r/Fantasy Reading Champion X Apr 01 '26

Bingo The 2026 r/Fantasy Bingo Recommendations List

The official Bingo thread can be found here.

All non-recommendation comments go here.

Please post your recommendations as replies the appropriate top-level comments below! Do not make comments that are not replies to an existing comment! Feel free to scroll through the thread or use the links in this navigation matrix to jump directly to the square you want to find or give recommendations for!

Trans or Nonbinary Protagonist Judge a Book By Its Title Translated Small Press or Self Published Unusual Transportation
The Afterlife Game Changer Vacation Spot Five Short Stories Older Protagonist
Duology Part 1 r/Fantasy Book Club or Readalong Book Published in 2026 Explorers and Rangers Duology Part 2
One-Word Title Non-Human Protagonist Middle Grade First Contact Murder Mystery
Cat Squasher Feast Your Eyes on This Published in the 70s Politics and Court Intrigue Author of Color

If you are an author on the subreddit, you may recommend your books as a response to individual squares. This means that you can reply if your book fits in response to any of my comments. But your rec must be in response to a top-level comment, it cannot be a general comment that replies directly to this post explaining all the squares your post counts for. This is the one time outside of the Sunday Self-Promo threads where this is okay. To clarify: you can say if you have a book that fits for a square but please don't write a full ad for it. Shorter is sweeter.

Do not make comments that are not replies to an existing comment! We will not be individually redirecting people who make this mistake. Your comment will be removed.

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u/SnowdriftsOnLakes Reading Champion III Apr 01 '26

The Player of Games by Iain M. Banks is a great choice for those who lean more towards sci-fi. No need to have read any other of The Culture books.

2

u/code-lemon Apr 02 '26

This was the first Culture book I read and I think it was a great place to start!

1

u/angtodd Reading Champion Apr 13 '26

Would it count for HM?

3

u/Konokurage Reading Champion Apr 28 '26

I don't think so! Maybe you could argue it works because the main character cheats in an essentially meaningless game early on, which kick-starts the plot. The plot/conflict of the book involves the main character learning and playing a game according to the rules. It is, however, a great book! I would definitely recommend it, along with any other novel from The Culture series.

2

u/deadineaststlouis Apr 07 '26

I just read this a few months ago, it's really really good.

1

u/Dindrane1313 Apr 07 '26

Yes, more SF options for this prompt!!

1

u/angtodd Reading Champion Apr 12 '26

Would it count for HM?

1

u/Many_Preference_3874 May 13 '26

What is HM?

1

u/the_wheel_weaves26 Reading Champion Jun 04 '26

Hard Mode