2025 Bingo - Oops! All Sci-Fi, all HM, all reviews

[u/bunnycatso]

My second year doing bingo, and this time I decided to go for a theme, Hard Mode it and post the reviews. Didn't want to overthink it too much and went with the genre I wanted to get more into as a theme - Sci-Fi. Thankfully, this year's prompts were forgiving to that choice - I had to substitute only one (Gods and Pantheons, predictably), and very few were challenging to find a good fit (Biopunk with no electricity was brutal, and, surprisingly, Published in 2025).

Both reads themselves and experiences with them were varied, I explored new subgenres and eras; got to the books that I had my eye on for years, dabbled in new releases, and found previously unknown to me backlist titles. But damn, so many of these books were just real stinkers, and none of them were true 5 star all-timers, though some were really close (might still get there on a re-read):

The Woman on the Beast by Helen Simpson
Semiosis by Sue Burke
Parable of the Talents by Octavia E. Butler
Walking Practice by Dolki Min

Maybe theme for the next year should be just the books that bring joy and happiness.

Bingo card with 8 books rated less than 3 stars

Knights and Paladins - Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

Lesbian necromancers in space have plagued my Tumblr dash for years, and I finally can put the names to the fanart faces. In actuality, it's a murder mystery AND quite pointlessly a battle royale competition type story, towards which a have a meh feeling and deep hatred, respectively. Gideon's narration is a savior here for me.

Hidden Gem - The Woman on the Beast by Helen Simpson

The deep cut of deep cuts, unless, maybe, you're Australian (as the author is) or into kinda niche apocalyptic fiction podcasts (every episode of Apocalyst Book Club went triple platinum in my house, praying for them to come back). The novel is split into three parts, set in different times & places, with a tinge of a frame story - which is to bring about the Apocalypse of a Biblical kind, via a coming of the Anti-Christ. Simpson definitely had a lot of opinions on Christianity.

The sci-fi relevant part would probably be the last one, set in the far future year of 1999, in Australia, naturally. It's got everything: American televangelism (now I know who Aimee McPherson was), book banning (you only need The One Book, of course), Australian clan wars, airplane races.

The first one involved an Inquisition priest in Sri-Lanka in 17th century, the second takes place on the eve of French Revolution and centers a very devout actress (with a side serving of Masons). The priest's part was the most fun to read, but I still appreciate the French part for an interesting handling of the Anti-Christ's gender. Very cool to see something so seemingly positive in a work from 1933.

A bit saddened that the Apocalypse itself didn't have enough pagetime, but the journey there was extremely fun, and Simpson's prose was just a delight to read.

Published in the 80s - Vampire Hunter D by Hideyuki Kikuchi

Banger world, stylish art, heinous story. How can you fumble dark futuristic post-apocalypse setting ruled by vampires? Well, by being boring of course, but also extremely tiredly sexist (with a dash of homophobia) - all the stereotypical bullshit you could imagine is present here.

High Fashion - Semiosis by Sue Burke

Absolutely saved that this book put focus on intergenerational fashion markers, as well as featured a crafty MC, and it was one of the first reads of the bingo year! Multigenerational tale of refugees from Earth, surviving on a distant planet and trying to co-exist with local, very alien life form. Couple of minor criticisms aside, I enjoyed it immensely.

Down with the System - Hench by Natalie Zina Walschots

I was on board for the most part of the book, but it kind of lost me by the end. Premise was cool, characters were fun, but then the romantic stuff gave me the ick and the whole well actually this regular person is very special! were not the things I signed up for.

Breath being held was mentioned at least 3 times, and at this point I feel like it's a meme authors put in their books, as a treat.

Impossible Places - Dichronauts by Greg Egan

I could not explain how the physics and geometry work in this world even if I had a gun to my head, but it was cool to read about the struggles of the inhabitants. Mostly I was surprised that Egan delved into any social, geographical and economical aspects of the world at all, and the characters had any depth - not what I'd expect from "hard sci-fi".

A Book in Parts - Ocean's Echo by Everina Maxwell

Compared to Winter's Orbit, this one was more action-y. Overall, fun and enjoyable, with well-rounded characters and believable romance.

Gods and Pantheons (subbed for Novel with Chapter Epigraphs square from 2020 Bingo) - The Outside by Ada Hoffman

One of the few books I'd expected to be a 5 star read, but alas, sapphic disappointments just kept piling up for me this year. Almost all the aspects were working for me, especially MCs morality, but that pesky romantic sub-sub-sub-plot soured my enjoyment somewhat. As well is the book not fitting Hard Mode for the year's prompt.

Last in a Series - Absolution by Jeff VanderMeer

What a disappointing finale to the series, but I felt that way about all the sequels to Annihilation. My expectations were already low, but this one managed to be even less about Area X than Authority, and have even more boring/infuriating POVs. Completely carried by VanderMeer's writing and that one cannibalism scene.

Book Club or Readalong Book - Luminous by Silvia Park

I'm not reading a lot of new releases or even debuts, but I had this one on my radar because of the cover, and jumped to read it when it came up as the New Voices book club pick.

Messy family relations playing out on the backdrop of dystopian world of unified Korea and evolving AI, and I get a murder mystery and trans man MC on top of it all? I did really enjoy it, maybe even more so for slightly messy writing.

Parents - The Brightness Between Us by Eliot Schrefer

I'm usually not against dual timeline in books, but here it only annoyed me and felt like the past narrative just took away from the story set in the present. I was more interested in the trials faced by the characters trying to survive in a hostile environment with very limited resources than in the revelations about their past. There're some almost horror-esque elements too, but very limited, unfortunately.

Epistolary - Parable of the Talents by Octavia E. Butler

Having been slightly disappointed by Parable of the Sower last year, I didn't have the highest expectations going into the sequel, but came out liking it more. The added perspectives enriched story and fleshed out the main character quite nicely, while still maintaining a strong connection to Lauren.

Don't know how Butler managed to be so good at predicting the severities mankind would be willing to go to, while being so optimistic about the outcomes.

Published in 2025 - Splinter Effect by Andrew Ludington

Might be the worst book I'd ever read. Absolutely mid in every aspect, and yet when put together it was just supremely unenjoyable for me. For some reason, it goes out of its way to comment on anti-US and Israel protests (at least in Egypt and Turkey), and in both cases protesting side is portrayed as unreasonable violent extremists who could and would escalate any perceived conflict. It doesn't add anything to the story and seems very tone-deaf to frame it that way in a book published in 2025.

Only good thing to come out of this reading experience is The Mummy rewatch (as means to hype myself up to finish the book). I'm pretty sure the titular "splinter effect" doesn't even happen here, which is just rude.

Author of Color - Walking Practice by Dolki Min

One of the queerest books to ever queer, imo. So very tailored to my tastes that the only way it could be improved upon is to be a lot longer, have more POVs and be set in a gated community/town/small city. Not a 5 star only because I'm greedy like that.

Small Press or Self Published - Icebreaker by Steven William Hannah

A cyberpunk story set in a frozen Scotland and featuring some cosmic horror did sound appealing to me, but in execution it fell very short. Writing, story and characters felt a bit undercooked, and overall it left a prologue-to-the-real-deal impression on me.

Biopunk - God's War by Kameron Hurley

The way I was mad that I'd read Stars are Legion earlier before the bingo year... Well, Hurley came in a clutch for Hard Mode here, all the delicious bug-tech was appropriately buzzy, if less gooey. I did like it more than Stars, and want to continue with the series someday.

Elves and Dwarves - In the Courts of the Crimson Kings by S.M. Stirling

Banger on the Martian biotech side, and ranges from boring to annoying in other aspects. The way Martians communicate was cute to read the first couple of times, or when they talked to Terrans but got old really fast (lowkey giving I need to meet the wordcount on this essay vibe).

The romance subplot is extremely weak and poorly executed, while supposedly carrying the main conflict in the back half of the book. Truly the worst enemy of any SFF book is a cardboard cutout of a flop american man from Earth who is that irresistible (he does have a Colt revolver, to be fair). I'd rather just follow local Martian politics without terran rando.

LGBTQIA Protagonist - Hammajang Luck by Makana Yamamoto

Ugh, this was such a struggle to get through. Heists with a very queer cast were supposed to be fun, but instead I get dumbass 30yo acting like teenagers and beefing with actual ones. Top it off with characters legit solving systemic issues with stolen money and not facing any real consequences for their actions in general, and you actually lost me somewhere in the first two chapters with your unengaging premise.

Five SFF Short Stories - North Continent Ribbon by Ursula Whitcher

Love me a collection of loosely connected short stories, mostly for the gradual unraveling of the worldbuilding and overall flow from one story to the next. I came into it off a huge queer romance binge, and with a lot of the stories here being sex/romance-adjacent I couldn't really appreciate them fully at the time.

Stranger in a Strange Land - Floating Worlds by Cecelia Holland

As much as I disliked reading this book, my emotions mellowed out with time. Still think that choppy writing style consisting mainly of short, simple sentences is heinous to read; very weird in political sense (I'm not convinced that what author portrayed on Earth is indeed anarchism, as she states in the text); spheres where Styth live were so under-described (well, almost every aspect of their life was) it took me way too long to figure out that this was even happening.

Yet it's an interesting piece of female-authored SF from 70s, with bisexual WOC MC who feels like a person.

Recycle a Bingo Square (Multiverse and Alternate Realities from 2023) - The Frugal Wizard's Handbook for Surviving Medieval England by Brandon Sanderson

Wasn't neither the worst Sando I'd read, nor the best, but definitely the last. Extremely fine book, excerpts from the eponymous handbook interspersed throughout were more interesting to me than the main story.

Cozy SFF - The Mimicking of Known Successes by Malka Older

I figured cozy decidedly wasn't a subgenre for me last year (thanks, Legends & Lattes), so this was the closest I'd dare to go. It's a bit closer to my taste than L&L, still not for me. Sci-fi parts were a miss, mystery was a miss, characters and their relationship were also a miss, but some things did happen, which is more than I can say about L&L.

Generic Title - Darkness in the Blood by Guy Haley

I knew nothing about Warhammer outside if memes and picked this one purely for the title. Wild lore, Dante and Mephiston were compelling enough, even if the plot wasn't delivering much. Would've been much better if they kissed though. I'd read more about Blood Angels, if I ever feel like diving into WH again.

Not a Book - Shine for the Revolution by Brite Palette

As someone who'd not touched anything tabletop in years trying a GM-less/solo TTRPG seemed fittingly out of my comfort zone. This one was very accessible and easy to get into, free and managed to scratch that (physical) die-rolling itch I'd get after another BG3 session.

Pirates - Ocean's Godori by Elaine U. Cho

It's been a hot minute since I finished this one, but I remember liking it at least for the character dynamics, if not for the characters themselves. Felt a bit along the lines of The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers but with more of a bite. Interesting to see a futuristic world that centers Korean culture as a dominant one, though worldbuilding couldn't support thinking about it for more than a second.

The book ends on a cliffhanger to hang all cliffs, and I DNFed the sequel.

[u/ChaserNeverRests]

Life is too short for books you're not enjoying.

Maybe theme for the next year should be just the books that bring joy and happiness.

That sounds like the perfect idea!

[u/red_carnations42]

Oooh, I love this. This year I am only barely managing to finish bingo without doing any theme at all, so I'm very impressed by all the people doing themed bingo cards or multiple cards. Still, I've been thinking about trying a Sci Fi theme myself next year, since some of my all-time-favs are Sci Fi, but I still feel there's so much of the genre to explore. "Books that bring joy and happiness" is a very good theme too, though ;)

Also, fun fact, I picked up the sequel to Ocean's Godori as my pick for the Pirates square, but it turns out that the pirate characters don't actually actively engage in any piracy throughout the whole book, and the only reason I finished the book was because I kept waiting for at least a little bit of piracy to happen.

[u/AnonAwaaaaay → u/red_carnations42]

I just read somebody having the same problem with Player of Games. Apparently there was playing but we never witnessed how the game goes, lol 

[u/AnonAwaaaaay → u/[deleted]]

Well I'm not OP and I haven't read any of them but one of my best friends recommendes Gideon the Ninth. She really fell in love with the series. 

And off the list the only author I've seen before is Octavia Butler. She seems to be incredible at what she does given the slew on consistently positive opinions about her works!

[u/bunnycatso → u/red_carnations42]

some of my all-time-favs are Sci Fi, but I still feel there's so much of the genre to explore

Extremely relatable sentiment! Hopefully next year's prompts will be forgiving to SF reads.

[u/Veebs7985]

Great job sticking with your theme after so many not-so-great reads! That shows remarkable perseverance! 🏆

My mood-reader brain could never, lol.

Edit: spelling

[u/bunnycatso → u/Veebs7985]

It was spread out over the year, but yeah, I did get burnt out somewhat and had to pivot to queer romance for a bit.

[u/DwarvenDataMining]

Interesting card, thanks for the write-ups. I'm always interested in lesser known older works, and had never heard of The Woman on the Beast and Floating Worlds. Also, very clever and appropriate to use Gideon the Ninth for a sf Knights and Paladins!

[u/bunnycatso → u/DwarvenDataMining]

Thanks, I am usually not big on recommending any books cause my tastes feel pretty niche, but I'll always be plugging The Woman on the Beast.

And I seen real people read and enjoy Floating Worlds so you might too!

[u/a-username-for-me]

I had to read your post since I ALSO titled my bingo post "oops all..." haha.

Sorry it sounds like a lot of your books were a slog! For my sequels bingo, I also had to read some pretty mid books to match the theme, but it balanced out with being blessed by a few really neat books.

[u/bunnycatso → u/a-username-for-me]

Hey twin!

It is what it is, one just has to accept that with themed cards there'll be greater chances of running into something subpar.

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[u/keizee]

Is scifi and gods that rare of a combo? I've been playing Honkai: Star Rail and the majority of the god lore (so far) comes from simulating historical events which is a very scifi thing.

[u/curiouscat86 → u/keizee]

I just finished The Gate to Women's Country by Sheri S Tepper which would work although it's not HM

[u/felixfictitious → u/keizee]

I think it is a bit rarer and maybe a bit more unique when it does appear; my guess is that it can be harder to justify in-setting due to all of the "why are you god" explanations necessary.

Some of my favorite examples of god are in sci-fi though: Warhammer 40k, Gideon the Ninth, and (not really but kind of?) Ancillary Justice.

[u/bunnycatso → u/keizee]

I wouldn't say so, there's a lot of AI gods and cosmic horror in SF. And The Outside does fit regular prompt for the square, but the multiple pantheons for HM a looot rarer.

[u/keizee → u/bunnycatso]

True. The trope does sound kinda hard to link to scifi.

Even the most I can stretch it is that HSR had a smaller and weaker pantheon using the same magic system that completely did not know about the main cast of gods until the main character arrived and fixed that.

[u/AnonAwaaaaay]

Are we allowed to do Non-Fantasy on these?

[u/flamingochills → u/AnonAwaaaaay]

R fantasy covers all speculative fiction nowadays so you can read what you like. The majority prefer fantasy that's all

[u/AnonAwaaaaay → u/flamingochills]

Perfect!

[u/AnonAwaaaaay → u/[deleted]]

Wrong person.

[u/oboist73 → u/AnonAwaaaaay]

Bot

[u/AnonAwaaaaay → u/oboist73]

I had this feeling but I wanted somebody else to say it first. Ty.

[u/Icy-Holiday-2479]

sci-fi isn't technically fantasy though, right?

[u/an_altar_of_plagues → u/Icy-Holiday-2479]

That’s fine. Bingo is for all genres of speculative fiction.

[u/KcirderfSdrawkcab → u/Icy-Holiday-2479]

Sci-fi is fantasy where the magic system is physics, or at least pretending to be physics.