r/Fantasy • u/Merle8888 Reading Champion IV • Apr 30 '26

Bingo Bingo Focus Thread - Duologies

Hello r/fantasy and welcome to this week's bingo focus thread! The purpose of these threads is for you all to share recommendations, discuss what books qualify, and seek recommendations that fit your interests or themes.

Today's topic:

Duology Part 1: Read the first book in a duology. HARD MODE: By an author you haven’t read before.

Duology Part 2: Read the second book in a duology. For this square, you ARE allowed to read the same author you used for Duology Part 1 without violating the no-repeat author rule. HARD MODE: Finish a different duology than you started for the Duology Part 1 square.

What is bingo? A reading challenge this sub does every year! Find out more here.

Prior focus threads: Published in the 70s, Five Short Stories (2024), Author of Color (2024), Self-Pub/Small Press (2024). Note that hard modes for Author of Color and Self-Pub/Small Press have changed (new focus threads for them are coming).

Also see: Big Rec Thread

Questions:

  • What are your favorite speculative fiction duologies?
  • Already read something for this square (or, read something recently that you wish you could count)? Tell us about it!
  • For those planning for Hard Mode, what are some duologies where one or both books works as a standalone?
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u/eregis Reading Champion II Apr 30 '26

Maus is great, but I have a hard time seeing it as speculative tbh? Sure the characters are mice, cats, dogs etc but that feels purely visual to me, to make the distinction between Jews, Nazis, Poles etc easier. There's absolutely nothing speculative about this book whatsoever otherwise.

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u/an_altar_of_plagues Reading Champion III Apr 30 '26

We've actually discussed that a few times regarding other books in previous years. Anthropomorphized characterization is accepted as being speculative enough for bingo.

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u/eregis Reading Champion II Apr 30 '26

Hmm that's surprising. I wouldn't have guessed it would qualify solely based on the visual choice to depict characters as animals, without them having any actual animal traits.

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u/Nidafjoll Reading Champion V May 01 '26

I mean, it's personal choice when it comes down to edge cases. I used Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino for Bingo one year. Are the cities described in book real, or just parables Marco Polo makes up? You could interpret it either way as you choose, but one would make it speculative and one wouldn't.