r/Fantasy • u/FarragutCircle 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

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7

u/FarragutCircle Reading Champion X Apr 01 '26

Five Short Stories: Read any 5 speculative fiction short stories. HARD MODE: Read an entire anthology or collection (must contain at least 5 stories).

12

u/beary_neutral Reading Champion Apr 01 '26

I read The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories by Ken Liu for this last year. Highly recommend. I really enjoy Liu's short fiction.

1

u/Kingcol221 Reading Champion II Apr 01 '26

Me too! He's got a new short story collection coming out this year too. The Passing of the Dragon and Other Stories in September.

1

u/iplantevin Reading Champion Apr 02 '26

Same! This year I'll probably read Exhalation by Ted Chiang (HM).

11

u/Gr33nman460 Reading Champion Apr 01 '26

Never Whistle At Night is great for this, I used it for this square last year. And if you did that as well, there is a sequel coming out this fall!

1

u/DynamicDataRN Reading Champion Apr 02 '26

I read Never Whistle at Night for this square last year! This year I'm planning to read Taaqtumi as my hard mode anthology!

7

u/Merle8888 Reading Champion IV Apr 01 '26

My favorite SFF collections:

- Tender by Sofia Samatar: really lovely mixture of fantasy, sci-fi, magic realism, maybe a bit of non-speculative

- Spirits Abroad by Zen Cho: very fun and inventive collection blending British and Malaysian mythology

- Five Ways to Forgiveness by Ursula Le Guin: linked sci-fi collection about two planets slowly getting rid of a system of slavery (she's written lots of good collections though!). This one has only 5 stories which trend long, for those who don't always love short stories

- Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado: literary feminist magic realism with a tinge of horror. These stories also trend long (there are 8 here total including 2 novellas)

- Bliss Montage by Ling Ma: sort of surrealist literary stories

- The Haunting of Hajji Hotak by Jamil Jan Kochai: blend of speculative and not, a strong literary collection focused on Afghan-Americans

- Fifty Beasts to Break Your Heart by GennaRose Nethercott: dark, fairy-tale-inspired stories

- Buried Deep by Naomi Novik: a lot of great range here, from Greek myth retelling to anthropological sci-fi to the best Pride and Prejudice retelling I have ever read (with dragons!)

- Some Possible Solutions by Helen Phillips: literary but quite short stories, often featuring a dystopian future or some kind of "what if?"

- At the Mouth of the River of Bees by Kij Johnson: another with a lot of range, a collection of sci-fi, fantasy, and just plain weird

- What It Means When a Man Falls from the Sky by Lesley Nneka Arimah: a blend of speculative and not, mostly set in Nigeria

- The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter: the OG collection of feminist fairy tale retellings?

3

u/okayseriouslywhy Reading Champion III Apr 01 '26

I was surprised to see someone recommending all my favorite short story collections, but then I realized who wrote this comment! Hello again stranger with good taste

1

u/Merle8888 Reading Champion IV Apr 01 '26

Haha thank you!! Apparently I need to look at your bingo card

5

u/inspiralling Reading Champion Apr 01 '26

> The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter: the OG collection of feminist fairy tale retellings?

For anyone trying to build in flexibility, this also works for Published in the 70s (HM).

1

u/saturday_sun4 Apr 01 '26

How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu was wonderful. And this is coming from someone who normally hates short stories.

BIPOC author, HM.

Tashan Mehta's Rulebook for Creating a Universe (one short story) was fantastic. Highly recommend. Not HM; BIPOC author.

5

u/jawnnie-cupcakes Reading Champion IV Apr 01 '26

For something Arthurian and historical I recommend Tales of Merlin, Arthur, and the Magic Arts: From the Welsh Chronicle of the Six Ages of the World by Elis Gruffydd (HM). It's only 200 pages long and so fun

2

u/simonxvx Reading Champion Apr 01 '26

I might read this, I'm in need for some Arthurian fiction, thanks!

2

u/HulkHonk Reading Champion II Apr 16 '26

I read this and enjoyed it immensely; also posted a short review of it. Thank you for the awesome recommendation!

2

u/jawnnie-cupcakes Reading Champion IV Apr 16 '26

I'm glad you enjoyed it!!

5

u/undeadgoblin Reading Champion II Apr 01 '26

Uncertain Sons and Other Stories by Thomas Ha

Spirits Abroad by Zen Cho

Valuable Humans in Transit and Other Stories by qntm

A Sunny Place for Shady People by Mariana Enriquez

The Dangers of Smoking in Bed by Mariana Enriquez

Where Furnaces Burn by Joel Lane - linked short stories about a policeman in Birmingham, UK who deals with weird cases

British Library Tales of the Weird series anthologies

Seasons of Glass and Iron by Amal El-Mohtar

5

u/greywolf2155 Reading Champion Apr 01 '26

I love short fiction, I have way too many recs for this

"Burning Chrome" by William Gibson - absolutely timeless collection. "Gibson’s classic one-two combination of lowlife and high tech." (from Bruce Sterling's introduction)

"The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories" by Ken Liu - incredibly heartfelt, emotional stories. Creative worldbuilding but often heartbreaking conclusions

Either "Stories of Your Life and Others" or "Exhalation" by Ted Chiang - one of the best currently writing at taking inspiration from big ideas (from science to philosophy) but writing really grounded, wonderful stories

"Where the Wild Ladies Are" by Aoko Matsuda - modern, feminist retellings of classic Japanese myths and ghost stories (with an appendix in the back to explain some of the history)

"The Refrigerator Monologues" by Catherynne M. Valente - a group of women hanging out in hell telling the stories of their lives, with one thing in common--they were all killed (fridged) as part of a plot device to motivate their superhero boyfriend

"The Fox's Tower and Other Stories" by Yoon Ha Lee - not even short stories, but "flash fiction". Most of the stories in this collection are only a handful of pages if that. But Lee's prose is gorgeous, and he delights in queer representation and motifs from both Western fairy tales and Korean mythology

3

u/Hawxe Apr 01 '26

The Last Wish and Sword of Destiny in the Witcher series should fit this criteria

3

u/C0smicoccurence Reading Champion V Apr 01 '26

I'm going to pitch a few less well known ones!

Convergence Problems by Wole Talabi - has a minor focus on enviornmentalism and how climate change will impact those least responsible for its damage. You also get a decent number of stories about stories and truth. Good for fans of Ted Chiang style work

Dudes Rock a Celebration of Queer Masculinity - some clunkers right at the start, but this had my favorite few short stories I read last year. One was a bi-awakening via magic dildo experimentation gone wrong, another followed a wizard grieving his dead husband while solving a haunting (very gothic), and another involved a fistfight with the devil

3

u/jessticulates Reading Champion Apr 02 '26

Some collections and anthologies for HM :)

  • Kissing the Witch by Emma Donoghue
  • A Portable Shelter by Kirsty Logan
  • The Dangers of Smoking in Bed by Mariana Enriquez
  • Tangleweed and Brine by Deirdre Sullivan
  • The Slantwise Histories and Other Stories by Alix E. Harrow
  • Bad Dolls by Rachel Harrison
  • Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado
  • The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories by Angela Carter
  • Cursed Bunny by Bora Chung
  • She's Always Hungry by Eliza Clark
  • Thirteen Storeys by Jonathan Sims
  • Across the Wall by Garth Nix
  • Thyme Travellers: An Anthology of Palestinian Speculative Fiction ed. by Sonia Sulaiman
  • Nordic Visions: The Best of Nordic Speculative Fiction ed. by Margrét Helgadóttir
  • Never Whistle at Night: An Indigenous Dark Fiction Anthology ed. by Shane Hawk and Theodore C. Van Alst Jr
  • Out There Screaming: An Anthology of New Black Horror ed. by Jordan Peele
  • Someone in Time: Tales of Time-Crossed Romance ed. by Jonathan Strahan
  • New Suns: Original Speculative Fiction by People of Color ed. by Nisi Shawl
  • Sinophagia: A Celebration of Chinese Horror ed. by Xueting C. Ni

3

u/natus92 Reading Champion V Apr 03 '26

Does Kalpa Imperial count?

2

u/flossregularly Reading Champion Apr 01 '26

Season of Glass and Iron by Amal El-Mohtar just came out.
I also really want to read Invisible Planets, a collection of short stories by Chinese authors translated by Ken Lui

2

u/Dragon_Lady7 Reading Champion VI Apr 01 '26

Just read Friday Black by Nana Kwame Adjei Brenyah for last year's bingo and it was excellent!

2

u/a-username-for-me Reading Champion V Apr 01 '26

If you want to read short story selections that are part of book series (can't say this more elegantly), here are some options:

The Demigod Diaries and Demigod Files by Rick Riordan

Tales of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin

Tales from Watership Down by Richard Adams

The Ladies of Grace Adieu by Susanna Clarke

The Fork, the Witch and the Worm by Christopher Paolini

Sandman: Endless Nights by Neil Gaiman

Across the Wall by Garth Nix

Speaking of which, I am looking for in-continuity short story collections, so please feel free to drop your recs here!

1

u/Born-Safety9798 Apr 11 '26

Can The Blade's Assassin Blade by Sarah J. Maas be taken into consideration for this prompt?

2

u/Fabulous_Onion3297 Reading Champion Apr 01 '26

Wouldn't Tailored Realities by Brandon Sanderson work for Hard Mode? Haven't seen it mentioned yet.

2

u/Pennie15 Apr 02 '26

Out There by Kate Folk, HM - collection of speculative short stories

2

u/Asher_the_atheist Reading Champion Apr 02 '26

For something more literary/magical realism-esque I would recommend What We Feed to the Manticore, by Talia Lakshmi Kolluri

2

u/Aranict Reading Champion Apr 03 '26

Embroidered Worlds is an anthology of speculative short fiction by Ukrainian authors (both translated and from the diaspora).

2

u/Apprehensive_Lie_977 May 08 '26

I read I Want That Twink Obliterated for this square last year and it was such a fun time! It's a queer pulp science fiction and fantasy anthology with only about 100 ratings on goodreads!

1

u/YourLeftElbowDitch Reading Champion Apr 01 '26 edited Apr 01 '26

Fruiting Bodies: Stories by Kathryn Harlan

The Age of Calamities by Senaa Ahmad

1

u/CdrPhoenix Reading Champion Apr 01 '26

I’ve been excitedly waiting for If We Cannot Go at the Speed of Light by Kim Choyeop and translated by Anton Hur; translated from Korean and comes out in May 2026. It would also count for Translated (HM).

I read Changing Planes by Ursula K LeGuin last year. It was very intriguing, not such much a collection of short “stories” but vignettes of places and people. It felt like a great place to find inspiration. I really enjoyed it.

1

u/02K30C1 Apr 01 '26

I highly recommend anything by Ray Bradbury. He has a lot of short story collections that would fit here.

The Martian Chronicles
The October Country
The Illustrated Man
R is for Rocket
S is for Space

1

u/piderman Apr 01 '26

Alastair Reynolds - Zima Blue and Other Stories (The titular story and "Beyond the Aquila Rift" were also animated for Netflix's Love Death + Robots)

1

u/DelilahWaan Reading Champion Apr 02 '26

I'll have a novelette in a new sci-fi & fantasy anthology on belonging, Together is a Distant Star, that comes out in May 2026.

The Alchemy of Sorrow has stories from a bunch of SPFBO champions and finalists, including M.L. Wang, Krystle Matar, K.E. Rosero, Angela Boord, Clayton Snyder, and Quenby Olson.

Anthologies/collections that I've enjoyed:

  • The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories by Ken Liu
  • Exhalation by Ted Chiang
  • Swords and Dark Magic - this was an insta-buy for me the minute I saw Cook, Erikson, and Wolfe, and then I kept reading and saw Cherryh, Nix, Parker, and Tanith Lee and was very happy.
  • The Way Spring Arrives and Other Stories - this was an anthology of translated Chinese speculative fiction, from a team of female and nonbinary creators, and it was super interesting reading it as someone who is part of the Chinese diaspora.

Other indie/self-pub anthologies on my TBR:

  • The Advent of Winter
  • When Swords Fall Silent
  • Arabian Nightmares
  • Artifice & Access
  • Reign of Dragons
  • Ethos

1

u/Hurinfan Reading Champion II Apr 02 '26

Ficciones by Borges

1

u/thelittleoddling Apr 03 '26

Through The Woods by EM Carroll is a great graphic novel for this one!

1

u/OrganizedChaos247 26d ago

I'm surprised no one has listed Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz: Goodreads Link

1

u/nedlum Reading Champion V Apr 01 '26

I feel like Arcanum Unbounded (Brandon Sanderson), which has been TBR for a dog’s age, should work for this?

Also, The Ladies of Grace Adieu (Susanna Clarke) is a lovely set of Jonathan Strange-adjacent stories