This year I planned to only do one bingo card and it’s been going exactly like all my other reading plans, which is to say this post covers my first card, and I’ll have another post with my second card and a post with my BLM Bingo Card (which has some overlap with both of the r/fantasy ones). To learn more about our bingo and the full description of the categories, check out the main reddit post.
Later edit: After finishing all these graphics, I realized I mixed up my rows and my columns, so uh to visualize my card in a more realistic manner, tilt your head sideways
Translated from Original Language (hard mode) Kalpa Imperial: The Greatest Empire That Never Was Angélica Gorodischer – different stories of an imaginary empire, often told in an oral storytelling style, covering a lot of time but with little connection between them. Review
Featuring a Ghost Dragon Pearl Yoon Ha Lee – a middle-grade space-fantasy novel that mixes Korean spirits with a military academy on a spaceship. Was a lot of fun and a breeze to read. Review
Self-Published Novel (hard mode) A Ghostly Request Krista D.Ball – Young woman has too many books, volume 2, now with added sewing. One of my favorites, very slice of life, this book more than the previous heavily focused on family life. Review
A Book that Made You Laugh (hard mode) The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet Becky Chambers – optimistic space travel story with warm fuzzy feelings and acceptance. Review
Novel with a Number in the Title (novella) The Haunting of Tram Car 015
P. Djèlí Clark – Yes. A mystery about ghosts in steampunk-djinn-populated Cairo. Yes. Review
Setting Featuring Snow, Ice or Cold Arrow’s Flight Mercedes Lackey – The second books in The Queen’s Arrows trilogy, a wintery story about overcoming your fears and demons, very cozy. Review
Featuring Exploration All These Worlds Dennis E. Taylor – I enjoyed the first two Bobiverse books more than this one. The concept of robot clones of this one geek is still fun, but something about the plot and pacing here didn’t work for me. Review
Novel with Chapter Epigraphs (hard mode) Song of Blood & Stone L. Penelope – Lovely romance in a world where magic users are feared and discriminated against. The world was great and I’m very curious to continue the series. Review
Five Short Stories (hard mode) Swashbuckling Cats: Nine Lives on the Seven Seas edited by Rhonda Parrish – Pirate cats. Pirate – cats. Cats who are pirates. Some of them sea pirates, some of them space pirates. Review
Romantic Fantasy / Paranormal Romance (hard mode) Heart of Stone Johannes T. Evans – sweet and agonizingly slow historical m/m romance between a very serious secretary and his very cheerful vampire boss. Review
Optimistic (hard mode) Howl’s Moving Castle Diana Wynne Jones – I dunno why I haven’t read this before, it was so much fun and so cozy! I love old ladies in stories and I loved how the power of stories was played with here. Review
Climate Fiction Junkyard Cats Faith Hunter – a post-apocalyptic story that had far too many guns and not enough cats. If the cat to gun ratio had been reversed I’d have liked it a lot more. Review
Novel Published in 2020 (hard mode) The Vanished Birds Simon Jimenez – a very thoughtful found-family sci-fi that I enjoyed, despite how dark it often was. Review to come
Big Dumb Object (hard mode) Rosewater Tade Thompson – near future alien-contact story set in Nigeria, it was fun and had great ideas, but a bit complicated to follow in audiobook. Review
Magical Pet (hard mode) Jhereg Steven Brust – I was expecting to love this based on how much praise it’s gotten on Reddit, but felt decisively meh about it. Was meant to be funny but I was unconvinced. Review
Featuring Necromancy (hard mode) The Bone Witch Rin Chupeco – a super interesting world where necromancers fall somewhere between geishas and fighters. Really loved the creepy necromantic monsters and the frame story structure. Review
Colo(u)r in the Title (hard mode) Brown Girl in the Ring Nalo Hopkinson – sort of near-future dystopian I guess. It took me a bit to get used to the language, but I ended up liking the book, especially how it drew on powerful Caribean folklore. Review
Set in a School or University (hard mode) Legendborn Tracy Deonn – OhMyGoshYes! A YA contemporary retelling of King Arthur legend mixed with Southern Black Girl Magic that I absolutely loved. So many things going and so many great things, but I’ll just mention how well this book dealt with the death of a parent, which I found rare in fantasy. Review
Feminist Novel (hard mode) Black Girl Unlimited Echo Brown – A powerful book that, at first, I didn’t think I would like because of how dark it was and how much trauma was in it, but I ended up loving it for its strong message of hope. Review to come
Graphic Novel or Audiobook (hard mode) Mooncakes Suzanne Walker, Wendy Xu – Sweet, cozy, and wholesome stand-alone graphic novel with witches, werewolves, food, lesbian grannies, and all-around inclusive. Review to come
Ace / Aro Raybearer Jordan Ifueko – Another new favorite a YA Fantasy in a vivid West-African inspired world. The world-building was gorgeous and the found family awesomeness was the best. Review
Any r/Fantasy Book Club / Read-Along (hard mode) Queen of the Conquered Kacen Callender – I liked the world but the main character was too unlikeable for me. Review
Book About Books The Ten Thousand Doors of January Alix E. Harrow – Loved it, fairy-tale-like portal fantasy for lovers of stories and flowery prose. Review
Canadian Author Stormsong C.L. Polk – sequel to Witchmark, with a PoV switch. I wasn’t fully on the main character’s side, but I loved the story and she ended up winning me over. Review
Featuring Politics (hard mode, reread) We Ride the Storm Devin Madson – my reread for this card. If I tell you I read this book last year and then again this summer, that’s gonna a pretty big hint of how much I loved it right? It’s an epic fantasy that follows 3 characters whose stories slowly come together. Great mix of politics, characters, and combat. Review
So this was my first card, I’ll be putting together stats in my second bingo post, which will hopefully go up next week.
Not the actual card, cause the rows should be columns:
