Book Bingo: Let’s Try Something New!

Every year, Reddit’s r/fantasy board runs a community book bingo event. Much like normal bingo, this includes a card with a variety of spaces on it – the goal being to read a book throughout the year that fits a certain category so you can mark off a space. Getting a full line across (a bingo!) enters you to win various prizes, and many people aim for a full black-out card.

Moving forward, there will be posts focusing on each category along with some recommendations for anyone interested in participating! Every review will include all applicable bingo squares. This will be my first year getting “serious” about bingo, and I’m quite excited! I’ve chosen a variety of books that I intend to read for the challenge. There are three different modes this year – normal, hard, and hero. Hard mode adds an extra stipulation to each category, and hero mode requires that you write a review every book you use for bingo. I will be doing both hero and hard mode this go around!

A full explanation of the categories, hard mode requirements, and the rules for the bingo challenge can be found here. In the meantime, here are some of the books you can expect to see read and reviewed over the course of the next 12 months.

First Row Across:

Vita Nostra by Marina & Sergey Dyachenko (Slice of Life / Small Scale Fantasy)
The Gray House by Mariam Petrosyan (A SFF Novel Featuring a Character With a Disability)
The Black God’s Drums by P. Djeli Clark (SFF Novella)
From Legend by Ian Lewis (Self-Published SFF Novel)
Down Among the Sticks and Bones by Seanan McGuire (SFF Novel Featuring Twins)

Second Row Across:

Fledgeling by Octavia Butler (Novel Featuring Vampires)
Habibi by Craig Thompson (Format: Graphic Novel)
The Stone Sky by N. K. Jemisin (SFF Novel by a Local to You Author)
Starfish by Peter Watts (SFF Novel Featuring an Ocean Setting)
Pattern Recognition by William Gibson (Cyberpunk)

Third Row Across:

Cold Magic by Kate Elliot (2nd Chance)
Empire Star by Samuel R. Delaney (Afrofuturism)
David Mogo, Godhunter by Suyi Davies Okunbowa (SFF Novel Published in 2019)
Small Spaces by Katherine Arden (Middle Grade SFF Novel)
The Gutter Prayer by Gareth Hanrahan (A Personal Recommendation from r/Fantasy)

Fourth Row Across:

TBD (Any r/fantasy Book Club Book of the Month OR r/fantasy Read-along Book)
Predator: South China Sea by Jeff Vandermeer (Media Tie-In Novel)
Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie (Novel Featuring an AI Character)
Those Brave Foolish Souls from the City of Swords by Benedict Patrick (Title of Four/Seven or More Words)
Miranda in Milan by Katherine Duckett (Retelling)

Fifth Row Across: