r/fantasy Book Bingo 2024: 4 month check in

It’s been four months since I decided to take on the r/Fantasy Book Bingo challenge - you can check out my full plan and a bunch of recommendations right here - and now that I’m a third of the way into the challenge, it’s time for a check in.

As I’m writing right now it’s 11 August and I’ve read 101 books and I’ve ticked off 17 prompts.

I’ve been tracking the challenge on StoryGraph and you can join here and keep track of your progress. I will say, though, to take the recommendations under the challenges with a pinch of salt as a bunch of the titles that people have listed and used for their challenge are’t even fantasy, sci-fi or speculative fiction so tread with care…

r/Fantasy Book Bingo so far

1 - First in a Series

I started the ‘Wildcats’ series with ‘Stray' by Rachel Vincent. It’s a six book urban fantasy series from the 00s so it even meets Hard Mode (a series that’s longer than 3 books). It’s one that’s definitely feeling it’s age so while it’s an easy and compulsive read, there’s some wording, themes and speech that makes me cringe. I’m two books into the series now. 3 stars.

3 - Under the Surface

One of my favourite books of the year so far is ‘A Letter to the Luminous Deep’ by Sylvie Cathrall, set mostly underwater in a near future world where climate change has drowned the world and most people live on floating cities, but E lives underwater in her famous mother’s groundbreaking home. 5 stars! Book two in ‘The Sunken Archive’ series will be released in May 2025. this hit hard mode with more than 50% of the book set underwater.

4 - Criminals

Carryon strong with another of my favourites of 2024, Emily Hamilton’s debut ‘The Stars Too Fondly’ is a sapphic space opera rom-com about a group of friends who accidentally steal a spaceship. There’s an intriguing mystery, a kick-your-feet romance, found family, and some really fun space shenanigans. I’m really looking forward to seeing what comes next from Hamilton. 5 stars!

5 - Dreams

‘Ruthless Vows’ by Rebecca Ross was a bit of a disappointment to me after loving ‘Divine Rivals’ SO MUCH. I found it a bit too long and the book took me away from what I was reading the books for - the characters, their connection and their chemistry. I honestly just wanted less war and more kissing. This hit hard mode as the dreams were non-magical. 3 stars.

9 - Self-published or indie publisher

The second book in the Valek’s POV versions of the ‘Chronicles of Ixia’ series by Maria V Snyder, ‘The Study of Magic’, was a pure comfort read for me, retelling book two in the main series from Valek’s POV. There’s a lot of time in this book where Yelena and Valek are apart so a lot of it felt like a brand new story rather than a retelling. I love this world and I’m so happy I’m getting to revisit it. 4 stars.

10 - Romantasy

‘Apprentice to the Villain’ by Hannah Nicole Maehrer has been one of my most anticipated reads since I devoured ‘Assistant to the Villain’ in January and I absolutely loved it. This series is just pure fun. It’s funny, the chemistry between Evie and The Villain is electric, the danger and risk feels genuine and the plot and mythology of the world was really developed. I’m so mad I have to wait a year for book three. 4.5 stars!

12 - Multi-POV

I started another new series (it’s a problem) with ‘The Lost Hero’ by Rick Riordan. It’s the first book in ‘The Heroes of Olympus’ series and picks up about a year after the fifth Percy Jackson book. We’re introduced to a whole new cast of characters and a whole new camp and side of mythology with the introduction of the Romans with three POVs. Riordan’s books are always a fun time and I really love the audiobooks. 4 stars!

13 - Published in 2024

One of my favourite books of last year was Bea Fitzgerald’s debut, ‘Girl, Goddess, Queen’, and ‘The End Crowns All’ is her follow up novel set in the same world featuring Helen of Troy and Cassandra, and their world-changing love. This one is a lot more mythology heavy than 'Girl, Goddess, Queen’ and it took me a while to settle into it, but I still really enjoyed it and Fitzgerald is definitely an auto-buy author for me. 4 stars!

15 - Published in the 1990s

I’m currently reading through ‘The Realm of the Elderlings’ and luckily for me the first few books were published in the 1990s so I picked ‘Royal Assassin’ by Robin Hobb which was released in 1996. A truly spectacular series and I’m actually now done with the first trilogy and I’m going to dive into ‘The Liveship Traders’ next week! 4 stars.

16 - Orcs, Trolls and Goblins - Oh My!

This was one of the challenges that I thought I would struggle with the most, but luck would have that one of the urban fantasy series I’m currently reading through had some goblins pop up! ‘Silence Fallen’ by Patricia Briggs is the 10th Mercy Thompson book and one of the very best yet. I love this series and these characters so the goblins were very mcuh secondary characters, but I’m glad that I didn’t have to specifically read a book I wasn’t fussed by to try and hit this challenge. 4 stars.

17 - Space Opera

I’ve been having a real love affair with sci-fi over the last year or two and I’m currently reading through ‘The Expanse’ series and ‘Cibola Burn’ by James SA Corey is the 4th book in the series. I had a rocky experience with book three and book four pulled it back for me. This book really threw the world open and made me fall in love with it again. I’ve since read book five and that went even harder! 4 stars.

18 - Author of Colour

Kindle Unlimited delivered me a really hyped fantasy romance that I’d been seeing everywhere and I read ‘That Time I Got Drunk and Saved a Demon’ by Kimberley Lemming and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It’s incredibly silly and a bit cringe, but once I was in, I was in. Cinnamon goes on a quest with the demon she saved the life to save her town and has a heck of an adventure along the way. Super quick, super fun, and I’ll be reading the rest of the series. This hits hard mode as it’s a debut from the last five years. 4 stars.

19 - Survival

‘The Frugal Wizard's Handbook for Surviving Medieval England’ by Brandon Sanderson is the second of the Secret Projects, but the first one that I read. I’ve been reading them from the library and they all have different waits so I’ve read this, ‘The Sunlit Man’ (no. 4), and then ‘Yumi and the Nightmare Painter’ (no. 3). It’s been my favourite, even though it’d generally the least favourite. It’s silly and fun with a hefty dose of found family and some unexpected mysteries. This also hits hard mode as it contains no pandemics or super viruses. 4 stars!

21 - Set in a small town

This is another of those very hyped silly paranormal romances, but this one didn’t hit in the way that I’d hoped. ‘A Witch’s Guide to Fake Dating a Demon’ by Sarah Hawley is the first book in the ‘Glimmer Falls’ series, set in a small Washington town with an unusual amount of magic. It’s a bit silly and pretty cute, with some unexpected smut, and while I enjoyed it, I don’t know if I’ll continue with the series. 3 stars.

23 - Eldritch creatures

I thought that Eldritch creatures would be a tough one for me as it’s not really a section of horror that I usually dabble in, but it came up accidentally with ‘Your Blood’, My Bones’ by Kelly Andrew after her debut ‘The Whispering Dark’ was one of my favourite books of 2023. This I didn’t love nearly as much, but the tension, the horror and the atmosphere was was brilliant. It also hits hard mode as it’s not connected to Cthulu.

24 - Reference materials

Although I’m kind of made that a prequel was released before the series is even finished, I did read ‘Queen B’ by Juno Dawson. We’re taken back to Tudor England and Anne Boleyn’s creation of Her Majesty’s Royal Coven. This is an interest extra to the world, but it didn’t feel essential or like it added anything further to the two books in the series that I’ve already read. 3 stars.

25 - Readalong or Book Club book

I can’t quite believe that I actually read and enjoyed ‘Dune’ by Frank Herbert, but I did! I love the films but I’ve always been super intimidated by the books and the full cast audiobook was absolutely wonderful - there was music and everything! I’m so, so glad I read this and I have book two on hold from the library, but I’m still not sure if I’m going to read it or if I call it a win at reading this sci-fi classic. 4 stars.

I only have eight challenges left: Alliterative Title, Entitled Animals, Bards, Prologues and Epilogues, Dark Academia, Character with a Disability, Judge a Book by its Cover and Five SFF Short Stories.

I’ve really, really enjoyed doing this so far!

Written by Sophie