Fantasy Bingo 2018 – First Row Picks

This post and the next four bingo-related posts will be talking about the books that I’m considering using for each of the bingo squares in r/Fantasy’s 2018 Bingo Challenge, which I made a post about with all the details. If you’re participating, do let me know!

I’m going to try to stick to books I already own but I feel like there will be a couple that I have to buy a book for. Hopefully it’ll only be a few though.

First Row:

Novel that was reviewed on r/Fantasy. Hard Mode: Read a book and then write a review about it so it counts. I know someone is in the process of making a compiled list of this, so I might end up changing my choices when new options become available. Also if I end up reading a book that fits no other squares, I might do the hard mode and write a review myself. 😛

• The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson
• The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins
• Deathless by Catherynne M Valente
• Promise of Blood by Brian McClellan

Novel featuring a Non-Western Setting. Hard Mode: Originally published in a non-English language. I’m super excited about this one. I’m going to try to avoid just doing a manga, just because it’s too easy that way. There’s a list of non-western based fantasy books available for your browsing leisure.

• The Grace of Kings by Ken Liu
• Across the Nightingale Floor by Lian Hearn
• Deathless by Catherynne M Valente
• 1Q84 by Hiruki Murakami
• Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

Five Fantasy Short Stories. Hard Mode: Read an entire collection of short stories. This one will be difficult for me – I don’t own any short story compilations. Well I do, but they’re sci-fi ones. I figured those might work as long as they’re not hard sci-fi. Like as long as they’re not super technology heavy sci-fi and are leaning more towards space operas or speculative fiction, they might work. But we’ll see.

• The Time Traveler’s Almanac edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer

Novel adapted to stage, screen or game. Hard Mode: Novel adapted to more than one medium. There are a bunch of shows and movies I wanna watch but I haven’t yet due to not reading the source material… so hopefully this one will be easy!

• Caliban’s War by James S. A. Corey
• The Magicians by Lev Grossman
• World War Z by Max Brooks
• Cloud Atlas by David Mithell
• Inkdeath by Cornelia Funke

Hopeful Fantasy. Hard mode: Novel not listed in the title of the prompt. This is a weird one but kinda neat. I don’t think I’ve ever read a ‘hopeful fantasy’ before. Currently I think I only own one that qualifies:

• Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman

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And that’s it for row one! Row two coming soon!