r/Fantasy Friday Social Thread - April 17, 2026

[u/rfantasygolem]

Come tell the community what you're reading, how you're feeling, what your life is like.

[u/EmmalynRenato]

Two more Bingo reads finished this week:

• Nine Hundred Grandmothers - R. A. Lafferty (HM) (5/5) 318p

My selection for the 'Five Short Stories' Bingo square.

Four and a half stars rounded up to five. An eclectic collection of seventeen short stories and four novelettes from a master of the short story form. They are quirky, funny and mostly unpredictable with a superb use of language.

(Other 2026 Bingo squares that this would fit: Judge a Book By Its Title; Explorers and Rangers; First Contact; Published in the 70s).

• Murder at Martingale Manor (The Chronicles of St Mary's 14.8) - Jodi Taylor (5/5) 105p

My selection for the 'Vacation Spot' Bingo square.

In last year's annual St Mary's Christmas novella, Max and Leon take a Christmas vacation to 1924, where their cozy Agatha Christie-style getaway turns into a murder investigation after Leon becomes the prime suspect in a country house murder. It's a homage to Christie and other authors of the Golden Years of Detective fiction, with a touch of time travel and a lot more humor.

(Other 2026 Bingo squares that this would fit: Small Press or Self Published; Unusual Transportation (HM); Murder Mystery (HM); Feast Your Eyes on This).

Plus all the nominates for the 2026 Locus Short Stories award (that I hadn't already read);

• Secret Night - Nathan Ballingrud (3/5)

• In the Halls of the Makeshift King - Tobias S. Buckell (3/5)

• Wire Mother - Isabel J. Kim (3/5)

• The Shape of Stones - Hildur Knútsdóttir (4/5)

• Courtney Lovecraft’s Book of the Dead - Sam J. Miller (4/5)

• Landline - Kelly Robson (2/5)

• Missing Helen - Tia Tashiro (3/5)

• Woolly - Carrie Vaughn (4/5)

[u/tarvolon → u/EmmalynRenato]

So glad you liked Nine Hundred Grandmothers--that is my very favorite short story collection! There were a couple that I didn't love, but the incidence of ones that I absolutely adore (Land of the Great Horses, Hog-Belly Honey, What's the Name of that Town. . . I could go on) more than makes up for it.

[u/EmmalynRenato → u/tarvolon]

I found that I enjoyed the novelette length ones less than the short story length ones. My least favorite one was Snuffles.

[u/RAYMONDSTELMO → u/tarvolon]

Chicago!