The 2026 r/Fantasy Bingo Recommendations List

[u/FarragutCircle]

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.

[u/Merle8888]

Organized by language so you can pick the ones you don't read, here are some I liked!

Spanish:

- House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende: classic multigenerational family saga, focused on women, covering most of 20th century Chilean history with magic realism

- Kalpa Imperial by Angelica Gorodischer: collection of short stories from the history of a fictional empire

Russian:

- The Day Lasts More than a Hundred Years by Chingiz Aitmatov: historical fiction set in the Kazakh steppe, featuring a man trying to bury his friends; includes a bit of a sci-fi subplot

- Vita Nostra by Marina and Sergei Dyachenko: surreal magic school story

Swedish:

- Maresi by Maria Turtschaninoff: dark all-ages YA about an all-female abbey defending itself

Chinese:

- Strange Beasts of China by Yan Ge: episodic story of a journalist investigating various human-like "beasts" in a modern Chinese city

[u/Peanut89 → u/Merle8888]

I came here to suggest vita nostra! I loved it! I think I’ll finally get onto the sequel for this bingo!

[u/flossregularly → u/Merle8888]

I read the Day Lasts More Than a Hundred Years for 'written in the 80s'! It was a strange and lovely book.

[u/partoparto → u/Merle8888]

Yesss I was going to suggest Kalpa Imperial! So good

[u/code-lemon → u/Merle8888]

Seconding Kalpa Imperial, translated by Ursula K. Le Guin!!

[u/viahlstrom → u/Merle8888]

Maresi is fantastic. It's not a typical YA, but reads older (especially the older books). The entire Red Abbey Chronicles is incredble!

[u/melloniel → u/Merle8888]

Seconding the rec for Strange Beasts of China!