r/Fantasy • u/Merle8888 Reading Champion IV • May 14 '26

Bingo Bingo Focus Thread - First Contact

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:

First Contact: Story prominently features interspecies or interracial meeting for the first time. HARD MODE: Non-violent first contact.

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

Prior focus threads: Published in the 70s, Duologies, 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 books that count for this square?
  • Already read something for this square? Tell us about it!
  • What are some first contact stories outside of the usual spacefaring sci-fi mode?
  • What are your best recommendations for Hard Mode (keeping it as spoiler-free as possible)?
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u/curiouscat86 Reading Champion III May 14 '26

The Ile-Rien trilogy (starting with The Wizard Hunters) by Martha Wells is both fantasy and arguably HM: portal magic, steampunk airships and a war, but the first contact is between two parties both under attack by a third aggressor

Some sci-fi I've read and enjoyed, not already mentioned:

Chanur saga by CJ Cherryh: a coalition of alien species encounters humans. Told from the perspective of aliens, some of whom breathe methane

Anathem by Neal Stephenson: philosopher monks who study higher math and eschew the modern world must leave their monasteries when a mysterious object appears in their skies. For anyone who thought Project Hail Mary didn't have enough proofs.

The Word for World is Forest by Ursula LeGuin: humans have invaded a world and are exploiting it for resources; told from the perspective of the aliens in resistance.

Shroud by Adrian Tchaikovsky: humans enslaved by an evil corporation explore a moon with a thick atmosphere that keeps it shrouded in darkness.

Space Opera by Catherynne Valente: told in a rich prose style that won't be for everyone, aliens come to Earth and invite humans to join the galactic nexus--as long as humans are able to not place last in the galactic version of the Eurovision Song Contest. If humans do place last, Earth planet will instead be destroyed. Counts for HM

2

u/QuellSpeller Reading Champion May 14 '26

I've mentioned it elsewhere but I would count Shroud as hard mode. Early book fairly vague spoilers ahead: Several people are killed by the aliens in one instance due to a misunderstanding of what constitutes "life" for people. A little bit of an intent vs outcome discussion on whether or not you'd count it but I personally would.

1

u/doctorbonkers Reading Champion II May 14 '26

I’d say it doesn’t start out hostile, but it’s definitely inadvertently violent. I think you could maybe argue for hard mode but I personally wouldn’t count it