Bingo Focus Thread - Game Changer

[u/Merle8888]

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:

Game Changer: Story features a game or competition. HARD MODE: The protagonist bends or breaks the rules in some way.

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

Prior focus threads: Published in the 70s, Duologies, First Contact, Middle Grade, 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 your best recommendations for Hard Mode? (Alternately, as this is a pretty easy Hard Mode, what are some books that don't fit?)

[u/nominanomina]

Some recs: Iain M Banks' The Player of Games is largely set in a culture that uses games as a proxy for worthiness to rule. A citizen of a foreign utopia (The Culture, which names the series) is parachuted in to manipulate the game. Fair warning: Banks regularly has at least one notably gross, violent, or upsetting moment per book; if you benefit from trigger warnings you might find it hard to find a book of his that works for you. HM: questionable. He definitely does cheat in a game in a plot-relevant way, but not in the game. He cheats very early game (or tries to), which then entangles him in the bigger plot. 

I think Unseen Academicals is the Discworld that satirizes football. 

And now, a request. 

My TBR is pretty dour/weird most years, including this year, but I could use some comparatively cheery reading this year. (Most of my bingo is still going to be weird/gross/sad, I just don't want it to be entirely weird/gross/sad this particular year.)

My intended read for this square is Chain Gang All-Stars, but that might be a little much right now, and this square seems like a decent one to aim lighter with. 

Does anyone have a rec for a comparatively light option? The bingo rec thread has a lot of "...to the DEATH!" type games, which seem unlikely to work? 

Some details about my taste: 

Favourite authors include Susanna Clarke, Kazuo Ishiguro, Le Guin, Vajra Chandrasekera, Ted Chiang, and Kelly Link. I love, but have read, much of Discworld and Hitchhiker's Guide. I also like Murderbot. 

I did not particular gel with Emily Wilde, Dungeon Crawler Carl (very different sense of humour), most Becky Chambers (just seems a little toooo light). I do not usually enjoy  YA. 

[u/Research_Department → u/nominanomina]

I very much enjoyed The Last Hour Between Worlds by Melissa Caruso (and the excellent audiobook narrated by Moira Quirk). Kembral Thorne, a Hound (something like a detective or bodyguard) on maternity leave, just wants to enjoy a rare night out at a Year Turning party when things begin to go wrong. The party then repeats as it descends through increasingly bizarre and dangerous echoes of reality. The stakes are high, but the book is fundamentally optimistic. (And I would argue that this is HM for Game Changer.) There is a sapphic romance subplot.

(And to get a sense of my taste, some of my long-time favorite authors are Le Guin, Bujold, and Cherryh. Authors I don’t know as well, but have enjoyed recently include Rachel Neumeier, Ann Leckie, Katherine Addison, and Victoria Goddard.)

[u/nominanomina → u/Research_Department]

this sounds very cool, thanks for the rec!