Reddit's FANTASY BOOK BINGO Challenge Explained!

Fantasy lovers, it’s time for another year of r/Fantasy’s Fantasy Book Bingo! 🎉 I missed out last year, but the 2025 Fantasy Book Bingo just dropped, and I’m diving in! In this video, I’ll break down how this year’s fantasy reading challenge works, go over my TBR list, and share some fantasy book recommendations that fit the bingo squares.

If you love epic fantasy, dark fantasy, cozy fantasy, sci-fi fantasy, indie fantasy, grimdark, progression fantasy, and everything in between, this challenge is a great way to discover new books and authors. Whether you're a fan of Brandon Sanderson, Robin Hobb, John Gwynne, N.K. Jemisin, Evan Winter, Travis Baldree, or Steven Erikson, there’s something here for you!

📖 Want to join the challenge? Check out r/Fantasy on Reddit for the official bingo card and rules!

🔔 Don’t forget to LIKE & SUBSCRIBE for more fantasy book content, including reviews, TBRs, and reading challenges!

[lucydade]

A wizard who travels in a trolley 😂 no other Youtuber makes me laugh out loud like you! Cant wait to see this challenge get underway

[GOGamingLair]

Good luck on your bingo challenge! I've just about sorted my own card, also trying to mostly stick with what was already on my TBR.

Not sure if The Grace of Kings counts for small press. Head of Zeus were independent back when The Grace of Kings was first published, but they are part of Bloomsbury now, and the square rules specifically say no Bloomsbury. If you care about the Bingo rules and the prize of a "Reading Champion" tag, you should probably at least ask the moderators about it.

I struggle with this square too, but having a Kindle Unlimited subscription should make things a bit easier, it's chock full of indie/self-pub books.

You also plan to use books by the same author for Epistolary and LGBTQI protagonist. This is against the rules - if you care about turning in your card at the end of the challenge. If you are just doing it as a self challenge, more power to you!

[phyllisd]

If you still are looking for short story recommendations, there’s Ray Bradbury’s Illustrated Man, Naomi Kritzer’s Cat Pictures Please and Other Stories, or Ken Liu’s The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories.

[ChrisJohnson-prjq]

The dragonbone chair is fantastic 🤘 but you will definitely want to read the rest of the series to get the most out it 🤘

[kristageorge]

Hunger games has big focus on clothes/costumes. For short stories -Ryan Cahill has a bunch of novellas that go with his series. After first book, you can read The Fall.

[Katie_knitting_snail]

For short stories, The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories ny Ken Liu is fantastic. Some fantasy, some scifi, some are both.

[Cherylof]

Highly recommend The Dragon Bone Chair!

[shadowcreature]

I love your vibe. Hope you have a great bingo year! For short stories I just finished how high we go in the dark. Last year I read norse mythology by neil gaiman. I also have the cold people on my tbr and never whitle at night.

[keepcalm]

The Egg by Andy Wier is a fabulous short story! He has a book of them the egg and other short stories

[johncrwarner]

I read Ursula K. Le Guin's
The Wind's Twelve Quarters
for my 1962 reading project
It is a collection of seventeen early sci-fi short stories
including "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas"
and "Winter's King" a story that developed into
"The Left Hand of Darkness".

It is like a sampler for some of her earlier sci-fi fantasy

[jenny_readss]

I did this last year, i think i read 3 of the books off the tbr i'd set! So swap things around through the year!

[EmmaOrgandie]

I've just sorted my card out - managed to fill most of the squares from my shelves and used the library for the majority of the others. Maybe I will actually complete it this time around, who knows! Happy reading ❤

[Magdalena]

My husband introduced me to fantasy when we first got married in our teens and I started out with the legend of Drizzt series then moved on to Dragon lance and have never found any other fantasy books i've loved like those worlds. I may try to do this to branch out again!

[CulinaryCrime]

The steam punk one was a challenge for me as well, so I will be reading Psalm For The Wild Built. Its a short read and I have so many friends who gave it a five star.

[charmainekaldwell]

I'm so excited I have 4 of the books you're going to read on my shelves too 😜 unread. So thanks for helping me with my book bingo list

[ghostly_bookish]

For someone who doesn’t do editing this was pretty professional looking 👀 you’re making me want to relook at the board and see if I can actually do it. Don’t forget that Terry Pratchett would count for 80/90s reads if you get sick of chunky fantasy! For the short stories I’d recommend the T Kingfisher Sworn Soldier books- there’s two I think out at the moment and they’re pretty good imo.. Also, Jeff Vandermeer might be a good shout too if you like weird! Your excitement for this challenge is palpable and now I wanna try 🤣🤣🤣 Good Luck Tyrone!

[lindsaywalker]

You got some chonkers in there! Some very thick books

[ChristopherKingston-dh]

Ohhh I received The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemision today. Hope you enjoy 😊

[coleenmorgan]

OMG! I just read The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea by Axie Oh this year and LOVED IT! Lots of good books you've picked IMO. As for short stories I can recommend Exhalation by Ted Chiang or Cursed edited by Marie O'Regan

[StardustandMadness]

I love the idea of this challenge! I want to participate so I’ve just spent the last two hours pausing and playing and pausing to write down the bingo challenges, but I probably won’t take it that seriously. I have books for most of them on my physical TBR so that’s great! I’m a super slow reader, so I might cheat and tick off several boxes with a single book.)

The short story one and the Biopunk I think are where I’ll struggle, but one of my author friends is about to be published in a horror anthology about haunted houses (This House is Not Ours - curated by Voices From the Mausoleum - if anyone is interested), so I’m hoping that’s fantasy enough to count! I was hoping to finally read The Witcher, and one of them is a collection of ‘short’ stories or novellas, but there isn’t five. Another of my author friends has self published a book written in 3-parts, with only 44 ratings on Goodreads so I might cheat and tick off three boxes with his first book.