with the System - Blood Over Bright Haven (4/5)
Your opinion of this book is going to hinge on whether you appreciate the complete lack of subtlety and polarizing main character. I thought these enhanced the narrative; in-your-face inequality as shown seems very true to real life and the MC's personality, and I appreciated the commentary on intersectionality. Moira Quirk's narration probably influenced my appreciation.
Impossible Places - Annihilation (5/5)
I read this twice in 2025 and appreciated it significantly more the second time. It does not hold your hand with its reality-bending and immersive descriptions, paired with a main character that originally comes off so cold and logical you instinctively trust her interpretation of events, until... Anyway, this book has great character work, a great narrator, and zero satisfying answers. The character and ecological descriptions really resonated with me.
A Book in Parts - Harrow the Ninth (5/5)
This was my reread. I love unreliable narrators and twists on gothic horror. I love having no clue what's going on until Tamsyn Muir shakes out the tapestry of plot I've been glimpsing patchwork pieces of and it all falls beautifully into place. I love books that slowly increase that creeping sense of dread until the reveal is terrible and awesome and recontextualizes everything. Moira Quirk executes the narration perfectly.
Gods and Pantheons - The Spear Cuts Through Water (4.5/5)
It may be clear already that I love experimental prose and writing choices I haven't seen before. This is beautiful and lyrical and poignant. I love that it was structured into days and a depiction of myth through a theater play. I didn't feel the frame story was quite so strong, and it can be difficult to understand some of the structural writing choices in audio format.
Last in a Series - The Last Argument of Kings (5/5)
Top-tier narration by Steven Pacey and a great conclusion to a series I
Our New Voices April Read is Moonflow by Bitter Karella
Welcome to the book club New Voices! In this book club we want to highlight books by debut authors and open the stage for under-represented and under-appreciated writers from all walks of life. New voices refers to the authors as well as the protagonists, and the goal is to include viewpoints away from the standard and most common. For more information and a short description of how we plan to run this club and how you can participate, please have a look at the announcement post.
# In April, we will be reading Moonflow by Bitter Karella
> Annihilation meets Manhunt in three-time Hugo Award nominee Bitter Karella’s debut horror novel—a gloriously queer and irreverent psychedelic trip into the heart of an eldritch wood and the horrors of (cis)terhood.
> I see something out there, in the woods. It does not have a face.
>They call it the King’s Breakfast. One bite and you can understand the full scope of the universe; one bite and you can commune with forgotten gods beyond human comprehension. And it only grows deep in the Pamogo forest, where the trees crowd so tight that the forest floor is pitch black day and night, where rumors of disappearing hikers and strange cults that worship the divine feminine abound.
>Sarah is a trans woman who makes her living growing mushrooms. When a bad harvest leaves her in a desperate fix, the lure of the King’s Breakfast has her journeying into those vast uncharted woods. But as she descends deeper, she realizes she's not alone. Something in the forest is waking up. It's hungry—and it wants her.
Schedule
Midway discussion: Monday 13th April
Final discussion: Monday 27th April
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which is a shame because I legitimately really liked this novel. The worldbuilding is clever, two competing factions of demon fighters (one more academic, the other more religious, and then our main character who has perhaps discovered a third path). The characters are memorable and easy to befriend, the fight scenes are fun to read, and it has a nice thoughtful center about believing in yourself and the path you’re on. I wish more people read this, I could absolutely see this being someone’s new favorite book – 4/5
Fourth Row:
1. Biopunk: Womb City by Tlotlo Tasamaase (not HM)
(1,062) When this came out, it drew comparisons to “The Handmaid’s Tale”, and I see it. It’s a future novel where reproductive rights are tightly controlled by an AI system in order to oppress the population—certainly, to oppress the female half. It’s dark and gritty and very dystopic, with a nice little crime thriller tucked inside to keep the pages turning. It wasn’t perfect, it’s a debut novel and it reads like it—pacing is off at times, and many sections could have used some polishing. Honestly, sometimes it was simply hard to keep track of the plot. But the vibe—Afrofuturist chauvinist techno-dystopia—hits real hard, worth it just for that – 3.5/5
2. Elves and/or Dwarves: The Warden by Daniel M. Ford. (not HM, the main character is a boring ol’ human)
(580 for Book 1, and Book 3 only has 83 reviews!) I’m sad that this book isn’t more well-known on this sub, because I think it would totally be in line with this sub’s tastes. Really fun DnD-esque sword and sorcery, with enough unique twists on the worldbuilding to make it interesting. Most importantly, the series is carried by a fantastic main character, a snarky and witty rich girl who defies her family’s expectations by studying necromancy and becoming a warden (a sheriff mage, very fun). She’s posted out to the middle of nowhere and we get some cute fish-out-of-water bits while the rest of the story, dark magic and all that, begins. Seriously, this series is great – 5/5
3. LGBTQIA Protagonist: Gods of Want by K-Ming Chang (definitely HM, almost all of the characters are Asian-American immigrants)
(449) Kind of cheating, as it’s a short story collection and not every main character is queer. But many are, so I think it counts? If not, I have others for this square. Regardless, an absolutely stellar collection of literary short fiction, just knocking it out of the park. Informed by Korean mythology and superstition, combined with the experiences of Asian-American women and other immigrants, every story in this collection has something to say. Many of them are surreal, painting portraits of lives a little out of step. All of them tackle the issues queer women, immigrants, and Asian-American immigrants face in modern America. Just a stellar collection cover to cover – 5/5
4. Five SFF Short Stories: Conservation of Shadows by Yoon Ha Lee. (HM)
(154) I absolutely adore Yoon Ha Lee, known these days for the fantastic “The Ninefox Gambit” space opera as well as some very good YA. But to me, he’s always been a true joy in short form. This collection is out of print, it took me a while to track it down, but I’m so glad I did. While some of these stories date to early in Lee’s career and are very raw, taken as a whole the collection still has such an original and fantastic voice. Though not every story is perfect, I’m still giving it 5/5
5. Stranger in a Strange Land: On Fragile Waves by E. Lily Yu (HM)
(335) A jawdroppingly beautiful book about a family of Afghani war refugees fleeing to Australia. Heavy vibes of magical realism, as one of the young girls speaks with her deceased friend who didn’t make it. In addition, the narrative itself is dreamy and abstract. However, the events being described are not abstract at all, they’re describing the very real traumas experienced by refugees. An absolutely incredible book – 5/5
Fifth Row:
1. Recycle a Bingo Square: FREE SQUARE FROM 2015, BOOM, LOOPHOLE.
why does it fit for this square? Can’t say too much without spoiling – 4/5
Second Row:
1. Impossible Places: The Guns of Avalon by Roger Zelazny (HM, kinda. It takes place in Shadow, with very different physics, but most of the book is still pretty basic sword and sorcery. It’s only when they travel from one place to another that Zelazny remembers to play with the physics)
(885 but this is kind of cheating, since it’s the 2nd book in the series, and Book 1 has 2,803 reviews. Best I could do) I’m slowly working my way through the classics, there’s never enough time (and also so many great books coming out these days), but I finally made time to read the first two books in the Chronicles of Amber series and I’m glad that I did. Zelazny’s worldbuilding is fantastic, and the scope feels epic but mysterious as we learn about Corwin’s family and the precise nature of the otherworldly Shadow. Not a lot of loredumps, you’re just along for the ride and things will get explained at their own time. Or not. But it’s a good ride, and Corwin is an excellent protagonist to follow around. Is it dated? Of course. Are there female characters who are not either related to the main character or trying to have sex with him or occasionally both? Of course not. It is what it is – 3.5/5
2. A Book in Parts: The Refrigerator Monologues by Catherynne M. Valente (HM, if it counts at all)
(903) Ok this one might not count—if it doesn’t, I have others. By the letter of the square it doesn’t count, as the book explicitly calls its sections chapters. But I think it works for the spirit of the square. The framing device is that it’s set in hell, and a group of women are friends talking about their lives. So each section is a different woman’s story. And what these women have in common is that they were all killed, stuffed into refrigerators, as motivation for their superhero boyfriends. The women are legally-distinct-for-copyright-purposes-but-definitely-recognizeable characters, such as the psychiatrist who falls in love with her patient in an insane asylum. And, wow, this book is so damn good, Valente was so damn angry while writing this, finally giving these women long-overdue opportunity to tell their side of the story – 5/5
3. Gods and Pantheons: Small Miracles by Olivia Atwater (HM, but I won’t say more cuz it’s kind of a spoiler)
(589) Very cute little cozy novel, I enjoyed it immensely. I’ve explained it to friends as “The Good Place in reverse”—in “The Good Place”, we have a good person trying to help a kind-of-sucks-but-in-a-fun-way person in Eleanor. In this, the “Fallen Angel of Petty Temptations” is tasked with slightly corrupting a good person. Not like, damn her to hell or anything, just get her to loosen up a little. Hits the vibe it’s going for perfectly, just a very nice little sunny afternoon read – 4/5
4. Last in a Series: Cute Mutants Vol 5: Galaxy Brain by S.J. Whitby (HM)
(27 reviews) I really enjoyed this series, wish it were more well-known! It’s not for everyone, to start with it is woke as fuck—I legitimately think there’s not a single character who’s just a straight white cis male other than a few of the government bad guys. It’s X-Men but make it even more queer, a world in which our main characters are prepared to deal with anti-mutant bias because, as queer kids or ethnic minorities or ace or all sorts of things, they’ve been dealing with discrimination their whole life anyways – 4.5/5 (score for the series as a whole, hard to separate)
5. Book Club or Readalong Book: Shigidi and the Brass Head of Obalufon by Wole Talabi (not HM, and I feel bad about that)
(382 reviews) Enjoyed this book, glad I found it. I wish I’d participated in the discussion! Very cool urban fantasy based around Western African mythology—the main character is a nightmare god working for the “Orisha company”, who teams up with a succubus to pull off a museum heist to clear their debts with a powerful elder god. If that summary isn’t enough to make you
with my last card, you can spot where I felt I’d reached a comfortable amount of a-spec books under my belt to coast there, and focused more on this card.
However, the nature of this challenge really comes to the fore when we look at what format I read and where I sourced my books from. Here you can see a significant chunk of audiobook, as I could pick what I wanted from librivox for free.
Book share by format
But the bigger contrast is in where I got books from. I only bought a single book for this (I’m sure you’re shocked to hear it was the 2025 translation), and most I just got for free online as they were in the public domain. For this I recommend trying Standard Ebooks first to see if they have it, as the quality is so much higher, and then Gutenberg if not as the breadth of the catalogue is so much broader. Short stories I just read on my phone really, as I couldn’t be bothered loading something so small onto my ereader, and in one case I was reading the scan of the original pages. And obviously if you want an audiobook, see what Librivox has to offer.
Book count by source
And because I am a little mad, I have put the effort into creating some visualisations of the spread of publication of what I read. Immediately below is a box and whisker plot, which highlights the outliers, and a yellow dot on the left whisker showing the mean. The line bisecting the box is the median. Aka, I read a bunch of stuff right before the cut-off, and some stuff a long way before (thank goodness I didn’t get round to reading The Odyssey).
Box and whisker plot showing extreme early outliers
I also put far too much effort creating this rubbish timeline. Hopefully you get some joy out of it.
Timeline of books \(and film\)
As mentioned, I had thoughts of reading some Homer at last. I also considered (but never got round to) reading a penny dreadful. I have done once before, but top of my list of things to consider was Varney the Vampire, and that thing is LONG.
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the idea of play as essential in child development and education which would have been a newer exciting thing at the time. The view was taken that femininity is socially enforced to be a contrast to masculinity, so with only one gender the whole thing gets dropped. In some ways, I was reminded of Gulliver's Travels, but I think that's solely from “complete outsiders join a new culture temporarily, learn the language and describe it”; what the books do with that is very different. The narrator is one of the men, with the other two men set up as something of a foil (one is a misogynist and can't get over it, one is a bit of a white knight). There's aspects of the book which don't hold up so well (2000 year old civilisation in South America that's definitely Aryan, really?), but there's also conversations I can recognise a form of still ongoing.
Unique read? Erm, I think if someone went out there reading famous feminist literature they might have picked it up. Not zero, but a possibility.
Recycle a Bingo Square
# The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole (1764)
I think it’s fair to say the back story of this book is the weirdest and most fascinating thing about it. It’s the first gothic novel. It was written while the author was an MP (and living in a fake gothic castle he built, because he was that into medievalism), after a nightmare, and the first edition claimed to be a translation of a manuscript from Naples.
The book is very melodramatic. It's a gothic story set in a castle, with hidden relations, big emotions, and dishonourable plots. In some ways it’s probably a victim of its own success, inspiring a whole bunch of authors writing gothic works whose tropes have become so known even they probably seem trite now. But, at least I now know what the fuss is about.
And what square am I recycling? Well the Pre-Tolkien square from the very first bingo of course. This is a low effort year, after all.
Unique read? I suspect so. It’s something I hear about more in documentaries than reddit, and I mostly read it because a nice old copy came up when I was browsing vinted and in a impulsive mood.
Cozy SFF
# The Five Children and It by Edith Nesbit (1902)
I was a bit unsure how I would definitively decide whether a book was cosy so long before the subgenre was invented. So I cheated and read a children’s book, one I had long been aware of but somehow never got around to reading. The story revolves around a middle class family of children on holiday in Kent, who find a sand fairy in a gravel pit who grants wishes that always go wrong.
It reflects the time it was written in plenty of ways (having four siblings, servants, some of the topics of the children’s play), but I was also pleasantly surprised when a group of gypsies was included, they were as sympathetically portrayed as anyone else, and the narrator went out of their way to point out they don’t kidnap children! Charming, and gave me Faraway Tree vibes, but with more narrator involvement. I also listened to this as a dramatic audiobook (different narrator for each character (OK, some very minor parts were doubled up etc)) and quite enjoyed it.
Unique read? It’s pretty famous, but also a children's book. So I think redditors have either already read it or aren’t going to as a rule.
Generic Title
# The Shadow Over Innsmouth by H.P. Lovecraft (1936)
I was struggling with getting a generic title in, and near the end of bingo, when I briefly considered a book about 20 times longer than this one, before deciding not to be silly (particularly as I checked if it was split into parts I could reasonably say counted as a book and it didn’t).
I'd not read any Lovecraft before, and I've been curious for a while what the fuss was about. I also plan on getting round to reading Winter Tide by Ruthanna Emrys at some point, so I thought I had better familiarise myself with the source material. The premise was interesting and a nice level of set out, and the story didn't hang about. It’s from the perspective of a young man on holiday, looking at
humour.
It’s a very hard sci-fi book. Far more important than characterisation is the nitty gritty of having and showing to have a realistic method of travelling to the Moon, numbers, manufacturing details, and the odd equation included. And it succeeds at that. According to the notes it was, and remained for quite a while (the notes compared it favourably in terms of realism to The First Men in the Moon by H. G. Wells, which came out nearly 40 years later). For all that, there are bits that even a casual reader of the 21st century would be able to point out as inaccurate (ether isn’t real, and no you can’t just pop something out a porthole in space). I did particularly enjoy moments where Verne used science to play a joke on the reader (I’m thinking of an incident at either end of Around the Moon).
In short, read this book for the historical literary value rather than sheer reading pleasure, but it is definitely a worthy book for the former category.
Unique read? Someone has definitely read a Verne book for bingo. Have they read this book? Maybe, maybe not.
Author of Colour
# The Wolf-Leader by Alexandre Dumas translated by Alfred Allinson (1857, 1904)
I thought this square would require a bit of digging, before I suddenly remembered that Alexandre Dumas was mixed race, and I didn’t recall actually reading anything by him, so I thought I would rectify that. The book is a ‘deal with the devil’ story in the French countryside, with time spent in the woods, or in the surrounding villages and towns.
I can’t specifically recall having read this sort of tale before, though I surely have, but it definitely felt like it had a classic sort of direction. An essentially good character has a bad time, is tempted, falls into temptation, gets steadily worse… It seems I’m no good at reading characters like that! I’m too much ‘noo, don’t do the bad thing!’, which I don’t think is the point.
Unique read? I’m going to say probably yes. Alexandre Dumas is famous on the sub, but not for fantasy.
Small Press or Self Published
# The Were-Wolf by Clemence Housman (1896)
What I didn’t realise going in, was that I was already familiar with her brother A.E. Housman’s works (or rather most famous work, a bunch of poems about a place I am probably more familiar with than he was). And it turns out the whole family is famous as both Clemence and her other brother have their own wikipedia pages with details of their suffrage activism.
This is a novella that is an early werewolf story. It’s set on a farm in a cold, snowy place (possibly Scandinavia?). It’s reasonably fairy tale in style, and a much greater emphasis on description than dialog compared to what we would expect in a modern book. The focus is a pair of brothers and the beautiful mysterious woman who comes in from the cold (and leaves wolf prints going to the door). The feel of the book is quite like a morality tale, making use of folklore in its delivery, and an intense chase scene.
Unique read? Almost certainly, this just isn’t famous enough amongst the r/Fantasy crowd.
Biopunk
# The Island of Doctor Moreau by H. G. Wells (1896)
I didn’t know much about this one going in. It’s not particularly long, but is pretty easy to follow and fun. A shipwrecked traveller is rescued onto a boat transporting wild animals to a remote island, where the inhabitants are not particularly welcoming and strange, with a disgraced vivisectionist who causes screams of agony to come from a different part of the compound. I suspect it’s a horror that speaks more to the anxieties of the time than it does to now, but it’s definitely fun to see what old sci-fi imagines.
Unique read? No way. I got the idea to read this one from a big list of bingo suggestions. Someone else will have had the same thought.
Elves and/or Dwarves
# The King of Elfland's Daughter by Lord Dunsany (1924)
In style and subject, feels a lot like a fairy tale novel. The setting is a vaguely historic England (like, its explicitly England, but its really more vibes, don't expect it to be routed
the first thing people think of as fantasy, since it wasn’t written as one, so yes.
~~Gods and Pantheons~~ Novel with a One Word Title
# Metropolis by Thea von Harbou translated by ? (1925, 1927)
Could I have read a book with gods in it? Yes, I even have at least one here elsewhere. I even had thoughts on where to read a gods book. But I ran out of puff, and I had read this, which didn’t end up fitting many squares (this year). So I decided to do a very rare (for me) substitution. (Also, I spent a while trying to find the translator, before I fond a web page saying we don’t know who it is!)
I feel like this is a book that made more sense back when it was written than it does now. A futuristic city where the working class who service it live underground, away from the light, certainly is a motif that I’m sure many modern readers are familiar with. But I found it hard to connect to this one. The main character is the son of the man who runs the city, and falls in love with a woman from the under-city who manages to sneak around and spread messages of cross-class fraternity. Already wary of his father’s machines, this sends him chasing after her and kind of throwing away his upbringing, but not really. One thing the book does well is “vibes”. (Some of those vibes are very Christianity based.) If you want atmospheric writing that paints a picture and don’t mind feeling ‘but what?’, this could be the book for you. (Perhaps some of it comes from being a novelisation of a film that was released after.)
Unique read? I am reasonably sure, yes.
Last in a Series
# The Land of Mist by Arthur Conan Doyle (1926)
Due to how things shook out, I ended up reading the entire series for this square. Each installment went downhill from its predecessor. The first book was The Lost World, which I have long known as the Christmas aired two part film from 2001 (and turns out they invented the female character) which I’m mentioning here due to it being so successful it named its own subgenre and the fact they travelled to South America to find the lost world on a plateau.
Unless you have a specific interest in reading a book of how spiritualist insiders saw themselves, I really cannot recommend this book. It was published over a decade later than its predecessors, is written in a different style, and is all about spiritualism. The Lost World and The Poison Belt were both first person narratives, from the point of view of the reporter Edward Malone, with the main character being Professor Challenger (reminiscent of Sherlock Holmes stories). This book however is third person, and if anything Malone is the main character, though others are followed.
The book has no plot. It starts off like it might do, and things happen in it (though aren’t really followed up on; children escape abusive home to relatives - and are never heard from again, a man is sent to two months hard labour - stuff happens and eventually he reappears). But soon becomes very meandering, with the purpose of showing the reader different sorts of seances more than anything else. The main arc of the story is about getting Professor Challenger to believe in it, so Malone can marry his daughter, with a side helping of showing how earnest and beleaguered the spiritualists are.
Unique read? Oh definitely. No one else is reading this.
Book Club or Readalong Book
# Lud-in-the-Mist by Hope Mirrlees (1926)
Obviously I was severely limited in this square, there being a very small number of possibilities. Going through those possibilities, I realised I was constrained in another way. I absolutely had to use my reread for this square, as I had already read absolutely every option I could find. I rather enjoyed this book when I read it back in 2018, so I thought I would dig my copy out and read it again.
I think it reminded me of Jonathon Strange & Mr Norrell less on a second read, but that might be because I was expecting more. It’s set in a a town in a country bordering Faerie, which the inhabitants do their best to ignore in a bid for rationalism.
right, could make predictions further off the mark (and also plays with ideas and events going round of the day). The main focus of the story is in a future England where hot air balloon travel is common, technology has improved communications, and the monarch is a semi-elected position, held only by a young woman of the right ancestry who cannot be married.
The mummy part of it comes from a unhappy younger son travelling to Egypt (quite topical with the Napoleonic invasion of it) to attempt to resurrect a mummy with galvanism (electricity). It’s apparently the first English-language story with a reanimated mummy. Said mummy takes off with the hot air balloon, thereby stranding the son, and gets blown back to England, and accidentally causes a good deal of political wrangling; which unlike more recent mummy depictions, he accurately predicts the winds of and sways figures in. The science-minded son has a worse time of it, and eventually winds up in a war-torn Spain, something I later realised was probably also inspired by the recent Peninsula War. Interestingly, we end up with the king of Ireland and the queen of England entering a personal union. There’s a fair number of humorous points, such as the overly formal way the lower classes speak. Like the previous book, while I’m not sure what exactly I’d cut, it did go on a bit too much for my tastes.
Unique read? 100% This is pretty obscure and I would be shocked if anyone else has read it.
Published in the 80s
# The Saga of the Völsungs translated by George K Anderson (late 13th century, 1982)
I wanted to have a go at reading one of the norse sagas (you can blame Janina Ramirez and The Viking Sagas), and it seemed a good chance to get a translation in. So I went through looking for one that had fantasy elements and a translation from the 1980s, and this one fit the bill. Ultimately, I think I’m going to have to conclude that literary early medieval history telling is not for me. Lots of rushing through events where people are determined to kill everyone else, and getting angry and getting revenge, it seems. I think I’m better off coming at these from a distance, nicely packaged by a historian who can put into context the good bits. There’s a fair bit of translator’s commentary in here, which is the only way I know Odin shows up a number of times. It also has sections of some other roughly contemporary works which tell the same story, so you can see how certain aspects are changed or presented differently (and the repetition helped me understand what went on in one bit).
Unique read? I’ll count any version of this saga, but even so I would be surprised. Small possibility.
High Fashion
# Solario the Tailor by William Bowen (1922)
A children’s book, in which some aspects definitely hold up. The format is of the eponymous character telling stories, where each story has references to other stories, that ‘we just don’t have time for at the moment’. And each chapter is a new night with a new story we intersected with before. This is one aspect I enjoyed, it’s essentially a short story collection with a through line. The stories themselves have a fairy tale feel to them, and at least a couple of them are a kind of morality tale, without spelling it completely out. Not all aspects have aged well. One through line that appears a couple of times is a curse where the main feature is having your skin turn black. I don’t see that being repeated nowadays.
I read this as a librivox audiobook (basically, filtered for fantasy, and searched for fashion type words until something suitable came up, as this was not one I was easily going to get organically). And it was a group one, so some chapters were better recordings than others. Which I coped with way better than I thought I would. But in an ideal world I’d be a lot pickier about narrators.
Unique read? Definitely. I picked something fairly random that would fit the bill. It’s a children’s book. No one else is reading this.
Down With the System
# A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain
A character I didn’t appreciate at first but grew to love
When I first read The Lord of the Rings I did not really like Boromir. As a younger reader I focused on his mistakes, especially when he tried to take the Ring from Frodo, and saw him as reckless or selfish. His flaws were frustrating and I did not understand the complexity of his struggle.
Returning to the books years later my perspective changed. Boromir’s internal conflict, torn between loyalty, fear, and ambition, became much clearer. His eventual sacrifice felt heartbreaking but also meaningful. I began to see him not as a failed hero but as a deeply human character whose flaws and courage make him relatable and memorable.
I have noticed the same with other characters in fantasy worlds. Sometimes rereading a book or revisiting a story allows you to understand motivations, decisions, or subtleties you missed the first time. Life experience often changes the way we perceive characters and makes us appreciate depth we did not notice before.
Has anyone else experienced this, a character you did not like at first but grew to admire after rereading or rewatching? It could be from Tolkien, Martin, Le Guin, or any other fantasy universe. I would love to hear about the characters that surprised you in this way.
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If you enjoyed reading Malazan, you’ll probably also enjoy The Prince of Nothing series by R. Scott Bakker.
I saw a post of someone comparing Malazan to the Stormlight Archive series and rolled my eyes, but I also want to provide a genuinely similar in depth series as a suggestion for anyone who did enjoy Malazan.
For whatever reason, Prince of Nothing (first book is called The Darkness That Comes Before) doesn’t get a ton of attention in fantasy spaces so there’s a chance you haven’t heard of it. I see it mentioned occasionally but in my opinion it should be right up there with the most commonplace names. Incredible writing, throws you into new concepts and characters without holding your hand, has very deep and interesting characters that show their intricacies through actions instead of exposition, and is set in a world that feels very alien and unique in a genre where that’s somewhat rare. The magic “systems” are also complex and otherworldly.
For those of you that enjoy video games, these books feel like you’re reading the lore of some of the more out-there pieces of Dark Souls or Elden Ring, so it that kind of bizarre gothic / surreal dark fantasy aesthetic is your thing you’ll probably love them.
Highly recommend the series, it is absolutely one of my lesser-discussed favorites.
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I did it. Bingo complete (with reviews)
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New ‘Wheel of Time’ Animated Series, Feature Films and Video Game in the Works From ‘Arcane,’ ‘League of Legends’
https://variety.com/2026/gaming/news/wheel-of-time-animated-series-movies-video-game-thomas-vu-1236693410/
https://redd.it/1ry7jde
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Official Turn In Post for Bingo 2025!
# What's up Fitzes, Fools, and Magic Ships. This is the official post for turning in your 2025 r/Fantasy bingo cards.
As always, a HUGE thanks to u/FarragutCircle for putting the turn in form together. Another shout-out to u/happy_book_bee for her tireless (and extremely fun) organization of bingo for yet another Most Glorious Year. A third shout-out to the dog I had in my 20s, just because you're cool. I don't know if you learned to read, though.
Please still make posts about your cards, what you read, your bingo experience, etc., in the comments below. The format from which I copied this post now says "I love the discussions around bingo", and I do indeed. **However, please note that you will need to turn in your card via the form in order for it to be counted. Only posting your image wrap-ups does NOT COUNT if you care about your turn-in.**
If you don't remember what bingo is or just want a nice little reminder, then [click this link!](https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comments/1joxlrr/official_rfantasy_2025_book_bingo_challenge/)
# ADDITIONAL POINTS TO READ BEFORE TURNING IN YOUR CARDS!!
**Questions**
* If you have questions, ask! Mods will be perusing this thread throughout the turn-in process.
**Form Rules**
* **Please make an effort to spell titles and author names correctly.** This will help with data compilation for a fun bingo stats thread to come later!
* [This comment](https://old.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comments/1rwgzbp/official_turn_in_post_for_bingo_2025/oazo7t3/) by u/smartflutist661 is an excellent guide to making sure your submission is good to go.
* Please leave incomplete squares **completely blank** in the form.
* Every square has an option to make it the substitution but please remember: **only one substitution per card.** Our ~~underpaid~~ volunteer regex coder appreciates it ahead of time.
* There is also a place for each square to check off whether or not you did that square in hard mode.
**Multiple Cards**
* You will need to differentiate your username for each additional card. For example, my first card would be under "an_altar_of_plagues" and my second would be under "an_altar_of_plagues-#2"
**Timeline**
* **Submit your card by April 1st!** This thread will remain open for a few hours on April 1st as a courtesy but please make sure your cards are turned in by then in order for them to be counted.
* Only turn in your card once you have finished with bingo. **Do not submit a card still in progress.**
* **Save your submission link.** The end of the form will generate a link to use if you want to go back and edit your answers. Keep this link as it will be the ONLY way to edit your answers. The final data will not be pulled until the turn in period ends.
**Prizes**
* **5 in a row is considered a win.** However, we are no longer doing prizes, so your only reward will be the feeling of satisfaction and bragging rights. You will also receive my gratitude and blessing. If you ask nicely I might send you a link to one of my favorite infectious diseases.
* **Blackout** (completing the whole card) earns you **"Reading Champion" flair**. Huzzah! Please allow at least a month for us to confirm the data and start assigning flair.
**"Not a Book" Square**
* If you do not see your preferred expression of the "Not a Book" square, then choose "Other" and explain what you want about your activity in the text field.
And finally... **[here is the link! Click here! Yes, right here!](https://forms.gle/4Z4vVij7aXcL4QsS9)** Again, you have until **April 1st** to submit.
**The new 2026 Bingo thread will be going up on the morning of April 1st, PST time, so look for it then.**
Thanks to everyone that participated this year once again. I hope you had as much fun reading and participating in bingo as we do putting it together for you. An additional thanks to those of you that have helped answer bingo questions throughout the year, have been champions for this challenge, and have generated lively discussion threads and other bingo related content! And shout-outs to all my
didn't expect to like at first. It's a slow start, but the characters are fantastic, the use of repetition in the writing is highly effective, and I love the way the pieces slowly fall into place about the real main character of this trilogy.
Book Club - The Raven Scholar (1/5)
I genuinely liked some of the worldbuilding concepts and any part that featured the raven, but otherwise I would not have finished the book without the great narrator and Bingo. The characters acted more like they belonged in high school than a court - completely disproportionate bullying on so many sides, too much "woe is me," such that I was flabbergasted to realize halfway through they're all supposed to be in their 30s and 40s. The plot twists seemed more for shock value than reveals that made sense to the plot. The author relied heavily on telling instead of showing, and I don't think many of the characters' actions fit their descriptions.
Parent Protagonist - The Fifth Season (4.5/5)
The structure of the story and worldbuilding were absolutely fascinating. I typically prefer a more lyrical style of prose, but so much information and depth is packed into everything NK Jemisin writes. It was an unexpected marvel.
Epistolary - Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell (3.5/5)
I'll just say that I think everything in this book was executed incredibly well. The writing was flawless, the characters interesting, the setting immersive. Historical fantasy just doesn't resonate with me the same way as a setting crafted from the ground up, and so I found it a little long. The parts with the fae were fascinating; I was burned by ACOTAR but now think I've been unfairly avoiding the topic.
Published in 2025 - A Drop of Corruption (5/5)
Everything about the setting scratches a very specific itch in my brain. Biopunk has been one of my most explored genres this past year, and the sequel arguably has a stronger structure and setting than the first; I love the Shroud and the return to my beloved Ana and Din. Shoutout to Andrew Fallaize for having a better narrator voice for Ana than the one in my head.
Author of Color - The Salt Grows Heavy (3.5/5)
Very macabre, evocative, tangible prose for some disturbing concepts, which really worked for me. I've heard the prose described as "gooey" before, and I honestly think that's the best word. The plot is interesting, and I'm having trouble describing why exactly my rating isn't higher - maybe the short length or desire for more development of the antagonists.
Small Press or Self-Published - The Tea Master and the Detective (4/5)
The amount of weird worldbuilding packed into such a small novella, combined with a satisfying mystery at the core, made this a very quick and easy read for me. Now that I think of it, it was my only digital book rather than audiobook.
Biopunk - Children of Time (3.5/5)
I loved everything about the storylines with the spiders, but all the parts with humans dragged to me. I love Tchaikovsky, but I think his characterization can tend towards a somewhat clinical arrogance, and this iteration of it didn't work as well for me as, say, Shroud or Alien Clay.
Elves and Dwarves - The Witness for the Dead (3.5/5)
The plot meandered around several murder mysteries before arriving at a conclusion that didn't tie those stories satisfyingly to me, but I appreciated the main character and general tone of the book. My first encounter with Katherine Addison.
LGBTQIA Protagonist - The Daughters' War (5/5)
I loved The Blacktongue Thief, and was completely blown away by the beautiful, lyrical writing and narrative structure that slowly hinted at tragic outcomes. I don't typically appreciate this, but Buehlman's incorporation of real cultural elements for worldbuilding is highly effective and makes the setting feel much more multifaceted and real. The plot is a poignant and complex characterization of my favorite character from BTT.
5 Short Stories - Lake of Souls (4/5)
As a certified Ann Leckie fan, I appreciated most of the stories in here, especially Lake of
Appreciation for the 'Not a Book' bingo square
As we come to the end of this year's bingo season (excited for the new card on April 1st!) I wanted to express my appreciation for the most out-of-the box square on this year's card: the Not a Book square.
I was initially skeptical of it because I am a big reader and I generally expect reading-based content from this sub. Also, it doesn't fit neatly in the Storygraph challenge of the book bingo. But the creativity that the square brought forth in people this year was inspiring.
u/analtarofplagues climbed a mountain called the Dragon Back (post [here](https://old.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comments/1lhqhd2/notabookclimbingalongthedragonsbackinthe/)). u/acornett99 wrote up a series of highly entertaining Cooking in Fantasy posts (here). A great many users wrote up excellent video game reviews, which is helpful for me because I haven't really embraced a new video game since I started playing Stardew Valley in 2020, and now I have several options I'm eyeing.
I do appreciate that we are primarily a book community, and I'm not sure that I want to see that change. But it was undeniably nice to see folks explore fantasy in other forms, and it's good for me to broaden my own horizons. I played Disco Elysium for my own bingo, and it was fascinating.
It would be fun to see the Not a Book square reoccur in future book bingos, though we already have several perennial squares. We could also consider starting up a monthly/quarterly Not a Book SFF discussion thread or something similar.
What do you all think? What was your experience with the Not a Book square, and would you want to see it continue in some form? What was your favorite way that you saw someone complete it?
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Review Ring Shout's worth a shout!
A blend of historical fiction, fantasy and horror, Ring Shout by P. Djèlí Clark follows Maryse Boudreaux and her ragtag group of friends and supporters as they fight against men and monsters filled by (or feeding on) hate. In a starkly vivid world in which coloured folk like herself are despised, ostracized and oppressed by the Ku Klux Klan, she must wage this war both within and without, confronting the demons of her past that fuel her anger and lust for revenge even as she strikes down her enemies with her keening sword. This blade, granted to her by other timeless beings, carries within it the pain and sadness of innumerable black victims over the years and calls forth those memories as visions when wielded by Maryse. But if hate begets hate, where will it end?
While an intriguing read, I had mixed feelings about this novella. Perhaps my not being from a country or culture where racial conflicts have played such a prominent part in its history and my lack of awareness about the KKK era prevented me from fully appreciating the work. I was also not wholly convinced at racism being represented by literal monsters who could be fought: interesting though that analogy was, I felt it to be a trifle limiting (>!though the meat-eating scene in the butcher shop was certainly a powerful metaphor!<). The visceral visuals of the supernatural elements were however great and I loved the manner in which Clark integrated folk tales and local legends into the narrative. His attempt to faithfully preserve Gullah dialect and Southern culture was also admirable even if I faced some challenges understanding the creole language on occasion.
To voice some subjective preferences, I would have wished the novella to be a little longer with fewer dream conversations, giving the readers more time to bond and connect with the characters, particularly the trio of Maryse, Chef and Sadie. But I found the moral lesson at the end >!of hatred in kind not being a suitable cure to the hate one has received and endured!<, and how that was brought out pretty compelling.
I'd recommend Ring Shout to those who're keen on supernatural fantasy with a basis in history, specifically stories about racial discrimination. It's also a short read for those who're still searching for something to fill the Author of Color square on this year's Bingo.
https://redd.it/1rrqrhv
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