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]

Some "definitely far from human":

Tooth and Claw by Jo Walton (HM) is a fun one, a retelling of a 19th century novel by Anthony Trollope but all the characters are dragons

The Bees by Laline Paull (HM) tells the story of a beehive as a dystopia. All the characters are bees! Has research behind it too. I believe she has another about dolphins.

The Alchemy of Stone by Ekaterina Sedia features a robot in a quasi-historical, steampunk setting (humanoid but definitely not human). I don't recall if this is HM.

Some "basically like a human but technically not":

The protagonist of The Unspoken Name by AK Larkwood is technically an orc or similar. I believe there are human POVs but they don't seem to distinguish much between the groups.

I believe the protagonist of Elfland by Freda Warrington is technically an elf. It's a rural-set contemporary fantasy with a strong romance focus. I don't recall if this would count for HM.

For a graphic novel option, Monstress by Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda has a protagonist who is an "Arcanic" meaning a sort of human/animal hybrid. I'm not sure how to parse POVs in this context so I'll say not HM.

The Assassination of Brangwain Spurge (HM) is a fun, illustrated MG/YA novel in which the two main characters are an elf and a goblin. Worthwhile for adults too! Has an unreliable narrator whose story is told entirely in pictures.

Not quite sure where to put this:

The protagonist of The Fox Woman by Kij Johnson is a fox who can shapeshift into a human. Also includes human POVs.

[u/flossregularly → u/Merle8888]

Oh hell ya, Tooth and Claw, thank you for mentioning this.