Fantasy Bingo 2019 | 4th and 5th Row Picks

Hello, welcome to the last picks posts about r/Fantasy’s 2019 Bingo Challenge! I did rows 2 and 3 Saturday, and row 1 last week. If you’re unfamiliar with the bingo challenge, click the link I have above to get all the details! If you’re a fantasy fan, you should check it out!

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Fourth Row Across

Any r/fantasy Book Club Book of the Month OR r/fantasy Read-along Book

Any past or still active book clubs count, as well as past or current read-alongs. NOTE: All of the current book club info can also be found on our goodreads page. HARD MODE: Must read a current selection of either a book club or read-along and participate in the discussion.

Right now I’m leaning towards The City of Brass by S. A. Chakraborty. It’s r/Fantasy’s April book, and it’ll fit in nicely with my OWL prompts. So if I get to this one, it’ll be great.

Media Tie-In Novel

Books based on existing film, television, or game franchises are used for this square. HARD MODE: NOT a Star Wars novel.

It took me a second, but I remembered I had a StarCraft novel I bought ages ago and never read. Perfect opportunity! Heaven’s Devil by William C Dietz. And writing the author’s name made me realize I’ve read him before and I like him! He wrote some of the Halo books too. Guy gets around, apparently.

Novel Featuring an AI Character

Pretty self-explanatory, but let me know if you have questions about this. HARD MODE: The AI is a main protagonist.

There are a few I could do for this one. Maybe The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers, maybe The Fall of Hyperion by Dan Simmons.

SFF Novel That Has a Title of Four or More Words

Self-explanatory. HARD MODE: Has 7 or more words in the title.

You know, I don’t own a single book that would count towards hard mode. Gosh, haha. I own a lot of 6 word books though. I’m going to keep this open too, since I have so many choices. It’ll give me a bit of wiggle room in my reading this year.

Retelling!

Any retellings would work for this square – fairytale retellings, myth retellings, retellings of previous literature, etc. HARD MODE: The retelling must be of a previous published work, not a fairytale or myth. For example, Jacqueline Carey’s book Miranda and Caliban is a retelling of The Tempest, so that would work, but Madeline Miller’s Circe, a retelling of Circe’s stories from Greek Mythology, would not.

The Bear and the Nightingale, Cinder... there are a lot I could choose for this one. Leaning towards the first one mentioned, though.

Fifth Row Across

SFF Novel by an Australian Author

Australia has a fantastic SFF scene, let’s explore some of the authors there using this square. HARD MODE: Book from an Australian small press OR self-published Australian author.

Illuminae by Amie Kaufmann and Jay Kristoff! I’m already reading this for my OWLs so it’ll work out great

The Final Book of a Series

The last book in a series which actually completes that series (not the latest book out but it’s a middle book). HARD MODE: The last book in the series was published more than a decade ago.

I’m saving this one for Assassin’s Fate by Robin Hobb, the last book in the Fitz and the Fool trilogy, the last book in the Realm of the Elderlings world. It’s gonna be the end of an era.

#OwnVoices

From the creator of the #ownvoices hashtag – “…the protagonist and the author share a marginalized identity.” For more information check out the faq here. HARD MODE: Author and protagonist share 2+ marginalized identities.

Leaning towards The Poppy War by R. F. Kuang for this one. Hard mode, too! Ethnicity and gender!

LitRPG

Definition from Wikipedia: a literary genre combining the conventions of RPGs with science-fiction fantasy novels. LitRPG is a literary genre where games or game-like challenges form an essential part of the story and where visible RPG statistics (for example strength, intelligence, damage) are a significant part of this world. This in contrast to GameLit, which involves game-like worlds but does not typically provide visible statistics. At least some of the characters in a LitRPG novel may understand that they are playing a game or are in a game-like world: they are ‘meta-aware’. HARD MODE: LitRPG written by a female author.

I had never even heard of this genre before, so this will be a library one or an online ebook one, I think. The genre seems pretty niche, so I’m likely going to pick from one of these options.

Five SFF Short Stories

Self explanatory. HARD MODE: Read an entire SFF anthology or collection

One of my local author buddies Sarah @WindsorWrites contributed to one of these! I think I’m gonna read hers. 😀

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And that’s it! I’m so excited for this, man.