Last April, I decided to do something I’ve never done – a reading challenge. This challenge, however, is based off of topics I didn’t get to pick in a timeline I didn’t get to pick. I felt like a kid in grade school trying to create a caterpillar around the room of books I finished in the year I spent with that teacher. The challenge was Fantasy Bingo.
What is it? For the full rundown, check out my post here. Basically, the r/Fantasy subreddit on Reddit takes a bingo card and assigns a theme for every square. The object: Read a new to you book that meets the square theme by April 2022. There are prizes, but honestly, the prize is finding new books and new authors, so I didn’t do it for the potential prizes. I did review most of them (not all, but most) and I found some books I could not read at all.
But let’s dive in to what I liked, didn’t like, and what was surprisingly good.
Stats
Out of the 25 books:
– 22 were reviewed (two still to come)
– 7 were 5 stars
– 11 were in the 4 star range
– 4 were in the 3 star range (rounding down)
I substituted six books from my original list because I couldn’t finish my choice. This is not to say that my original choice of books were badly written; it is just a matter of taste. I also swapped one genre – allowed, First Contact, for another – Time Travel. The substituted books are:
| Theme | Original Choice | Substitution |
| Mystery Plot | The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter by Theodora Goss | The Library of the Unwritten by AJ Hackwith |
| Cat Squasher (500+) | Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norell by Susanna Clarke | The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon |
| Genre Mashup | Gnomon by Nick Harkaway | The Ark of the Apocalypse by Tobin Marks |
| Has Chapter Titles | Etiquette & Espionage by Gail Carriger | Champagne Charlie & the Amazing Gladys by BG Hilton |
| Title xx of xx | Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo | A Court of Thorn and Roses by Sarah J. Maas |
| First Contact (Swapped to Time Travel | Space Opera by Catherynne M Valente | Sojourn by Jana Oliver |
I found some new authors or series I want to read more of and a few I’d rather not read again. I finished the book but wasn’t enamored with writing style (again, all subjective).
What I liked:
- A Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams – 5 stars
- The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune – 5 stars
- All Systems Red by Martha Wells – 5 stars
- Titus Groan by Mervyn Peake – 5 stars
- Silver in the Wood by Emily Tesh – 5 stars
- Gideon the Ninth by Tamsin Muir – 5 stars
- Equal Rites by Terry Pratchett – 5 stars
- The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon – 4.75 stars
- The Bone Shard Daughter by Andrea Stewart – 4.5 stars
- The Ruthless Lady’s Guide to Wizardry by CM Waggoner – 4.5 stars
I was surprised that I liked Titus Groan by Mervyn Peake. It is a unique book, with dense language and a heavy-handed descriptive style. For all that, I loved it. It fit the yen I had for a specific style of writing, a good story line, and a macabre look of the world. I also found the two more proper epic fantasy titles – The Priory of the Orange Tree and The Bone Shard Daughter – surprising likes. I had not, until this challenge, dove in to proper fantasy books and those two chonkers were lovely to read.
What I didn’t like (besides what is on my substitution list):
- Masques by Patricia Briggs – 3.5 stars
- Lost in the Never Woods by Aiden Thomas – review to come – 3.5 stars
- Meanwhile, at the Dernstrum Institute by Catherine Griffin – 3.5 stars
- A Court of Thorn and Roses by Sarah J. Maas – 3.5 stars
- Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire – didn’t review
None of these books were horrible. They just didn’t read as well as the others I had on my list. I could finish them, but they had things that weren’t as well done as I would’ve liked or weren’t my cup of tea.
The rest fell squarely in the category of good book I enjoyed, but not one I’d want to own, which are the ten remaining. My world builder could tell you the trends and statistics, but I’m not here for that, so I’ll just say I liked more than I didn’t like.
Full Reviews list
For those wanting to know what I thought on the books I reviewed, here are links to every one of the reviewed titles:
The Bone Shard Daughter by Andrea Stewart – 4.5 stars
A Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams – 5 stars
The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune – 5 stars
All Systems Red by Martha Wells – 5 stars
The Ruthless Lady’s Guide to Wizardry by CM Waggoner – 4.5 stars
The City & the City by China Mieville – 4 stars
Titus Groan by Mervyn Peake – 5 stars
Masques by Patricia Briggs – 3.5 stars
Vicious by VE Schwab – 4.5 stars
The Library of the Unwritten by AJ Hackwith – 4 stars
Magic Bites by Ilona Andrews – 4 stars but a fav
The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner – review to come 4 stars
The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon – 4.75 stars
Lost in the Never Woods by Aiden Thomas – review to come – 3.5 stars
Meanwhile, at the Dernstrum Institute by Catherine Griffin – 3.5 stars
Silver in the Wood by Emily Tesh – 5 stars
Arc of the Apocalypse by Tobin Marks- 4 stars
Champagne Charlie & the Amazing Gladys by BG Hilton – 4 stars
A Court of Thorn and Roses by Sarah J. Maas – 3.5 stars
Sojourn by Jana Oliver – 4 stars
Gideon the Ninth by Tamsin Muir – 5 stars
Equal Rites by Terry Pratchett – 5 stars
I liked this challenge enough to want to do it again. In a later post, you’ll see my initial choices for 2022. I’m being a bit smarter about them, with multiple options for each in case I don’t like my first pick. We’ll see what shakes out. I’ve already DNF’d one of my first choices, so it’s off to a shaky start.
I’m loving these kinds of challenges because I’m reading more and have more books to review than I ever expected. I’d call that a win/win.