For the past few years, my habit has been to fill out two complete r/Fantasy Bingo cards. One has some theme or another (in 2025, it was Spot the Title), and the other doesn’t. Seeing as how the second is usually completed only near the end of the Bingo season, I’ve decided to postpone posting my second card until the release of 2026 Bingo, so that I can share the ways in which these books could fit Bingo in the new year.
My favorite thing on this card is Laila Lalami’s The Dream Hotel, followed closely by Thomas Ha’s Uncertain Sons and Other Stories. One of the best things about Bingo is the TBR churn, so I’m always especially interested in the best things I wouldn’t have read without getting a push from the Bingo board, and the title there goes to Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine, with an honorable mention to Tamora Pierce’s Lady Knight. But there’s a lot that I really loved on this year’s card. The Poet Empress, The Sign of the Dragon, Sublimation, The Memory Hunters. . . I could go on.
In the interests of helping other readers determine which of these they might enjoy, I’ve included brief mini-reviews of each book. But I also include links to my full reviews, where applicable. Check them out!
Knights and Paladins: Lady Knight by Tamora Pierce
- 2026 Squares: Politics.
- Mini-Review: The last in the Protector of the Small quartet sees the lead a knight grown, coming into a wartime command but still unfailingly committed to taking care of those who cannot care for themselves.
- Rating: 17/20.
Hidden Gem: The Cellar Below the Cellar by Ivy Grimes
- 2026 Squares: Small Press, Published in 2026, Feast Your Eyes on This.
- Mini-Review: An adult coming-of-age with weird, folk horror stylings, featuring a lead who must step out of her magical grandmother’s shadow after a geomagnetic storm knocks out electronics for the foreseeable future.
- Rating: 15/20.
Published in the 80s: Sheepfarmer’s Daughter by Elizabeth Moon
- 2026 Squares: Book Club, Politics.
- Mini-Review: The opening book in a much-heralded military fantasy series has some rough edges but wonderfully highlights the camaraderie in the lead’s company and delivers some harrowing scenes of life and death.
- Rating: 15/20.
High Fashion: A Sorceress Comes to Call by T. Kingfisher
- 2026 Squares: Book Club, The Afterlife, Older Protagonist.
- Mini-Review: As Kingfisher tales often do, this includes a quirky band who must work together to stop a great evil. That element is entertaining but unexceptional. The abusive parental relationship that gets the whole thing going? Terrifying, absolutely top-notch writing.
- Rating: 16/20.
Down With the System: The Memory Hunters by Mia Tsai
- 2026 Squares: Vacation Spot, Explorers and Rangers, Politics, Author of Color.
- Mini-Review: A suppressed history tale that sees an arrogant but supremely talented lead slowly come to realize the truth behind the fortune of her family and her nation.
- Rating: 17/20.
Impossible Places: The Incandescent by Emily Tesh
- 2026 Squares: Book Club, Politics.
- Mini-Review: A magic school novel from the perspective of one of the teachers, this feels firmly aimed at precocious millennials who now find themselves in a career of drudgery. Doesn’t offer too many surprises, but it’s well-written and fits enough beloved beats to make it a likely comfort read for the right audience.
- Rating: 16/20.
A Book in Parts: The Raven Scholar by Antonia Hodgson
- 2026 Squares: Book Club, Politics, Game Changer, Murder Mystery, Feast Your Eyes, Cat Squasher.
- Mini-Review: An epic fantasy with a romantasy accent, the twists and turns here make it compulsively readable, though the interpersonal drama can come on a bit strong and there are moments that make suspension of disbelief difficult.
- Rating: 15/20.
Gods and Pantheons: Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erikson
- 2026 Squares: Cat Squasher, Politics, The Afterlife, Book Club.
- Mini-Review: Sets up a sprawling fantasy world and delivers an excellent convergence between myriad plot threads, but inconsistent pacing inhibits the reader’s ability to develop emotional attachment to the characters.
- Rating: 14/20.
Last in a Series: Knife Children by Lois McMaster Bujold
- 2026 Squares: Explorers and Rangers, Politics.
- Mini-Review: A sequel to The Sharing Knife series featuring Bujold’s typical readability, two characters coming into maturity, and solving problems with words instead of weapons. A quick and engaging read, though one’s enjoyment may depend on how they interpret a foundational instance of magical questionable consent.
- Rating: 16/20.
Book Club or Readalong: The Sign of the Dragon by Mary Soon Lee
- 2026 Squares: Book Club, Politics, Cat Squasher, Author of Color.
- Mini-Review: A beautiful epic in verse featuring an unrelentingly kind-hearted protagonist whose selflessness makes him thoroughly lovable, even when it leads to tragedy.
- Rating: 18/20.
Parents: The Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami
- 2026 Squares: Politics, Author of Color.
- Mini-Review: A cousin of the deinstitutionalization novel, featuring a world where people are held in custody when a high-powered algorithm predicts they’re likely to commit a violent crime. This digs into the ways ordinary people can find themselves caught in the system and the terrifying power held by low-level enforcers who shape the collection of data. This isn’t fast-paced, but it had my heart racing the whole time.
- Rating: 20/20.
Epistolary: The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones
- 2026 Squares: Author of Color, Older Protagonist, Feast Your Eyes (in an unpleasant way)
- Mini-Review: An epistolary horror novel with a unique voice and a lot to say about the real-life horrors of America’s westward expansion, though with quite a bit more gore than I prefer.
- Rating: 15/20.
Published in 2025: Psychopomp and Circumstance by Eden Royce
- 2026 Squares: Unusual Transportation, The Afterlife, Author of Color.
- Mini-Review: A fantasy-of-manners set in a fantastical Reconstruction analogue, the rich setting and themes of making the difficult choices—especially over familial opposition—stand out, though the plot developments can sometimes come too easily.
- Rating: 15/20.
Author of Color: The Poet Empress by Shen Tao
- 2026 Squares: The Afterlife, Book Club, Published in 2026, Feast Your Eyes, Author of Color.
- Mini-Review: A rags-to-riches fantasy epic that feels influenced by romantasy without itself being romantasy. Intensely readable, with a sympathetic protagonist and a dangerous potential love-interest too cold-blooded for a simple redemption arc.
- Rating: 18/20.
Small Press or Self-Published: Bisection by Sheila Jenné
- 2026 Squares: Self-Published, First Contact, Non-human Protagonist, Politics.
- Mini-Review: A first-contact tale from the fascinating perspective of two people living inside one body. The details of the thriller plot sometimes underwhelm, but the lead characters make for a strong read regardless.
- Rating: 14/20
Biopunk: Dawn by Octavia E. Butler
- 2026 Squares: Unusual Transportation, First Contact, Author of Color, Politics.
- Mini-Review: A slow-building first contact novel that’s less visceral than some of Butler’s other works but is no less fascinating in the way it explores laughably unequal power dynamics.
- Rating: 16/20.
Elves and Dwarves: Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine
- 2026 Squares: Middle Grade.
- Mini-Review: Requires the suspension of disbelief one would expect in a middle-grade fairy tale, but this one is a joy to read, with a wonderfully clever premise and remarkable depth of characterization.
- Rating: 18/20.
LGBTQIA Protagonist: Outlaw Planet by M.R. Carey
- 2026 Squares: Unusual Transportation, Non-human Protagonist.
- Mini-Review: A stylized Western in an alternate universe peopled with anthropomorphic mammals and their arthropod steeds. It’s a fun gunslinger tale with a bit of spice added by the sci-fi mystery in the epistolary flashback segments.
- Rating: 15/20.
Five Short Stories: Uncertain Sons and Other Stories by Thomas Ha
- 2026 Squares: Five Short Stories, Author of Color.
- Mini-Review: The debut collection by one of the most exciting new authors in short fiction, this is meditative sci-fi/horror with plenty of reflections on memory, perception, and parenthood, unfailingly atmospheric and arranged in a way that makes the whole greater than the (already very good) parts.
- Rating: 19/20
Stranger in a Strange Land: The Bewitching by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
- 2026 Squares: The Afterlife, Author of Color.
- Mini-Review: A tense and immersive story of bewitchings both in 1900s Mexico and in a New England college town, with excellent synergy between all three timelines.
- Rating: 16/20.
Recycle a Bingo Square (Initials): Sublimation by Isabel J. Kim
- 2026 Squares: One-Word Title, Vacation Spot, Published in 2026, Author of Color, Politics.
- Mini-Review: An absolutely tremendous dive into the mind of a character literally split into two people upon childhood emigration from Korea, buttressed by a solid-but-unexceptional thriller plot.
- Rating: 17/20.
Cozy SFF: If Wishes Were Retail by Auston Habershaw
- 2026 Squares: Small Press, Politics.
- Mini-Review: A comedic fantasy about a djinn setting up a mall kiosk and hilariously misunderstanding contemporary American cultural norms is supplemented by a surprisingly poignant dive into immigrants working invisible jobs.
- Rating: 16/20
Generic Title: A Song of Legends Lost by M.H. Ayinde
- 2026 Squares: Author of Color, Cat Squasher, Politics.
- Mini-Review: The first entry in an epic fantasy trilogy starts and ends strong but flounders in the middle while spending too much time apart from the most compelling characters.
- Rating: 14/20.
Not a Book: Sinners by Ryan Coogler (director)
- Other 2025 Squares: N/A
- Mini-Review: A beautifully-made period piece that turns into a pretty solid horror movie—thrilling but with genre-standard oversimplifications.
- Rating: 17/20.
Pirates: Tress of the Emerald Sea by Brandon Sanderson
- 2026 Squares: Unusual Transportation
- Mini-Review: Sanderson’s usual fascination with magic systems blends into a fairy tale with a whimsical style and plenty of asides to the audience. The narrative voice will make or break the reader’s enjoyment here, but the lead is easy to cheer for and this could certainly appeal to readers new to the Cosmere.
- Rating: 15/20.