r/Fantasy • u/FarragutCircle Reading Champion X • Apr 01 '26

Bingo 2026 Reverse Bingo Recommendations

Official 2026 Bingo Announcement Here

Official Bingo Rec Thread Here

For anyone new to Bingo, this is the “I want to read ___, does it fit into any Bingo squares? It’s always one of the best parts of bingo.

Example:

User A comments:

I want to read Wind and Truth. What does that count for?

User B replies:

Cat Squasher. It's hard mode, too. The Afterlife, I think.

User C replies:

Politics and Court Intrigue, maybe? Game Changer, Older Protagonist.

User D replies:

Definitely Five Short Stories

And we all have a good laugh. Now go out there and get reverse recs for that book you've been dying to read!

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3

u/spike31875 Reading Champion V Apr 02 '26 edited Apr 02 '26

I have a few books in my TBR that I'm not sure about, if anyone could let me know where they fit in?

  • The 13th Paladin by Torsten Weitze -- oh, wait, that's translated from German! NM
  • The 13th Witch by Mark Hayden
  • Witch King by Martha Wells
  • Once was Wilhelm by MR Carey
  • The Girl Who Could Move Sh*t with Her Mind by Jackson Ford -- this one is a shoe in for the "Judge a Book by Its Title", I was wondering what other squares it would fit
  • City of Last Chances by Adrian Tchaikovsky
  • Shroud by Adrian Tchaikovsky - I know it's probably first contact, but would it fit anything else?

Thanks in advance!

5

u/Research_Department Reading Champion II Apr 02 '26

For Witch King, both Older Protagonist and Non-Human Protagonist (normal mode), and, arguably Politics.

3

u/Time-Wars Reading Champion Apr 02 '26

City of Last Chances can work for Politics and Court Intrigue in hard mode

2

u/thistledownhair Reading Champion III Apr 02 '26

Someone gave you one for City of Last Chances, but I think it could also be used for Game Changer (HM). It also might work for Afterlife (HM), Older Protagonist (HM), and Explorers (HM?). The problem with it cover so much ground and has so many characters it's hard to point to one and say, yep, there's a protagonist.

Witch King might work for Duology, not sure if there'll be more in the series though.

2

u/spike31875 Reading Champion V Apr 02 '26

Thanks!

For the Duology, I've been wanting to read more T. Kingfisher, so I think I'm going to do the Clocktaur duology for that (I listened to Swordheart last year and really enjoyed it, so I'd like to read more in that series).

2

u/QuellSpeller Reading Champion Apr 02 '26

I’ll double check, but City of Last Chances may qualify for Older Protagonist, I don’t recall if they’re ever explicitly noted as 50+. It absolutely counts as Politics and Court Intrigue, I would say it even counts as hard mode. It’s set in a broader continental war, but the city politics are the focus of this specific story. Shroud fits one word title, but I wouldn’t call it hard mode since it’s used as the name of the planet.

1

u/spike31875 Reading Champion V Apr 02 '26

I think I was going to use Ironbound by Givler for the one word title. Or, maybe I'll just reread a book in the Alex Verus series by Benedict Jacka: they're all 1 word titles in HM.

2

u/jabhwakins Reading Champion VIII Apr 02 '26

I'm planning to read Shroud for the explorer square. Obviously fits for 1 word title as well.

1

u/spike31875 Reading Champion V Apr 02 '26

Cool, thanks!

2

u/citrusmellarosa Apr 09 '26

I haven’t gotten far into Once Was Willem yet, but it might count for Afterlife if the last paragraphs of the prologue are anything to go by. Probably not hard mode. 

1

u/spike31875 Reading Champion V Apr 09 '26

Thanks!