For those who may not know, last year I did a reading challenge put out by the subreddit r/fantasy called Fantasy Bingo. You can read about it in my original post here. It’s basically a bingo card where every square is a different topic/genre/flavor of Fantasy book. I won last year’s by reading a book that fit every square and am attempting to win it again this year.
This is this year’s card:
I spent one Friday – over six hours of my life – filling in the squares except for Published in 2022 and Self-Published. I want to leave those open so that I can fill them with whatever books I find this year that are new.
Rules
Anyway, for those of you looking to play, the core rules are:
- 2022 Bingo Period lasts from April 1st 2022 – March 31st 2023.
- You will be able to turn in your 2022 card in the Official Turn In Post, which will be posted in mid-March 2023.
- You can’t use the same book more than once on the card. One square = one book.
- You may not repeat an author on the card EXCEPT: you may reuse an author from the short stories square (as long as you’re not using a short story collection from just one author for that square).
- RE-READS: You can only use ONE square for a re-read–all other books must be first-time reads. The point of Bingo is to explore new grounds, so get out there and explore books you haven’t read before.
- SUBSTITUTION: You may substitute ONE square from the 2022 card with a square from a previous r/Fantasy bingo card. Exceptions: You may NOT use the Free Space and you may NOT use a square that duplicates another square on this card (ex: you cannot have two ‘Goodreads Book of the Month’ squares). You do not have to substitute a square but it is there as an option. You can find previous squares through the wiki page.
- HARD MODE: For those of you who would like even more of a challenge for any or all squares, you can choose to do ‘Hard Mode’ which is the square with something added just to make it a little extra challenging. You can do one, some, none, or all squares on ‘Hard Mode’ — whatever you want, it’s up to you! No matter if you do the square regular or on ‘Hard Mode’, the square will count the same come the end of bingo.
- HERO MODE: Review EVERY book that you read for bingo. You don’t have to review it here on r/Fantasy, but somewhere, whether that’s Goodreads, Amazon, your personal blog, here, some other review site. Leave a review, not just ratings, even if it’s just a few lines of thoughts, that counts. As with Hard Mode there is no special prize for hero mode, just the satisfaction of a job well done.
- ‘Reading Champion’ flair will be assigned to anyone who completes the entire card by the end of the challenge.
- Anyone completing five squares in a row will be entered into a drawing at the end of the challenge for whatever prizes we can get together.
- Not a hard rule, but I would encourage everyone to post about what you’re reading, progress, etc., in at least one of the monthly book discussion threads. Let us know what you think of the books you’re reading! Also, if you’re looking for recommendations, the monthly threads are a goldmine for finding new reading material.
It is as daunting as last year, but I’m approaching it a bit more methodically, so it should be doable. I hope.
My plan is to read two – four books a month and write up reviews of them on this blog – most likely starting in July. I’ve got reviews ready to go through June and was thinking of adding a few indie books in between, so July is the first month for the new reviews’ posts.
My Bingo Card
| SQUARE | BOOK | AUTHOR |
|---|---|---|
| LGBTQIA List | The Raven Boys | Maggie Stiefvater |
| Weird Ecology | The Hollow Places | T. Kingfisher |
| Two or More Authors | Vita Nostra | Marina & Sergey Dyachenko |
| Historical SFF | These Violent Delights | Chloe Gong |
| Set in Space | Leviathan Wakes | James SA Corey |
| Stand Alone | Piranesi | Susanna Clarke |
| Anti-Hero | The Cruel Prince | Holly Black |
| Book Club | Gardens of the Moon | Steven Erikson |
| Cool Weapon | Legendborn | Tracy Deonn |
| Revolutions & Rebellions | The Once & Future Witches | Alix E Harrow |
| Name in the Title | The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue | VE Schwab |
| Author uses initials | The Poppy Wars | RF Kuang |
| Published in 2022 | TBD | |
| Urban Fantasy | The Atlas Six | Olivie Blake |
| Set in Africa | The Master of the Djinn | P. Djeli Clark |
| Non-Human Protagonist | Tooth & Claw | Jo Walton |
| Wibbly Wobbly Timey Wimey | Life After Life | Kate Atkinson |
| Five Short Stories | Fire: Demons, Dragons & Djinns | Rhonda Parrish |
| Mental Health | The Extraordinaries | TJ Klune |
| Self Published | TBD | |
| Award Finalist | Circe | Madeline Miller |
| BIPOC Author | Trail of Lightning | Rebecca Roanhorse |
| Shapeshifters | Smoke Bitten | Patricia Briggs |
| No Ifs, ands or buts | Wyrd Sisters | Terry Pratchett |
| Family matters | Jade City | Fonda Lee |
What do you think? Do you see any choices that may not fit here? I may substitute some out and update this post later, but this is my initial run. I’ve not branched out as hard on this run as I did last year as there are a few authors I’ve already read. But there are also a few ‘classic’ authors on here I have not read, so I feel like it’s a good balance.
Oh, and the good folks on reddit have a lot of great suggestions should you want to dive in to the deep of of Fantasy Bingo with me!
First review to come – Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erikson, which I loved, but won’t be posted until July.