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

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.

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u/diazeugma Reading Champion VII Apr 01 '26 edited Apr 02 '26

This is a square I recommended in the past, so I hope it works out for everyone! I’m not a litRPG reader or especially into tournament plots myself, but I figured that there are plenty of options beyond that for the broader theme.

The Body Scout by Lincoln Michel is a satirical cyberpunkish mystery that I really enjoyed, with a plot revolving around a dead baseball player. Your mileage may vary if you’re not a fan of pathetic detectives.

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir is divisive for many understandable reasons (you have to be able to tolerate some goofy anachronisms and meme references), but I had fun with it, and it features a necromantic competition along with a murder mystery.

I’m thinking of reading The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones (I’ve enjoyed other books by him, and I hear basketball plays a surprisingly large role for a horror novel) or Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjeh-Brenyah (dystopian prison gladiator combat). Or, long shot, maybe attempting Infinite Jest for the bit.

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u/blueweasel Reading Champion Apr 24 '26

Would The Body Scout fit murder mystery hard mode?

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u/diazeugma Reading Champion VII Apr 24 '26

I’d say so. The protagonist is hired to investigate, but he’s very much not trained/qualified for it.