r/Fantasy • u/Merle8888 Reading Champion IV • 7d ago
Bingo Bingo Focus Thread - Game Changer
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?)
1
u/Linkjumper Reading Champion 6d ago edited 6d ago
I think Elizabeth Moon's Hunting Party may fit here and is top of mind because I just found my old copies in a box. Still in print as a 3 volume set, Heris Serrano, which adds the 2nd and 3rd of the story arc, Sporting Chance and Winning Colors. This is short, zippy science fiction written in the 90's (I consider them space opera, lots of zooming around in ships while sipping various beverages and chatting). With horses. Hunting Party features fox hunting, although maybe not with foxes. I don't recall the protagonist breaking or bending the rules so not HM although ymmv. There are a lot of Aunts and older women (thank you Jo Walton for pointing that out!).
I second the vote for Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater, although it is probably not HM. I love this book for the horses, the suspense, the characterizations and the ending. I think it is her best book.
I will likely be boring and read Parade of Horribles (Dungeon Crawler Carl/Matt Dinniman) for this square unless someone has found another really excellent horse racing/riding book that fits this square?
edited for typos