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For the past few years, I've been doing two r/Fantasy Bingo cards each year: one themed card, and one regular card. I finished my 2023 themed card back in 2023, but with my regular card coming so close to the deadline, I decided to hold my full review so that I could highlight which squares each selection would fit in 2024 . 

So let's take a look at my second 2023 Bingo card, complete with ratings, mini-reviews, and places you can use them for this year's Bingo board. I have to caveat that some of these books have been read as much as a year ago, and my memory may not be perfect. If I'm unsure about a square, I've tried to default to not mentioning it, so it's possible these books could fit more than I've listed. 

Title With a Title: The Daughter of Doctor Moreau by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

• 2024 Squares: Alliterative Title, Character with a Disability, Author of Color, Judge a Book By Its Cover, Book Club
• Mini-review: It’s an Island of Doctor Moreau telling with the addition of a beauty kept isolated by her reclusive father. Suitors come, drama ensues. The main story is fairly straightforward, but the prose is lovely and the themes—particularly around religion and the Problem of Evil—are fascinating. The most pleasant surprise in last year’s Hugo reading. 
• Rating: 17/20. 

Superheroes: Any Minor World by Craig Schaefer

• 2024 Squares: First in a Series, Dreams, Self-Published. 
• Mini-review: A cross between a noir and a superhero thriller, with an intriguing animating mystery, breakneck pacing, and plenty of metafictional elements. I’m not much of a thriller guy, but this kept me invested. 
• Rating: 15/20. 

Bottom of the TBR: The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

• 2024 Squares: Alliterative Title (hard mode), Book Club. 
• Mini-review: This horror classic relies heavily on atmosphere and uncertainty and very little on gore, which helped suck in even a squeamish reader. It’s a terrifying and fascinating descent into madness—easy to see how it became a titan of the genre. 
• Rating: 18/20.

Magical Realism/Literary Fantasy: Three Eight One by Aliya Whiteley

• 2024 Squares: Published in 2024, Reference Materials.
• Mini-review: It’s a strange and aimless quest narrative heavily annotated by a reader from several centuries in the future. Thematically interesting and often engaging, but perhaps more often mystifying. 
• Rating: 13/20. 

Young Adult: Girl Squad Volta by Maya Lin Wang

• 2024 Squares: First in a Series, Self-Published, Author of Color.
• Mini-review: This short novel plays pretty close to the tropes, but if you’re here for middle school girls discovering hidden powers and having to save the day, you’re in for a fun ride. 
• Rating: 15/20. 

Mundane Jobs: Starling House by Alix E. Harrow

• 2024 Squares: Reference Materials (hard mode), Small Towns (hard mode), Under the Surface, Judge a Book By Its Cover.
• Mini-review: Despite horror marketing, this is much more a fantasy story with Gothic aesthetics, featuring a small Kentucky town with a dark secret and a heap of dastardly rich white men. There’s not much mystery as to the villains, but Harrow’s storytelling makes for an excellent and often beautiful tale. 
• Rating: 17/20. 

Published in the 00s: Warchild by Karin Lowachee

• 2024 Squares: Space Opera (hard mode), POC Author, First in a Series, Character with a Disability (hard mode).
• Mini-review: Pulling Warchild off the eternal TBR was one of the biggest wins of the Bingo year. It’s a solid military sci-fi and an outstanding character study of an abused orphan growing up in the midst of war. This gets heavy, but it’s a fantastic read. 
• Rating: 18/20. 

Angels and Demons: Even Though I Knew the End by C.L. Polk

• 2024 Squares: POC Author, Book Club. 
• Mini-review: This queer period noir novella delivers a tremendously immersive narrative voice alongside a competent mystery and an often-frustrating main character. The story is solid, but the storytelling is the star here. 
• Rating: 15/20.

Five Short Stories: Lost Places by Sarah Pinsker

• 2024 Squares: Five Short Stories (hard mode).
• Mini-review: I've been a big fan of Pinsker’s writing since I first read “Two Truths and a Lie” as part of the inaugural Hugo Readalong, and that doesn’t change here. There are a pair of Hugo winners and plenty of other winners, mostly set in too-real near-futures or in uncanny, liminal spaces. There’s one weak story here, and everything else ranges from good to mind-blowing. 
• Rating: 18/20.

Horror: What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher

• 2024 Squares: Book Club, First in a Series, Under the Surface.
• Mini-review: This is a “The Fall of the House of Usher” retelling that replaces some of the unexplained horror with a little more plot backbone. The storytelling is as good as always from Kingfisher, but there’s no real secret about where the story is going, and she doesn’t quite match the original on pure atmosphere. 
• Rating: 15/20. 

Self-Published: Apocalypse Parenting by Erin Ampersand

• 2024 Squares: Self-Published, First in a Series, Survival (hard mode), Judge a Book By Its Cover, Reference Material. 
• Mini-review: I didn’t have prior experience with the litRPG subgenre, but this was a delightfully endearing example. It’s paced like a serial, which I think is genre standard but sometimes threw me off, but the depiction of family in the apocalypse was exceptional. If you’re looking for a “how would regular people act in a wild SFF scenario” book, this is the one for you. 
• Rating: 15/20.

Middle Eastern Setting: Alif the Unseen by G. Willow Wilson

• 2024 Squares: Criminals, Dreams. 
• Mini-review: A magical technothriller set in Arabia, this takes a lot of common storytelling tropes and tells them in a fresh new setting loaded with djinn and computer programming that may be as much magic as science. 
• Rating: 15/20. 

Published in 2023: Blade of Dream by Daniel Abraham

• 2024 Squares: Eldritch Creatures (hard mode).
• Mini-review: Fans of Abraham’s work know what to expect here—a slow build focusing on characters that may not always be the movers and shakers in their society, gradually opening up into an epic plot. This sequel to Age of Ash retells the story from a new perspective that reveals still more pieces of the main plot. It requires some patience for plot-focused readers, but the storytelling quality is high and it’s plenty rewarding. 
• Rating: 17/20. 

Multiverse: The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi

• 2024 Squares: Book Club.
• Mini-review: This reads like an intensely quippy summer blockbuster in book form, complete with the smarmiest and most punchable villain available. That’s not a style I tend to like, and this one was too over-the-top (with characters a bit too samey) to change my mind, but it’s certainly easy to blast through in a hurry. 
• Rating: 11/20. 

POC Author: Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah

• 2024 Squares: POC Author (hard mode), Survival (hard mode), Multi-POV (hard mode), Criminals, Character with a Disability (hard mode), Reference Materials. 
• Mini-review: An absolute brutal book, but also the best thing I read in 2023. An incisive critique of the American prison system by means of a gladiatorial game, with a broad cast of well-developed characters reminiscent of litfic and a devastating main plot. And apparently it’s a 2024 Bingo all-star. 
• Rating: 19/20. 

Book Club: Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree

• 2024 Squares: Goblins Orcs and Trolls (hard mode), Alliterative Title, First in a Series, Book Club. 
• Mini-review: This is clearly meant as a pleasant and low-stakes book about an orc who abandons adventuring to open a coffee shop, and it largely succeeds at being pleasant and low-stakes. Unfortunately, it suffers from a structural issue I more often see in thrillers, where the reader is thrust into the plot before being given enough character background to generate real investment into what happens. 
• Rating: 13/20.

Novella: Nothing But the Rain by Naomi Salman

• 2024 Squares: Small Towns (hard mode), Survival (hard mode), Dreams (hard mode), Character with a Disability (hard mode).
• Mini-review: A short, epistolary novella about a town where the rain washes away memory. This is exactly the kind of unusual narrative structure that I so often love, and Nothing But the Rain delivered in spades, with a premise that generates immediate intrigue and builds to a devastating conclusion. 
• Rating: 18/20.

Mythical Beasts: The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett 

• 2024 Squares: Published in 2024, Character with a Disability (hard mode). 
• Mini-review: While many fantasy murder mysteries eschew the hallmarks of the mystery genre, this truly does feel like a genderbent Sherlock Holmes in a weird fantasy world, with a gripping central mystery and plenty of political implications in the midst of a leviathan attack that threatens the survival of everyone involved. 
• Rating: 17/20. 

Elemental Magic: Witch King by Martha Wells

• 2024 Squares: Under the Surface, Book Club.
• Mini-review: An ambitious standalone epic fantasy with a found family at its core, Witch King splits the story between two timelines featuring a very similar cast of characters. The dual timeline structure allows for a real thematic resonance between the storylines, but it also makes the character development feel choppy enough that I was never able to fully settle into the story. 
• Rating: 10/20. 

Myths and Retellings: Ganger by Wole Talabi

• 2024 Squares: Published in 2024, POC Author.
• Mini-review: This short novella presents a familiar dystopia, in which the masses are given shelter from a deadly environment at the cost of 24/7 surveillance and life in a servant class. This story of a girl given the opportunity for adventures off the grid, however, gains a whole new dimension when interspersed with a classic West African folktale with tremendous thematic resonance. 
• Rating: 16/20.

Queernorm Setting: Saint Death’s Daughter by C.S.E. Cooney

• 2024 Squares: Book Club, Character with a Disability (hard mode), Reference Materials (hard mode), Judge a Book by Its Cover, First in a Series, Alliteration, Under the Surface. 
• Mini-review: The prose here—along with the amusing footnotes detailing increasingly absurd deaths in the lead’s family history—is the first thing to catch the eye, but the story grows in to a wonderful tale of a woman trying to protect what’s left of her family while dealing with the fallout of their unsavory past. While also necromancing. 
• Rating: 18/20. 

Coastal Setting: The Mimameid Solution by Katherine Kempf

• 2024 Squares: Under the Surface (hard mode), First in a Series, Self-Published (hard mode), Character with a Disability. 
• Mini-review: This fight for survival in post-apocalyptic Scandinavia builds a little bit slower than it should, but it’s easy reading with at least one eminently likeable lead. 
• Rating: 13/20. 

Druids: Wise Child by Monica Furlong

• 2024 Squares: Small Town (hard mode), Dreams, Under the Surface. 
• Mini-review: While there’s too much danger to truly call this cozy fantasy, this slow-paced tale of a young girl studying language, nature, healing, and magic under the tutelage of the distrusted village witch certainly has some leanings in the cozy direction. It’s quietly beautiful, with conflicts of the deeply human variety, many self-inflicted by a young lead who remains at many times childish. 
• Rating: 17/20. 

Robots: Replacement by Jordan Rivet

• 2024 Squares: Self-Published, First in a Series.
• Mini-review: This moves a bit quickly through some of the interpersonal elements, but fans of young adult sci-fi thrillers need look no farther than this propulsive page-turner about a clone seeking answers about her own history and the mysterious death of her long-lost batchmate. 
• Rating: 14/20. 

Sequel: Mammoths at the Gates by Nghi Vo

• 2024 Squares: Entitled Animals, POC Author, Bards.
• Mini-review: The prose is as good as always for the Singing Hills Cycle, but this entry feels like it’s trying to cram a bit too much into the novella form. The study of grief, however, is tremendous and is worth the price of admission, even if the mammoths themselves sometimes feel like a distraction. 
• Rating: 16/20.

Complementing the 2023 Bingo Stats (extended), plots!

This year's histograms

I don't believe these need much commentary:

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Year-over-year stats

Please note that the Y axes are not fixed at 0. Maybe next year I'll figure out how to scale these a bit better.

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Based on these two plots, maybe we need more "Set entirely in a forest" hard modes and fewer "Not Jeff VanderMeer"? (OK, maybe not quite as hard as the forest HM...)

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I expect this is simply a consequence of the fact that with more participants, there are more people reading the popular books.

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22% to 25% hero mode is pretty significant, especially when you consider the change in participant count.

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Is Bingo pushing people to read more, or are the people reading a lot filling out more cards, or are the people reading a lot just now joining in? Unfortunately, I don't have granular card-per-participant data, which might give us some answers.

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Having to correct 32% of the entries rather than 35% is... better. I suppose.

Table of Contents: Skip around if you like. Sorry for the length.

1. Why I liked this book so much

2. Characters I Loved

3. Characters I was 50/50 on

4. Characters I hated

5. Small Things I liked

6. Small Things I disliked

7. Conclusion

8. Why I liked this book so much

As the title suggests, I really liked this book, mainly because of certain characters and the simplistic world design they live in, so this review will mostly character focused. I don’t know whether its me or if I’m getting older or more sensitive, but this book took a sledgehammer to my empathetic bone. I would take breaks after certain scenes to vent when something upset me, get depressed when a favorite character would be in pain and would even have fan fiction self insert story in my head on how I would handle situations in the story. Very few stories have affected me like this and I felt like I had to share my strong feelings on it and hopefully convince anyone reading this to give this story a shot.

2. Characters I Loved

I was surprised how strangely relatable and sympathetic certain characters were in this story that really stood out to me. I think what helps was the simplistic medieval world with little overt magic, misunderstood alien cultures, false histories and belief systems that make it justifiable to partake in wanton cruelty on a whim. And the main and side characters have a nice unique perspective on the world for the most part. Making their motivations believable and actions justifiable from their point of view no matter how flawed their logic is.

2.1 Timozel

Tim is one of my favorite characters in this story, mainly because of his place in the story. He comes off in this story as the Anakin Skywalker of this story, where you can definitely see his trajectory to becoming a villain along the way. Mostly because he's being manipulated by magical means, but still put in this position where his ultimate fall is going to be his own fault. Which I think is great when it comes to a tragic potential hero turned villain despite his belief that he is the hero of the story. Tim was the strongest character when I came to tugging on my empathy strings, with his anguish and resentment very relatable when you consider his circumstances. He has this weird stepson/subordinate relationship with his commander Axis with his mother Embeth being Axis’ on and off again lover. But its written in a way that is open ended so that Axis could be intentionally holding back Tim because of his friendship with Embeth or Axis does think that little of Timozel due to his youth. Which I think was nicely written with small scenes of tension between him and Axis not respecting Timozel that gets the ball rolling for his journey down a dark path. But I couldn’t stop myself from taking Tim’s side because of the family and the antagonistic relationship with the sentinels that push him unknowingly into the clutches of evil.

2.2 Boernhold

So Boernhold is a character I never thought I would understand on an emotional level, let alone actually like the guy seeing as he presented to be as hate-able as possible. Now I am not defending this guy for the heinous shit he does, but I can see how a person can get to what he is based on how he was nurtured. And I think Boernhold has one of the few duel personalities that is believable, meaning we get to see what he tries to portray versus what he actually feels. On one hand he is portrayed as this strong, virile, hot tempered crown prince with the plan, but in reality he is a shrewd, smart but insecure man. That’s what makes him to so relatable and kind of heartbreaking that he has to be that strong man that puts himself at odds with his brother Axis. For they are more alike then either would admit but they both have illogical reasons of insecurity and jealousy that prevent them from being on the same side.

2.3 Stardrifter

Now this was I think the best character hands down in the story despite being in only a handful of chapters in the final third of the book. But his story affected me so much I could pretty much remember every appearance and mentioning of Stardrifter in this book. Anyways his story is a story that many of us can relate to of being a rash unbridled youth fucking up his future self with dumb, questionable and unfortunate actions that lead to the conflict of this series. He is responsible for starting the lives of the main antagonist and main protagonist lives to eventually crash into each other. And when he finds out what he responsible for, he has an absolute mental breakdown which is understandable, but he has no choice but to embrace his fuck up and dive head first into fixing it. Stardrifter has this strange quality that makes him so endearing in my eyes for his devotion as a father, husband, leader that gives off this maturity despite his playboy attitude he is presented to by third person accounts from other characters.

2.4 Rivakah

Oh boy my favorite bad mother of this story has arrived and man does she have some baggage from her life as a princess and later as the wife of Stardrifter. Now my opinion is subjective but I do believe she is a terrible person in the way she is presented as an uncaring mother to her first son Boernhold and the sometimes absentee mother of her daughter EvenSong. The scene that made this so evident to me is her immediate impulse to chuck(not literally) baby Boernhold to the side just to get railed by Stardrifter when they first meet and he is just wailing for her the whole time. Yet this is her past, baring one scene where EvenSong resents her parents when they become so happy her half brother is alive and the chosen one and they kind of forget her for that day but moving on. Rivakah similarly to Stardrifter has to now deal with the revelations of her past. Now she can no longer runaway anymore from the guilt, pain and inferiority she feels anymore and I’m hoping with her story I get a redemption arc as both a parent and wife.

3. Characters I was 50/50 on

Now these characters are in my opinion good but they are unfortunately hampered by the nature of the plot and the structure the author went with, so I can’t really say I’m fully invested in them by the end. Which is a shame since these three characters are the protagonists who get overshadowed in my eyes by the more interesting side characters.

3.1 Axis

Axis is the first protagonist and has the weird position of being a likable asshole, to being a complete unwarranted dickhead that makes me roll my eyes. So what I found interesting from his story was learning of his lineage and parents and his unique abilities that he isn't able to properly use yet. As well as being the equivalent of a Christian Inquisitor/Knight Templar who is ironically the very thing that he was sworn to destroy, which makes for an interesting conflict. Now the setup as the bastard brother and chosen one isn’t a bad thing but he is completely hindered by the prophecy gimmick just like the next characters which leads to my main problem. Despite having the most page allocation it feels like half the time his journey is filler that doesn’t lead to much development.

3.2 Faraday

Our other main protagonist has a great start as the sympathetic young noble girl with no real life experience that is getting thrown into the deep end of the world shes apart of and the horrible role she has to play in the destiny. It was her character that started my first few empathy bursts of emotion, triggering my dormant feminist beliefs and making me so angry at other characters for putting her down for lamenting her roll in the story. Now Faraday unfortunately has an incomplete arc where she starts as resistant to the prophecy to being an absolute believer way to quickly, killing any natural flow of acceptance. And it really doesn’t help that Faraday is being yanked by an invisible leash to where she needs to be as required by the story, which really neuters the dramatic moments in her second half.

3.3 Azhure

Azhure is the best of these three but she unfortunately has the reverse problem of Faraday where she has a convoluted introduction to the story but has a strong finish at the end of the book. And sadly she is introduced way too late in my opinion to fully get into her character, despite being in a sympathetic situation. And I think her big heroic moment that puts her into a revered status is kind of stretching believe-ability with how simple the requirement for the moment was, but its not egregious or anything. However that being said her portion of the book is the more interesting from readers perspective that allows to see each sides cultural/religious aspects and how she is isolated from both sides of the conflict due to her justified actions.

4. Characters I hated

I need to qualify before I start tearing into these two groups that I have problems with the first group of characters due to personal morality. And the second group pisses me off because they’re responsible for most of my empathy triggers for other characters and my put the book down moments to vent.

4.1 The Avar except Ruam

The Avar are one of the non human races that are suppose to be these monstrous fiends of pure evil and turns out they’re not, they’re worse in my opinion. These peaceful wandering tribes people are a race of pacifist to the point that self defense is still considered an unforgivable crime. Now full discloser I don’t like them because in my personal opinion, pacifism is evil in its own right, it is allowing evil to thrive and it come off as this haughty self righteousness that I hate in people. Now to be fair there is a contradiction that makes them hypocrites and that could be interesting if explored but I don’t think its going to happen.

4.2 The Sentinels(WARNING RANT INCOMING)

Holy fucking shit I hate these mother fuckers and their boo hoo woe is us, you don’t have any right to complain about your role in the prophecy because we have it soooooooo much worse. So yes I don’t like these people because they are the holders of the other characters leashes that turns whole prophecy plot turn into my most hated part of this story. The two brothers whose names I don’t care to remember yank Axis’s chain with unhelpful prophecy jargon and unfunny quirky behavior. Yr come off as a voyeuristic rapist towards Timozel and Faraday with her flippant violation of personal space and agency. Jack earns my pure rage for his mere existence as the biggest whipped bitch destiny slave who is from my point of view solely responsible for the lions share of the unneeded anguish and drama for Faraday and Timozel that the sentinels have pushed unto them.

5. Small Things I liked

5.1 The Icarii are a non human avian race who have this unique strange charismatic aura that makes humans and Avar alike be attracted to them. It does feel like it’s an unnatural ability and makes Stardrifter’s situation more impactful as an Icarii playboy.

5.2 I like the religious opposition and symbology that feeds into the shaping of how not only each of the races feel but effect the actual geography of the land.

5.3 The moment when the Charonite Ferryman absolutely wrecks Stardrifter’s ego while being Rivakah’s therapist with actual good advice for both of them considering thier problems.

5.4 Beliel needs more page time and doesn’t put up with Axis bitchy moments.

5.5 I really like Embeth who represents the established attitude of a seasoned member of the nobility and explaining the joys and sorrows that await Faraday despite having silent pity for Faraday having a much shittier husband than her. Makes Embeth seem like the most realistic to the setting character in the whole book in my opinion.

5.6 The magic system is pretty unique being almost pure vocal or song based from what I can tell and its rare so it feels special when magic does happen.

6. Small Things I disliked

6.1 Too long of a prologue despite that aha moment when you piece togather everyone evolved later in the book. The general feel of this book has this weird feeling it gives me that its either too long or not long enough.

6.2 Too many inconsequential characters and moments that could have made my 50/50 characters get more complete character arcs.

6.3 I wish the forbidden races(Avar and Icarii) had a little more edge to them, because the humans are evil everyone is good trope is getting old for me these days.

6.4 The Axe Wielders turning their back on their religion makes no sense despite their being exposed to the “truth.” They from my mind are the Knights Templar of this world who should be almost fanatically opposed to this “truth.”

7. Conclusion

I really do like this book but it is the biggest mix bag of basic plots, basic characters and way too many proper noun vomit during dialogue. But its one of the few books that made emotional and feel very sympathetic to characters I wasn’t expecting while being underwhelmed by the actual protagonists. I do plan on continuing the series and maybe I’ll talk about those as well, but I hope anyone who read this could laugh or enjoy my rambling about this story.

If anyone has questions or wants my opinions on that I would change or what I hope to see in the future books please feel free to let me know, thanks.

What’s your favorite niche or sub-genre for fantasy books? If you could give a brief description and a few books related to it that would be great. I’m not a huge reader but I’d like to know what other stuff I can look for.

So I'd still consider myself a pretty novice fantasy reader, but most of what I read (and what a lot more people are into at the moment) is very much modern fantasy that is trying to go in a different direction from the classic settings and story types of fantasy. I love modern fantasy, and its generally what got me back into reading, but part of me wants to go back and experience a more typical, Tolkein-esque fantasy world and story. Probably because a lot of what made me fall in love with fantasy was Lord of the Rings and D&D.

So I'm looking for what I call "vanilla" fantasy recommendations, very much the generic image that comes to mind when thinking of fantasy. I want Elves, Dragons, Wizards, young farm boys that are secretly special, etc. They don't necessarily have to be very old books or considered "classics", just that sort of setting.

So far the only books that I've read that really fit this description are Lord of the Rings and Narnia. Ones that I'm looking into that may satisfy that itch are Wizard of Earthsea, Sword of Shannara, and Eragon, so feel free to let me know if those sound like good choices. Thanks :)

There are a lot of movies/shows that are perfect guilty pleasures. Are there books like that?

We got the mountain that rides, most violent of men, 100 manslayer, the bloody-nine! What are your favorite nicknames?

For the past week or so I've been cleaning up the data from the 2023 Bingo data. 100% I missed some stuff.

The ideea was to remove typos, match book to authors and authors to books. In case multiple books were mentioned, only 1 was used. If a series was read by a user, i manily used the first in the series as that usually appeared. I also remove incomplete or duplicate responses, remove answeres where an author appears multiple times and in order to ease my work I ignored duplication of authors for square 9. Removed some of the answeres that included books out of sff. Also the author names were not split, so if an author names appears in an antology it will not be counted .

Keeping all that in mind, here we go:

Most read books:

1. The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty - 194

2. Legends and Lattes by Travis Baldree - 154

3. Hench by Natalie Zina Walschots - 114

4. All Systems Red by Martha Wells - 101

5. System Collapse by Martha Wells - 101

6. Untethered Sky by Fonda Lee - 96

7. Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett - 94

8. The Stardust Thief by Chelsea Abdullah - 93

9. Small Miracles by Olivia Atwater - 89

10. Tress of the Emerald Sea by Brandon Sanderson - 85

Most read authors:

1. Martha Wells -390
2. T. Kingfisher - 338
3. Brandon Sanderson - 285
4. Shannon Chakraborty - 253
5. Travis Baldree - 227
6. Becky Chambers - 184
7. Naomi Novik - 165
8. TJ.. Klune - 164
9. Fonda Lee - 163
10. Adrian Tchaikovsky - 147

Most read authors with a single book :

1. Hench by Natalie Zina Walschots - 114
2. The Stardust Thief by Chelsea Abdullah - 93
3. Ink Blood Sister Scribe by Emma Torzs - 64
4. 'The Bruising of Qilwa by Naseem Jamnia - 45
5. When the Angels Left the Old Country by Sacha Lamb - 39
6. Lonely Castle in the Mirror by Mizuki Tsujimura - 37
7. The Surviving Sky by Kritika H. Rao - 31
8. The Cybernetic Tea Shop by Meredith Katz - 31
9. Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah - 30
10. To Shape a Dragon\'s Breath by Moniquill Blackgoose - 28
11. Girl, Serpent, Thorn by Melissa Bashardoust - 28

The book read across most prompts:

• Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett - 11 squares (4 - Magical Realism or Literary Fantasy, 6 - Mundane Jobs, 13 - Published in 2023, 14 -Multiverse and Alternate Realities, 16 -Book Club OR Readalong Book, 18 - Mythical Beasts, 19 - Elemental Magic, 20 - Myths and Retellings, 21 - Queernorm Setting, 22 - Coastal or Island Setting, 23- Druids)

The Authore read acorss most prompts:
Brandon sanderson (21 squares 1**, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 22, 23, 24, 25)**

[Dear Brandon Sanderson,

In case you need some propts for your futere secret novels, please take into consideration the following ones :
4 - Magical Realism or Literary Fantasy
8 - Angels and Demons
21 - Queernorm Setting
and , as we need a substitution as you are not a PoC author, a book about bees, or where a character is a bee or dreams about a bee, something with a bee in it]

The square with the most diverse no. of titles : 3 -Bottom of the TBR (610 titles)

The square with the least diverse no of titles: 12 - Set in the Middle East/Middle Eastern SFF ( 155 titles)

In how many ways an author name can be spelled:
Shannon Chakraborty - 16
N.K. Jemisin - 12
Ursula K. Le Guin - 12
V.E. Schwab - 11

Top 10 reads per square:

1) Title with a Title

• The Blacktongue Thief, Christopher Buehlman, 21
• Paladin's Grace, T. Kingfisher, 17
• The Witness for the Dead, Katherine Addison, 15
• The Captain, Will Wight, 14
• The Goblin Emperor, Katherine Addison, 14
• Yumi and the Nightmare Painter, Brandon Sanderson, 14
• Assassin's Apprentice, Robin Hobb, 12
• The Justice of Kings, Richard Swan, 11
• Red Sister, Mark Lawrence, 11
• Dungeon Crawler Carl, Matt Dinniman, 9

2) Superheroes

• Hench, Natalie Zina Walschots, 106
• Vicious, V.E. Schwab, 47
• The Refrigerator Monologues, Catherynne M. Valente, 39
• Starter Villain, John Scalzi, 31
• Dreadnought, April Daniels, 26
• The City We Became, N.K. Jemisin, 17
• Steelheart, Brandon Sanderson, 15
• Super Powereds: Year 1, Drew Hayes, 14
• Renegades, Marissa Meyer, 14
• The Extraordinaries, T.J. Klune, 14

3) Bottom of the TBR

• The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. Le Guin, 9
• Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring, J.R.R. Tolkien, 7
• A Wizard of Earthsea, Ursula K. Le Guin, 7
• Neuromancer, William Gibson, 7
• Children of Time, Adrian Tchaikovsky, 6
• Tigana, Guy Gavriel Kay, 6
• Piranesi, Susanna Clarke, 6
• The Three-Body Problem, Cixin Liu, 5
• Dune, Frank Herbert, 5
• The Hobbit, J.R.R. Tolkien, 5

4) Magical Realism or Literary Fantasy

• Piranesi, Susanna Clarke, 42
• Before the Coffee Gets Cold, Toshikazu Kawaguchi, 40
• Bunny, Mona Awad, 14
• Our Wives Under the Sea, Julia Armfield, 13
• The cartographers, Peng Shepherd, 13
• Remarkably Bright Creatures, Shelby Van Pelt, 13
• The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida, Shehan Karunatilaka, 12
• The Ocean at the End of the Lane, Neil Gaiman, 11
• The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde, 11
• Weyward, Emilia Hart, 10

5) Young Adult

• A Deadly Education, Naomi Novik, 21
• A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking, T. Kingfisher, 18
• The Girl Who Fell Beneath The Sea, Axie Oh, 13
• Fireborne, Rosaria Munda, 9
• Cemetery Boys, Aiden Thomas, 8
• Six of Crows, Leigh Bardugo, 8
• To Shape a Dragon's Breath, Moniquill Blackgoose, 8
• Divine Rivals, Rebecca Ross, 8
• Fourth Wing, Rebecca Yarros, 8
• The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, Suzanne Collins, 8

6) Mundane Jobs

• Legends and Lattes, Travis Baldree, 90
• A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking, T. Kingfisher, 28
• Elder Race, Adrian Tchaikovsky, 13
• Project Hail Mary, Andy Weir, 13
• Divine Rivals, Rebecca Ross, 13
• Going Postal, Terry Pratchett, 13
• The House in the Cerulean Sea, TJ Klune, 13
• Bookshops and Bonedust, Travis Baldree, 13
• Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries, Heather Fawcett, 9
• Children of Time, Adrian Tchaikovsky, 8

7) Published in the 00s

• His Majesty's Dragon, Naomi Novik, 17
• The Curse of Chalion, Lois McMaster Bujold, 15
• The Blade Itself, Joe Abercrombie, 14
• Kushiel's Dart, Jacqueline Carey, 13
• Vita Nostra, Marina & Sergey Dyachenko, 12
• The Graveyard Book, Neil Gaiman, 10
• The City and the City, China Mieville, 9
• Perdido Street Station, China Mieville, 9
• Eragon, Christopher Paolini, 9
• A Shadow in Summer, Daniel Abraham, 9

8) Angels and Demons

• Small Miracles, Olivia Atwater, 79
• Good Omens, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman, 73
• Witch King, Martha Wells, 36
• When the Angels Left the Old Country, Sacha Lamb, 32
• Hell Bent, Leigh Bardugo, 20
• Lent, Jo Walton, 19
• Between Two Fires, Christopher Buehlman, 18
• The Screwtape Letters, C.S. Lewis, 17
• Light From Uncommon Stars, Ryka Aoki, 14
• The Angel of the Crows, Katherine Addison, 13

9) Five SFF Short Stories.

• Exhalation, Ted Chiang, 30
• Stories of Your Life and Others, Ted Chiang, 25
• The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories, Ken Liu, 18
• Sharp Ends, Joe Abercrombie, 10
• The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories, Susanna Clarke, 9
• Her Body and Other Parties, Carmen Maria Machado, 8
• How Long 'til Black Future Month', N.K. Jemisin, 8
• White Cat, Black Dog, Kelly Link, 7
• Defying Doomsday, Tsana Dolichva & Holly Kench, 7
• Jade Shards, Fonda Lee, 6

10) Horror

• A House With Good Bones, T. Kingfisher, 28
• What Moves the Dead, T. Kingfisher, 26
• Dracula, Bram Stoker, 18
• The Haunting of Hill House, Shirley Jackson, 16
• Lone Women, Victor LaValle, 16
• The Library at Mount Char, Scott Hawkins, 14
• Between Two Fires, Christopher Buehlman, 12
• Nettle and Bone, T. Kingfisher, 12
• The Hollow Places, T. Kingfisher, 12
• Our Wives Under The Sea, Julia Armfield, 11

11) Self-Published OR Indie Publisher: 

• Murder at Spindle Manor, Morgan Stang, 17
• Blood over Bright Haven, M.L. Wang, 15
• The Sword of Kaigen, M.L. Wang, 13
• Orconomics, J. Zachary Pike, 11
• Dungeon Crawler Carl, Matt Dinniman, 10
• Small Miracles, Olivia Atwater, 8
• Unsouled, Will Wight, 8
• There Is No Antimemetics Division, qntm, 7
• Miss Percy's Pocket Guide to the Care and Feeding of British Dragons, Quenby Olson, 7
• The Lord of Stariel, A.J. Lancaster, 6

12) Set in the Middle East/Middle Eastern SFF:.

• The Stardust Thief, Chelsea Abdullah, 88
• The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi, Shannon Chakraborty, 83
• A Master of Djinn, P. Djeli Clark, 39
• The Daughters of Izdihar, Hadeer Elsbai, 37
• The City of Brass, Shannon Chakraborty, 36
• Gunmetal Gods, Zamil Akhtar, 34
• The Bruising of Qilwa, Naseem Jamnia, 30
• Girl, Serpent, Thorn, Melissa Bashardoust, 24
• Throne of the Crescent Moon, Saladin Ahmed, 22
• Shubeik Lubeik, Deena Mohamed, 19

13) Published in 2023

• Ink Blood Sister Scribe, Emma Torzs, 27
• Godkiller, Hannah Kaner, 27
• The Will of the Many, James Islington, 23
• Fourth Wing, Rebecca Yarros, 21
• Some Desperate Glory, Emily Tesh, 20
• Tress of the Emerald Sea, Brandon Sanderson, 19
• Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries, Heather Fawcett, 19
• Chain-Gang All-Stars, Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, 13
• Weyward, Emilia Hart, 12
• Bookshops and Bonedust, Travis Baldree, 12

14) Multiverse and Alternate Realities

• The Space Between Worlds, Micaiah Johnson, 48
• The Kaiju Preservation Society, John Scalzi, 37
• The Frugal Wizard's Handbook for Surviving Medieval England, Brandon Sanderson, 34
• Piranesi, Susanna Clarke, 28
• This is How You Lose the Time War, Amal El-Mohtar, Max Gladstone, 27
• Some Desperate Glory, Emily Tesh, 26
• Infinity Gate, M.R. Carey, 26
• Lonely Castle in the Mirror, Mizuki Tsujimura, 17
• The Midnight Library, Matt Haig, 13
• The Ten Thousand Doors of January, Alix E. Harrow, 12

15) POC Author

• Dawn, Octavia E. Butler, 29
• An Unkindness of Ghosts, Rivers Solomon, 19
• Iron Widow, Xiran Jay Zhao, 19
• Parable of the Sower, Octavia E. Butler, 15
• Babel, R.F. Kuang, 15
• The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches, Sangu Mandanna, 15
• The Kindred, Octavia E. Butler, 14
• Rosewater, Tade Thompson, 14
• Ninefox Gambit, Yoon Ha Lee, 14
• Chain-Gang All-Stars, Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, 13

16) Book Club OR Readalong Book

• Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries, Heather Fawcett, 31
• Orconomics, J. Zachary Pike, 30
• The Ninth Rain, Jen Williams, 23
• The Justice of Kings, Richard Swan, 22
• Ink Blood Sister Scribe, Emma Torzs, 21
• The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi, Shannon Chakraborty, 21
• Legends and Lattes, Travis Baldree, 18
• The Haunting Of Hill House, Shirley Jackson, 16
• The Kindred, Octavia E. Butler, 12
• The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches, Sangu Mandanna, 12

17) Novella

• This Is How You Lose the Time War, Amal El-Mohtar, Max Gladstone, 26
• To Be Taught, If Fortunate, Becky Chambers, 26
• The Empress of Salt and Fortune, Nghi Vo, 22
• Rose/House, Arkady Martine, 17
• A Psalm for the Wild-Built, Becky Chambers, 17
• Ogres, Adrian Tchaikovsky, 16
• Untethered Sky, Fonda Lee, 15
• Penric's Demon, Lois McMaster Bujold, 15
• The Deep, Rivers Solomon, 13
• The Cybernetic Tea Shop, Meredith Katz, 12

18) Mythical Beasts

• Untethered Sky, Fonda Lee, 71
• The Last Unicorn, Peter S. Beagle, 53
• Fourth Wing, Rebecca Yarros, 27
• Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries, Heather Fawcett, 18
• A Natural History of Dragons, Marie Brennan, 14
• The Forgotten Beasts of Eld, Patricia A. McKillip, 14
• All the Murmuring Bones, A.G. Slatter, 13
• The Kaiju Preservation Society, John Scalzi, 8
• Circe, Madeline Miller, 8
• His Majesty's Dragon, Naomi Novik, 8

19) Elemental Magic

• The Sword of Kaigen, M.L. Wang, 58
• Avatar: The Last Airbender: The Rise of Kyoshi, F.C. Yee, Michael Dante DiMartino, 38
• The Daughters of Izdihar, Hadeer Elsbai, 29
• A River Enchanted, Rebecca Ross, 16
• The Fifth Season, N.K. Jemisin, 15
• Fire Logic, Laurie J. Marks, 12
• Daughter of the Moon Goddess, Sue Lynn Tan, 12
• The Queen of Blood, Sarah Beth Durst, 11
• A Darker Shade of Magic, V.E. Schwab, 11
• From Unseen Fire, Cass Morris, 10

20) Myths and Retellings:

• Spinning Silver, Naomi Novik, 39
• The Witch's Heart, Genevieve Gornichec, 28
• Circe, Madeline Miller, 27
• Kaikeyi, Vaishnavi Patel, 20
• Thornehedge, T. Kingfisher, 19
• What Moves the Dead, T. Kingfisher, 19
• Spear, Nicola Griffith, 17
• The Song of Achilles, Madeline Miller, 15
• In the Lives of Puppets, TJ Klune, 13
• Norse Mythology, Neil Gaiman, 12

21) Queernorm Setting

• Bookshops and Bonedust, Travis Baldree, 41
• Legends and Lattes, Travis Baldree, 36
• Saint Death's Daughter, C.S.E. Cooney, 21
• Gideon the Ninth, Tamsyn Muir, 21
• A Memory Called Empire, Arkady Martine, 14
• Godkiller, Hannah Kaner, 14
• A Day of Fallen Night, Samantha Shannon, 14
• The Spare Man, Mary Robinette Kowal, 13
• A Taste of Gold and Iron, Alexandra Rowland, 12
• The Mask of Mirrors, M.A. Carrick, 12

22) Coastal or Island Setting

• The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi, Shannon Chakraborty, 78
• Tress of the Emerald Sea, Brandon Sanderson, 54
• A Wizard of Earthsea, Ursula K. Le Guin, 36
• The Bone Ships, R.J. Barker, 22
• The Mountain in the Sea, Ray Nayler, 14
• The bone shard daughter, Andrea Stewart, 13
• Red Seas Under Red Skies, Scott Lynch, 12
• The House in the Cerulean Sea, TJ Klune, 12
• The Bone Shard War, Andrea Stewart, 11
• One Piece, Eiichiro Oda, 11

23) Druids

• Dreamer's Pool, Juliet Marillier, 53
• Silver in the Wood, Emily Tesh, 38
• The Jasmine Throne, Tasha Suri, 37
• Hounded, Kevin Hearne, 33
• The Druid's Call, E.K. Johnston, 23
• This Poison Heart, Kalynn Bayron, 20
• The Children of Gods and Fighting Men, Shauna Lawless, 19
• Sistersong, Lucy Holland, 16
• The Oleander Sword, Tasha Suri, 16
• Dreaming the Eagle, Manda Scott, 14

24) Featuring Robots

• All Systems Red, Martha Wells, 88
• System Collapse, Martha Wells, 82
• In the Lives of Puppets, TJ Klune, 46
• A Psalm for the Wild-Built, Becky Chambers, 36
• Klara and the Sun, Kazuo Ishiguro, 33
• Network Effect, Martha Wells, 30
• Sea of Rust, C. Robert Cargill, 29
• Artificial Condition, Martha Wells, 22
• A Closed and Common Orbit, Becky Chambers, 19
• The Cybernetic Tea Shop, Meredith Katz, 17

25) Sequel

• The Golden Enclaves, Naomi Novik, 16
• Nona the Ninth, Tamsyn Muir, 12
• Waybound, Will Wight, 12
• System Collapse, Martha Wells, 10
• Children of Memory, Adrian Tchaikovsky, 9
• Jade Legacy, Fonda Lee, 9
• A Power Unbound, Freya Marske, 9
• Light Bringer, Pierce Brown, 9
• Labyrinth's Heart, M.A. Carrick, 8
• Cibola Burn, James S.A. Corey, 7

If you like audiobooks there are some good deals with Chirp’s Stellar Series sale. Lots of complete series in a cheap bundle!

https://www.chirpbooks.com/s/stellar-series-sale-2024

Some highlights for me:

Saint of Steel 1-3 (Paladin’s Grace, Paladin’s Strength, Paladin’s Hope) by T. Kingfisher for $2.99 each

The Faithful and the Fallen (complete series) by John Gwynne for $4.99 each

Riyria Chronicles 1-4 (dramatized adaptation version) for $4.99 each

If anyone would recommend any of the series that are on sale let me know! Especially if they fit a bingo square or two. I haven’t heard of most of them but I’m always looking to add to my TBR.

I have tried twice to read "A Wizard of Earthsea" and twice to read "LoTR" and I ended up DNFing both. However, I can't help but wonder if they would be better as audiobooks rather than read, given the slower pacing. On that note, what book do you feel is better as an audiobook versus read?

Preliminary Notes

I realized that u/smartflutist661 hasn’t posted in over a year so decided to whip together some stats for last year’s Bingo! I ‘m not smart enough for scripts so I just used OpenRefine to clean up the data and Excel to calculate.

I’ve also shamelessly copied their stat format from 2022 and notes:

1. Stories were not examined for fitness. If you used Legends & Lattes for Horror, it was included in the statistics for that square. In addition, if you did something like, say, put Spinning Silver as a short story, I made no effort to figure out where it actually belonged.
2. Comics/etc. with multiple “titles” were grouped together the best I could see, either by name or author. Some may be wrong author but count for title and vice versa. I tried my best to separate, see Avatar the Last Airbender: The Rise of Kyoshi.
3. I did No demographic stats but might add to this in the future. (I’ve been compiling info from the recommendation thread, and subsequent threads for this year’s BINGO to helpfully make more robust stats in the future. I may go back and do the same for this.)
4. I used OpenRefine to clean the data. I took the most popular spelling choice in regard to authors and I use the most popular choice for title. I am sorry if the story is A Dowery of Blood and I changed it to **Dowery of Blood—**the people decided for me!

And Now: The Stats

Overall Stats : Squares and Cards

• There were 929 cards submitted (1 less than last year), 83 cards did not obtain blackout or were incomplete. There were 3 cards with the lowest number of squares, 5. Four cards were missing one square! 4781 squares were left blank, leaving 23089 filled squares.
• I also calculated regular BINGO’s. Rightmost down was the easiest to complete with only 52 blank squares and the middle row was the hardest with 70 blank squares. 10 cards did not get BINGO but had an average of 13.8 completed squares. From left to right, top to bottom:
  • 864 (1,2,3,4,5) 65 missing
  • 745 (6,7,8,9,10) 57 missing
  • 859 (11,12,13,14,15) 70 missing
  • 866 (16,17,18,19,20) 63 missing
  • 873 (21,22,23,24,25) 56 missing
  • 874 (1,6,11,16,21) 55 missing
  • 860 (2,7,12,17,22) 69 missing
  • 864 (3,8,13,18,23) 65 missing
  • 861 (4,9,14,19,24) 68 missing
  • 877 (5,10,15,20,25) 52 missing
  • 745 (1,7,13,19,25) 56 missing
  • 864 (5,9,13,17,21) 65 missing
• There were 10921 stories by 8139 authors, of which 7263 were unique stories and 5268 unique authors across the whole bingo card.
• There was a total of 646 blank squares. The top three squares left blank were: Set in the Middle East blank on 47 cards; Druids, blank on 46 cards; and Superheroes blank on 44 cards. On the other hand, Sequel was only blank on 9 cards.
• The three squares most often substituted were: Druids on 58 cards, Superheroes on 34 cards and Bookclub/Readalongs on 31 cards. Sequel and Multiverse/Alternative Realities were never substituted. Meaning Druids was the least favorite, being skipped or substituted a total of 104 times.
• 182 cards claimed an all-hard-mode card, while 32 cards were short by one square. Everyone attempted at least one hard mode, but 8 cards only did 1. The hardest hard-mode was Self-Published/Indie Published with 40.8 % and the easiest, minus square three was Horror with 91.4%. The average number of hard-mode squares per card was 16.9.

Books

The ten most-read books were:

• · The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi by S.A. Chakraborty, 207 times
• · Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree, 186 times
• · Hench by Natalie Zina Walschots, 124 times
• · All Stems Red by Martha Wells, 103 times
• · System collapse by Martha Wells, 114 times
• · Untethered Sky by Fonda Lee, 106 times
• · Emily Wilde’s Encyclopedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett, 102 times
• · The Stardust Thief by Chelsea Abdullah, 97 times
• · Small Miracles by Olivia Atwater, 94 times
• · Tress of the Emerald Sea by Brandon Sanderson, 91 times

The books used for the most squares were:

• Emily Wilde’s Encyclopedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett, used for 11 squares
• Mother of Learning by Domagoj Kurmaic, used for 10 squares

Tied with 9 squares:

• Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree
• Tress of the Emerald Sea by Brandon Sanderson
• Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros
• This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar, Max Gladstone
• The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune
• Nona the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
• Starling House by Alix E. Harrow
• The Spear Cuts Through Water, by Simon Jimenez
• Mammoths at the Gates, by Nighi Vo

Authors

The ten most-read authors were:

• · Martha Wells, 453 reads
• · T.Kingfisher, 381 reads
• · Brandon Sanderson, 353 reads
• · S.A. Chakraborty, 275 reads
• · Travis Baldree, 270 reads
• · Terry Pratchett, 230 reads
• · Neil Gaiman, 229 reads
• · Becky chambers, 209 reads
• · Naomi Novik, 197 reads
• · TJ Klune, 190 reads

The Ten most-used authors were:

• Brandon Sanderson, 23 squares
• T. Kingfisher, 21 squares
• Terry Pratchett, 19 squares
• Adrian Tchaikovsky, 19 squares
• Naomi Novik, 18 squares
• Leigh Bardugo,18 squares
• Catherynne M. Valente, 18 squares

Tied with 17 squares

• Martha Wells, Ursula K. Le Guin, Seanan McGuire, Marie Brennan, Garth Nix, Stephen King

The authors with the most unique books:

• · Hench by Natalie Zina Walschots, 116 reads, 124 reads total, 5 squares
• · Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree, 107 reads, 186 reads total, 9 squares
• · All Systems Red by Martha Wells, 103 reads, 120 reads total, 5 squares
• · The Stardust Thief by Chelsea Abdullah, 92 reads, 97 reads total, 4 squares
• · System Collapse by Martha Wells, 90 reads, 114 reads total, 5 squares

The authors with the most unique book for 1 square

• · Vicious by V.E. Schwab, 55 reads
• · Dreamer’s Pool by Juliet Marillier, 54 reads
• · The Rise of Kyoshi by F.C. Lee, 42 reads
• · Sea of Rust by C. Robert Cargill, 30 reads
• · Throne of the Crescent Moon by Saladin Ahmed, 22 reads

Stats for Individual Squares

1. Title with a Title

Most Read Books

• The Blacktongue Thief by Christopher Buehlman, 22 times
• Paldin’s Grace by T. Kingfisher, 18 times
• The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison, 17 times
• The Witness for the Dead by Katherine Addison, 17 times
• TIE: Assassin’s Apprentice by Robin Hobb & Yumi and the Nightmare Painter by Brandon Sanderson 15 times

Most Read Authors

· T.Kingfisher, 35 times

· Katherine Addison, 34 times

· Brandon Sanderson, 32 times

· Christopher Buehlman, 25 times

· Robin Hobb, 24 times

TOTAL: 473 individual books, 320 unique titles, 12 blank, 4 substitutions, 742 Hard mode

373 authors, 236 unique

2. Superheroes

Most Read Books

• Hench by Natalie Zina Walschots, 116 times
• Vicious, V.E. Schwab, 55 times
• The Refrigerator monologues, Catherynne M. Valente, 40 times
• Starter Villian, John Scalzi, 33 times
• Dreadnought, April Daniels, 31 times

Most Read Authors

• Natalie Zina Walschots, 116 times
• V.E. Schwab, 64 times
• Catherynne M. Valente, 38 times
• April Daniels, 34 times
• John Scalzi, 33 times

TOTAL: 324 individual books, 202 unique titles, 44 blanks, 34 substitutions, 763 hard-mode

263 authors, 180 unique

3. Bottom of the TBR

Most Read Books

• The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin, 9 times
• Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring by JRR Tolkien, 8 times
• A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin, 7 times
• Necromancer by William Gibson, 7 times
• TIE: The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien, Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay, Piranesi by Susanna Clarke, Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky, Dune by Frank Herbert, 6 times

Most Read Authors

• Ursula K. Le Guin, 25 times
• JRR Tolkien, 24 times
• Neil Gaiman, 22 times
• TIE: Guy Gavriel Kay, Brandon Sanderson, 13 times

TOTAL: 657 books read, with 501 unique titles. Skipped 26 times. Substituted 7 times, 905 hard-mode (hard if completed) 454 authors, 304 unique

4. Magical Realism

Most Read Books

• Piranesi by Susanna Clarke, 45 times
• Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi, 41 times
• Bunny by Mona Awad, 15 times
• The Cartographers by Peng Shepherd, 15 times
• Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt, 14 times

Most Read Authors

• Susanna Clarke, 48 times
• Toshikazu Kawaguchi, 46 times
• Mona Awad, 20 times
• Neil Gaiman, 16 times
• Peng shepherd, 15 times

TOTAL: 450 books read, with 293 unique titles. Skipped 27 times. Substituted 12 times, 753 hard-mode, 366 authors, 241 unique

5. Young Adult

Most Read Books

• A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik, 27 times
• A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking by T.Kingfisher, 20times
• The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea by Axie Oh, 15 times
• TIE: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins, Fireborne by Rosaria Munda 11 times

Most Read Authors

• Naomi Novik, 41times
• T. Kingfisher, 23 times
• Leigh Bardugo, 17 times
• Garth Nix, 16 times
• TIE: Axie Oh, Suzanne Collins, 15 times

TOTAL: 522 books read, with 370 unique titles. Skipped 16 times. Substituted 4 times, 645 hard-mode, 366 authors, 229 unique

6. Mundane Jobs

Most Read Books

• Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree, 107 times
• A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking, T. Kingfisher, 36 times
• Bookshops & Bonedust by Travis Baldree, 16 times
• TIE: Going Postal by Terry Pratchett, Elder Race by Adrian Tchaikovsky, The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune, 15 times

Most Read Authors

• Travis Bladree, 123 times
• T. Kingfisher, 47 times
• Terry Pratchett, 30 times
• Adrian Tchaikovsky, 28 times
• Becky Chambers,18 times

TOTAL: 413 books read, with 277 unique titles. Skipped 14 times. Substituted 1 times, 553 hard-mode, 336 authors, 226 unique

7. Published in 00s

Most Read Books

• His Majesty’s Dragon by Naomi Novik, 19 times
• The Curse of the Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold, 16 times
• The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie, 15 times
• Kushiel’s Dart by Jacqueline Carey, 14 times
• Vita Nostra by Marina and Sergey Dyachenko, 13 times

Most Read Authors

• Neil Gaiman, 34 times
• Lois McMaster Bujold, 27 times
• Terry Pratchett, 26 times
• Joe Abercrombie, 25 times
• TIE: Namoi Novik, China Mieville, 24 times

TOTAL: 495 books read, with 316 unique titles. Skipped 32 times. Substituted 14 times, 666 hard-mode, 312 authors, 180 unique

8. Angles & Demons

Most Read Books

• Small Miracles by Olica Atwater, 84 times
• Good Omens by Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman, 87 times
• Witch King by Martha Wells, 40 times
• When the Angles Left the Old Country by Sacha Lamb, 34 times
• Hell Bent by Leigh Bardugo, 24 times

Most Read Authors

• Oliva Atwater, 84 times
• Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman, 82 times
• Martha Wells, 41 times
• Sacha Lamb, 34 times
• Leigh Bardugo, 24 times

TOTAL: 337 books read, with 202 unique titles. Skipped 30 times. Substituted 6 times, 509 hard-mode, 252 authors, 148 unique

9. Short Stories

Most Read Books: Anthology

• Exhalation by Ted Chiang,34 times
• Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang, 27 times
• The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories by Ken Liu, 20 times
• Sharpe ends by Joe Abercrombie, 10 times
• The Ladies of Grace Adieu by Susanna Clarke, 9 times

Most Read Authors

• Ted Chiang, 61times
• Ken Liu, 30 times
• Ursula K. Le Guin, 12 times
• TIE: Issac Asimov, Jonathan Strahan, Kelly Link, 11 times

Most Read Books: Short Stories

· The Six Deaths of the Saint by Alix E. harrow, 8 times

· Undercover by Tamsyn Muir, 6 times

· Exhalation by Ted Chiang, 5 times

· The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas by Ursula K. Le Guin, 5times

· What the Dead Know by Nghi Vo, 5 times

Most Read Authors

• Ted Chiang, 23 times
• Ursula K. Le Guin, 15 times
• TIE: Tamsyn Muir, James S.A. Corey, Martha Wells, Ken Liu, Neil Gaiman, 12 times

TOTAL: 985 books read, with 777 unique titles. Skipped 31 times. Substituted 18 times, 742 hard-mode, 710 authors, 503 unique

10. Horror

Most Read Books

• What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher, 34 times
• A House with Good Bones by T. Kingfisher, 28 times
• Dracula by Bram Stoker, 21 times
• The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson, 17 times
• The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins, 14 times

Most Read Authors

• T. Kingfisher,97 times
• Grady Hendrix, 34 times
• TIE: Shirley Jackson, Victor LaValle, 23 times
• Bram Stoker, 21 times

TOTAL: 410 books read, with 268 unique titles. Skipped 17 times. Substituted 12 times, 849 hard-mode, 307 authors, 188 unique

11. Self Published/Indie Published

Most Read Books

• Murder at Spindle Manor by Morgan Stang, 17 times
• Blood Over Bright Haven, by M.L. Wang, 16 times
• The Sword of Kaigen, by M.L. Wang, 13 times
• Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman, 11 times
• TIE: Unsouled, Waybound by Will Wight, Small Miracles by Oliva Atwater, The Midnight Bargain by C.L. Polk, 8 times

Most Read Authors

• · M.L. Wang, 29 times
• · Will Wight, 27 times
• · Morgan Stang, 24 times
• · Matt Dinniman, 16 times
• · J. Zachary Pike, 13 times

TOTAL: 636 books read, with 499 unique titles. Skipped 33 times. Substituted 25 times, 379 hard-mode, 532 authors, 420 unique

12. Set in the Middle East

Most Read Books

• The Stardust Thief by Chelsea Abdullah, 92 times
• The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi by S.A. Chakraborty, 85 times
• A Master of Djinn by P. Djèlí Clark, 44 times
• The City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty, 40 times
• The Daughters of Izdihar by Hadeer Elsbai, 36 times

Most Read Authors

• S. A. Chakraborty, 135 times
• Chelsea Abdullah, 92 times
• P. Djèlí Clark, 61 times
• Zamil Akhtar, 42 times
• Hadeer Elsbai, 38 times

TOTAL: 200 books read, with 81 unique titles. Skipped 47 times. Substituted 30 times, 485 hard-mode, 166 authors, 102 unique

13. Published in 2023

Most Read Books

• Godkiller by Hannah Kaner, 29 times
• Ink, Blood, Sister, Scribe by Emma Torzs, 27 times
• The Will of the Many by James Islington, 26 times
• Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros, 25 times
• Emily Wilde’s Encyclopedia of Faries by Heather Fawcett, 22 times

Most Read Authors

• Brandon Sanderson, 48 times
• Hannah Kaner, 29 times
• Rebecca Yarros, 28 times
• James Islington, 26 times
• Emma Torzs, 25 times

TOTAL: 348 books read, with 192 unique titles. Skipped 21 times. Substituted 3 times, 371 hard-mode, 333 authors, 205 unique

14. Multiverse/Alternative Realities

Most Read Books

• The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson, 51 times
• The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi, 45 times
• The Frugal Wizard’s Handbook for Surviving Medieval England by Brandon Sanderson, 39 times
• This is How You Loose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone, 31 times
• Piranesi by Susanna Clarke, 30 times

Most Read Authors

• · Micaiah Johnson, 51 times
• · Brandon Sanderson, 50 times
• · John Scalzi, 47 times
• · Susanna Clarke, 33 times
• · Amal El-Mohtar, 31 times

TOTAL: 390 books read, with 269 unique titles. Skipped 21 times. Substituted 0 times, 672 hard-mode, 275 authors, 182 unique

15. POC Author

Most Read Books

• Dawn by Octavia E.Butler, 30 times
• Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao, 25 times
• An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon, 21 times
• Babel by R.F. Kuang,17 times
• Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler, 16 times

Most Read Authors

• Octavia E. Butler, 78 times
• Nnedi Okorafor, 41 times
• N.K. Jemisin, 37 times
• Yoon Ha Lee, 28 times
• Fonda Lee, 27 times

TOTAL: 398 books read, with 245 unique titles. Skipped 20 times. Substituted 3 times, 432 hard-mode, 263 authors, 157 unique

16. Book club/Readalongs

Most Read Books

• Emily Wilde’s Encyclopedia of Faries by heather Fawcett, 33 times
• Orconomics by J. Zachary Pike, 31 times
• The Ninth Rain by Jen Williams, 25 times
• The Justice of Kings by Richard Swan, 24 times
• TIE: Ink,Blood, Sister, Scribe by Emma Torzs, The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi by S.A. Chakraborty, 23 times

Books That Fit

Books that were only listed once per this square but were a popular choice across other squares

• · All Systems Red by Martha Wells
• · What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher
• · Shadows of Self by Brandon Sanderson
• · Soul Music by Terry Pratchett
• · Uprooted by Naomi Novik

TOTAL: 292 books read, with 128 unique titles. Skipped 24 times. Substituted 31 times, 313 hard-mode, 247 authors, 114 unique

17. Novella

Most Read Books

• This is How You Loose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar, Max Gladstone, 30 times
• To Be Taught,If Fortunate by Becky Chambers, 28 times
• The Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vo, 24 times
• TIE: Orges by Adrian Tchaikovsky,Rose/House by Arkady Martine, 18 times

Most Read Authors

• · Adrian Tachaikovsky, 53 times
• · Becky Chambers, 52 times
• · Nghi Vo, 38 times
• · Lois McMaster Bujold, 27 times
• · Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone, 26 times

TOTAL: 417 books read, with 273 unique titles. Skipped 18 times. Substituted 2 times, 602 hard-mode, 306 authors, 201 unique

18. Mythical Beasts

Most Read Books

• Untethered Sky by Fonda Lee,79 times
• The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle, 58 times
• Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros, 34 times
• Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett, 18 times
• TIE: All the Murmuring Bones by A.G. Slatter, A Natural History of Dragons by Marie Brennan, The Forgotten Beasts of Eld by Patricia A. McKillip, 14 times

Most Read Authors

• Fonda Lee, 79 times
• Peter S. Beagle, 64 times
• Rebecca Yarros, 36 times
• Marie Brennan, 24 times
• Heather Fawcett, 20 times

TOTAL: 451 books read, with 314 unique titles. Skipped 19 times. Substituted 2 times, 584 hard-mode, 335 authors, 217 unique.

19. Elemental Magic

Most Read Books

• The Sword of Kaigen by M.L. Wang, 64 times
• The Rise of Kyoshi by F.C. Yee, 42 times
• The Daughters of Izdihar by Hadeer Elsbai, 32 times
• TIE: The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin, A River Enchanted by Rebecca Ross 16 times

Most Read Authors

• · M.L. Wang, 64 times
• · F.C. Lee, 58 times
• · Hadeer Elsbai, 31 times
• · Robert Jordan, 26 times
• · N.K. Jemisin, 24 times

TOTAL: 379 books read, with 219 unique titles. Skipped 40 times. Substituted 20 times, 795 hard-mode, 276 authors, 171 unique

20. Myths & Retellings

Most Read Books

• Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik, 43 times
• The Witch’s Heart by Genevieve Gornichec, 31 times
• Circe by Madeline Miller, 29 times
• Kaikeyi by Vaishnavi Patel, 22 times
• TIE: What Moves the Dead & Thornhedge by T. Kingfisher, 21 times

Most Read Authors

• T. Kingfisher, 57 reads
• Naomi Novik, 49 reads
• Madeline Miller, 47 reads
• Genevieve Gornichec, 32 reads
• Vaishnavi Patel, 22 reads

TOTAL: 400 books read, with 242 unique titles. Skipped 25 times. Substituted 4 times, hard-mode 724, 309 authors, 200 unique

21. Queernorm Setting

Most Read Books

• Legends & lattes by Travis Baldree, 45 times
• Bookshops & Bonedust by Travis Baldree, 44 times
• TIE: Saint Death’s Daughter by C.S.E. Cooney, Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir, 21 times
• TIE: A Taste of Gold and Iron by Alexandra Rowland, Godkiller by Hannah Kaner, A Day of Fallen Night by Samantha Shannon, 15 times

Most Read Authors

• Travis Baldree, 89 times
• Becky Chambers, 38 times
• TIE: TJ Klune, Nghi Vo,Tamsyn Muir, 32 times

TOTAL: 357 books read, with 206 unique titles. Skipped 21 times. Substituted 12 times, 607 hard-mode, 237 authors, 138 unique

22. Coastal/Island Setting

Most Read Books

• The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi by S.A. Chakraborty, 83 times
• Tress of the Emerald Sea by Brandon Sanderson, 59 times
• A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin, 37 times
• The Bone Ships by RJ Barker, 23 times
• The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune, 18 times

Most Read Authors

• S. A. Chakraborty, 83 times
• Brandon Sanderson, 65 times
• Ursula K. Le Guin, 48 times
• RJ Barker, 39 times
• Andrea Stewart, 34 times

TOTAL: 399 books read, with 265 unique titles. Skipped 21 times. Substituted 1 times, 642 hard-mode, 311 authors, 205 unique

23. Druids

Most Read Books

• Dreamer’s Pool by Juliet Marillier, 54 times
• The Jasmine Throne by Tasha Suri, 39 times
• Hounded by Kevin Hearne, 38 times
• Silver in the Wood by Emily Tesh, 30 times
• This Poison Heart by Kalynn Bayron, 20 times

Most Read Authors

• Juliet Marillier, 85 times
• Tasha Suri, 56 times
• TIE: Kevin Hearne, Emily Tesh, 49 times
• E.K. Johnston, 24 times

TOTAL: 357 books read, with 216 unique titles. Skipped 46 times. Substituted 58 times, 749 hard mode, 276 authors, 191 unique

24. Featuring Robots

Most Read Books

• All Systems Red by Martha Wells, 103 times
• System Collapse by Martha Wells, 90 times
• In the Lives of Puppets by TJ Klune, 49 times
• A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky chambers, 38 times
• Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro, 33 times

Most Read Authors

• Martha Wells, 284 times
• Becky Chambers, 83 times
• TJ Klune, 49 times
• C. Robert Cargill, 43 times
• Kazuo Ishiguro, 33 times

TOTAL: 246 books read, with 437 unique titles. Skipped 32 times. Substituted 4 times, 565 hard-mode, 192 authors, 118 unique

25. Sequel

Most Read Books

• The Golden Enclaves by Naomi Novik, 19 times
• TIE: Nona the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir, Waybound by Will Wright, 13 times
• Light Bringer by Pierce Brown, 11 times
• TIE: Jade Legacy by Fonda Lee, A Power Unbound by Freya Marske, Labyrinth’s Heart by M.A. Carrick, 10 times

Most Read Authors

• James S.A. Corey, 31 times
• Naomi Novik, 24 times
• TIE: Martha Wells, Brandon Sanderson, 23 times
• Pierce Brown,22 times

TOTAL: 585 books read, with 441 unique titles. Skipped 9 times. Substituted 0 times, 705 hard-mode, 342 authors, 212 unique

Substitutions

Out of 929 cards, 307 used the Substitution rule.

Books

• Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo, 4 times
• TIE: Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch, Ink Blood, Sister, Scribe by Emma Torzs, Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel, Jonathan Strange & Mr.Norell by Susanna Clarke, Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie, The Book that Wouldn’t Burn by Mark Lawrence, 3 times

Authors

• TIE: Leigh Bardugo, Ann Leckie, Adrian Tchaikovsky, Brandon Sanderson, 5 times
• TIE: Ben Aaronovitch, Roger Zelazny, Travis Baldree, 4 times

Squares

· Set in Space 2022, Historical SFF 2022, Mystery Plot 2021, subbed 14 times

· Standalone, No Ifs, Ands, or Buts 2022, subbed 13 times

Variety

I used the FarraGini index from prior years. Values close to 0 suggest a square was well-varied; 0 means no book was repeated for a square. Values close to 100 suggest the same books were used repeatedly for a square; 100 means only one book was used for a square.

Most Varied:

· Short Stories: Individual, Bottom of the TBR, Sequels

· Published in the 00s, Bottom of the TBR, Short Stories: Individual

Most Similar:

· Set in the Middle East, Featuring Robots (thanks Murderbot!), Superheroes

· Featuring Robots, Set in the Middle East, Druids

Misc. Shame

I mass edited 17,287 columns for the Title and 28,559 for the Author. Then did a pass through excel for outliers that clusters couldn’t find.

• Worst offense for author S.A Chakraborty, i.e. S.A Chakraborty S.A. (Shannon) Chakraborty, Shannon Chakraborty, etc.

• Worst offense for Title Before the Coree Gets Cold, just too many before and after’s

• I loath multiple authors and as such the word “and” in-between them!

• Thankfully I did not encounter any “yes” title or authors this year!

• BUT!!! I’m moving u/smartflutist661 warning out and into Bingo Stats Hell for those who put the title as “last name, first name”

Overall I really enjoyed it . Dalinar is easily one of my favorite characters of all time. Shallan was great too. I liked kaladin, but alot of the time was him just obsessing over not being able to save everyone and it got annoying.

I don't mind big books but I think you could cut or one or two hundred pages and not miss anything. The characters have a bad habit of repeating themselves. What did you guys think of it ?

I'm "new" to reading, every now and then i read one book a year, or every 5 years...

some months ago i acquired an ebook reader and started getting serious, 15 books read on the last months!

But the point is, and this is happening quite often, i'm reading a book, still halfway through but i liked it a lot, and would like to check if it has sequences, so i go online and see that there is a book 2, and the first words of its description are "Now that the main character killed their father and became a dark wizard..."

Why? Just Why?

Why can't they give a brief introduction to the story of the 2nd or 3rd book without spoiling the first?!

I guess it is lesson learned for me and whenever i start a book i need to block it from my socials, because even without actively searching it sometimes i get ads, and guess what, they spoil it too!!!!

Just a rant but actually curious, what do you people do? Avoid?

In this series i am reading, the last part of the book was kind of sad for me, because i already knew where the story was going even before hints of it started to appear, i still liked it but i lost the surprise and plot turn there.

Obviously don't write what the twist is. Just give me recs so I can add them to my tbr and then forget about them. When I get to them eventually I'll hopefully find some mind blowing reads.

Series works too of course. And no need to mention which one has the twist.

I am here to talk about a book that no one on this sub has heard about, nor do they recommended it all the time, whether it fits what the poster is asking for or not: The Way of Kings, by Brandon Sanderson.

Before I get into the meat of the book, this book ought to feel proud of itself. It fulfills three of my book-related reading goals this year: 1)The Multi-POV square on my themed book bingo card 2) Read at least 10 lion-squashers this year and 3) read the books I already own. Good job, Way of Kings.

Now, it's good. It's great. There's a reason people love this series. It's so much fun, and cinematic to boot. That said, I'm glad I knew a bit about the Stormlight Archives going in, because it gave me a good idea for who to really keep track of. I also have to commend Sanderson for keeping the narrative so tight, given the size of the world, the amount of worldbuilding, and the sheer number of storylines being juggled. For the three people left who haven't read any Sanderson, the best way I can explain it is that if Sanderson's works were the MCU, his other books would be the standalone hero series, and Stormlight is more akin to Infinity War. Unless you just hate high fantasy, this is an excellent book to try; it absolutely earns its page count.

WHERE I EARN THE SPOILER TAG

Out of all the leads, this is absolutely Kaladin's book. Much of the flashbacks are used to flesh him out, show his backstory, and let the reader know where he is coming from. If Sanderson weren't going for a full-throated epic, Kaladin could absolutely carry a trilogy on his own. Does he follow a bunch of underdog hero tropes? Yup. But Sanderson characterizes him well, and gives him a good few chinks in his armor, so he never feels like too much of a stock character. When he orders Bridge Four to turn around??!! Guys. GUYS. I had to take a lap around the house. Also, I need something bad to happen to Roshone. Not for Kaladin, but for me,

Dalinar was actually the character I most looked forward to hearing from, mostly because he really drove the main plot of the "world", while Kaladin was off quietly causing chaos and carrying the heart of the book. He and Adolin have this Uther/Arthur Pendragon type relationship, which did so much to humanize the house itself. Elhokar can go take a hike. Let Dalinar do what he needs to do. And screw you Sadeas.

Shallan didn't play as big of a role as I thought she would, given that she had a decent amount of screen time at the beginning. But when she did show up, she packed a punch. Mostly because of her bad decision-making, but still. Sometimes her sense of humor was annoying, but her I'm also an annoying person, so I feel that.

It's so good y'all. At time of writing this, I'm already halfway through Words of Radiance. And then I can participate in all the fun Stormlight Archive discussion posts/mememaking/reference-making! Yay!

Rating: 9/10 Soulcasters

Hard Mode: Absolutely.

Also qualifies for: First in a series, Dreams, Prologues and Epilogues, Character with a Disability, Survival, Reference Materials, Book Club Book

So many popular fantasy stories, light and dark, have this tropey concept of the dark one, like the whole journey of the protagonist revolves around prophecy and waiting for the "dark one" to appear. It just makes the climax very predictable and is almost never satisfactory. Nothing against them but I just want something more intriguing and unpredictable, and unique. ASOIAF (GOT), for example, was focuses around politics and is so big in scope that you have no idea where it's going. I've only read the first book but I'm pretty sure there's no Night king or an ultimate dark villain like the show.

To clarify, it can contain dark figures and prophecies obviously, as long as the whole story isn't centered around that.

I had not read Fantasy since I last read Eragon over a decade ago. However, the Broken Earth Trilogy by N.K. Jemisin blew me away and left me eager to delve deeper into speculative fiction.

After some research (and a couple of standalone fantasy books), I thought I would read the Mistborn trilogy as both modern fantasy 101, and an introduction to the Cosmere.

Some things I liked: the magic system, the variety of characters, plot execution.

Things I did not like: the dialogue and interpersonal relationships lacked subtlety and depth. The author was too on the nose about what each character’s defining trauma was—Vin’s distrust & Kelsier’s trauma from his wife’s betrayal and death. I HATED the romantic plot, because there was no chemistry. “You’re not like other girls/boys” is not compelling enough for me, even if the characters are 16-20.

Things that were fine: the prose. While I do appreciate beautiful, literary prose, I did not mind that Sanderson just gets to the point. I got a fun story out of it.

But… I have no appetite to read on. I don’t really care about what happens to the characters or the secrets behind the well of ascension. Maybe I’d read a book about Sazed alone, but that’s it.

I do want to read other works by Sanderson, especially since I’ve heard that he improves on character depth and relationships later on. If so, is it necessary to finish the trilogy? Is there another book by him that I could read to figure out whether I like him as an author?

Thanks in advance :)

TL;DR: I did not like the Final Empire, but want to try other Sanderson books. What should I read next?

Leaving this one up more to personal opinion. Antagonists are sometimes some of the most interesting characters in a fantasy novel with their actions and behaviors. The antagonist can be any character or particular group that manages to fit that role. I'm curious to know why they are considered to be the best in your opinion. Some immediately come to mind and I expect them to make the list, but always looking for more that I don't know about. It might be best to list what book or series its a from for context.

In your opinion, what are the best fantasy antagonists?

So basically I started a playthrough of Ghostwire: Tokyo. And i really like the vibe of the game. SO maybe someone could recommend something with a similar themes. Something except Junji Ito`s body of work. Preferably a book or a novel. But i don't mind manga too. Especial if it has Kuchisake-Onna or Hanako-san in the story.

I'm really into fantasy and I've read most of the "mainstream" series. Currently, I'm looking for books more focused on character development and with no "supreme being/gods" good vs evil stuff.

For reference, my favorite series is the Realm of the Elderlings, by Robbin Hobb. Also love the Michael J Sullivan works.

Thanks in advance

ps. today I started considering the Wandering Inn by Pirateaba or The Sun Eater by Christopher Ruocchio

I just finished this book by Christopher Buehlman. Wow, what a trip! It felt almost like reading a dream. I really enjoyed it especially because it felt pretty period true. I have read a nonfiction book about the Black Death and this book kept me thinking of it over and over. Really good read!

I picked up empire of silence several months ago and stopped while travelling on flight, immediately DNF'ED at 59%. Never looked back and flipped another page. Something just snapped on that night,

!possibly the endless rotations of supporting characters going into poof just because he is built like a "god", most of the time characters don't stick around for long. Attachments were easily diminished compared to his longevity. I understand this book is about HIM, but to no extend does it care about supporting characters in my opinion so far reading EoR.!<

But basically non spoiler wise, it stemmed on me not adapting and enjoying the transition from finishing Red Rising's morning Star by Pierce Brown to this, it was too slow in comparison. I have no doubt about the quality of writing, i myself find it very helpful towards my vocabularly, however the pacing is heaven and earth against EoR.

Went picking up on Will of the Many, and yet again another quick pacing book. Unsurprisingly completed it in 2days. Does this really mean Empire of Silence is done for me? Or is there hope... please encourage / convince me if there is!

edit: Thanks all who have made time to relate ro my feelings about the book at this %. Seems like its worth my time to see until the end of book 1 at the very least. I'm going to resume grabbing this book back from where i stopped! Good luck for other readers that felt the same way.

I'm a little bored of reading long, epic fantasy novels with hundreds of characters and several timelines. Looking for a simpler fantasy novel that feels magical in a childlike fascination sort of way, if you get what I mean. Size is not a problem, but I don't want to commit to a series, so a standalone is ideal. Think 'His Dark Materials' style.

Hey folks! Like it says on the tin, I'm LM Sagas, debut author of the wicked-fun, high-octane sci-fi series, Ambit's Run. Book one of the series, CASCADE FAILURE, came out last month from Tor; and book two, GRAVITY LOST, releases in just three months (July 23). This is my first AMA, and I'm super stoked to be here chatting all things SFF, writing, and whatever else y'all want to drop into the comments!

While you're here, don't forget to sign up for your chance to win a copy of CASCADE FAILURE, along with a bookmark, signed bookplate, and exclusive art card of Team Ambit! One winner, open internationally. Just fill out the form here to enter before 6pm (CST) today.

A little about the book--CASCADE FAILURE is a gritty, fast-paced scifi adventure for fans of Firefly, Becky Chambers, and Murderbot, featuring a messy crew of lovable disasters as they throw down with half the universe to stop a planet-killing computer virus from spreading across settled space. You can grab the trade paperback from most retailers, and it's also available in eBook and audiobook (narrated by the inimitable Torian Brackett) formats.

• From Publishers Weekly: "Rapid-fire adventures spiked with army jargon and balanced with touching resolutions of personal conflicts keep the pages turning. Add in a charming found family—and even a space-faring cat—and this spirited space opera is a resounding success."
• From Locus Magazine: "Twists and turns, peril and potential, emotional ... and unexpected revelations combine in a fast-paced and atmospheric novel of action and intrigue."
• From a Surprising Number of Folks on Goodreads: "I laughed so hard I almost threw up."

So, now that you know a little bit about me and my book(s)--AMA!

Which series has characters you would like to know in real life?

Absolutely love this series and have listened to it multiple times but I am looking to start a new one. Preferably something in the forgotten realms.

Any suggestions?

SFF here means all speculative fiction (fantasy, science fiction, horror, alternate history, magical realism etc).

The following SFF books will be published in the U.S. in May 2024. Other countries may differ.

If you know of others, please add them as comments below. If I've made any mistakes, just let me know, and I'll fix them up.

The published book formats are included with each entry (mostly hardcover and/or trade paperback with the occasional ebook). This information is obtained from the isfdb website which lists one format type for each entry but mostly omits ebook entries. If it's a new hardcover and/or trade paperback book, it's very likely that an ebook is also coming out at the same time.

If you are using the Chrome browser, you might find the Goodreads Right Click extension useful, to find out more information on books that you are interested in:

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/goodreads-right-click/fbicpmopjallgdpklipffmihodimmcbe?hl=en

​

Key

(A) - Anthology

(C) - Collection

(CB) - Chapbook

(GN) - Graphic Novel

(N) - Novel

(NF) - Nonfiction

(O) - Omnibus

(R) - Reprint

(YA) - Young Adult and Juvenile

[eb] - eBook

[hc] - Hardcover

[tp] - Trade Paperback

​

May 1

• Primal Hunt (Midnight Hunters 9) - L. L. Raand (N) [tp]

• The Ghostlands of Natalie Glasgow - Hailey Piper (CB) [hc] (#ehh)

• Undead Folk - Katherine Silva (CB) [eb] [hc] [tp] (#ehh)

• Voyage of the Wanderlust (Spaceship Initiative / Tri-Galactic Trek) - Mary E. Lowd (N) [tp]

• Whispers of Apple Blossoms - Brett Mitchell Kent (N) [eb] (#ehh)

May 3

• The Ill-Fitting Skin - Shannon Robinson (N) [tp] (#ehh)

• Marked for Sorrow - Y.M. Miller (CB) [eb] (#ehh)

May 6

• The Harvest - Diego Rauda (N) [eb] [tp] (#ehh)

May 7

• A Glitch in the Protocols (Terminate the Other World! 2) - Icalos (N) [tp]

• An Intrigue of Witches (Secret Society Mysteries 1) - Esme Addison (N) [hc]

• Archangels of Funk - Andrea Hairston (N) [hc]

• Barbarian Incursion (Sapiens 1) - Persimmon (N) [tp]

• Beastly Beauty - Jennifer Donnelly (N) (YA) [hc]

• Beyond the Isle of the Lost (The Isle of the Lost 5) - Melissa de la Cruz (N) (YA) [hc]

• Beyond the Ranges - James Aidee, John Ringo (N) [hc]

• Burning Crowns (Twin Crowns 3) - Catherine Doyle, Katherine Webber (N) (YA) [hc]

• Can't Spell Treason Without Tea (Tomes & Tea 1) - Rebecca Thorne (N) [tp]

• Chromatic (Color Theory 3) - Ashley Bustamante (N) [hc]

• City of the Undead (Zombicide: Black Plague) - C. L. Werner (N) [tp]

• Coco Twinkles - Maddy Mara (CB) (YA) [tp]

• Dawn of the Last Dragon Rider (The Last Dragon Rider 1) - Shawn Wilson (N) [tp]

• Death's Country - R. M. Romero (N) [hc]

• Dungeons Just Wanna Have Fun (Dungeons Just Wanna Have Fun 1) - Maxlex (N) [tp]

• Dusty in the Outwilds - Rhiannon Williams (N) (YA) [hc]

• Elevation of Mana (Elevation of Mana 1) - Wandering Agent (N) [tp]

• Fimbulwinter (Stranger Than Fiction 3) - T. B. Mare (N) [tp]

• Five Broken Blades - Mai Corland (N) [hc] [hc]

• For Eternity (Filthy Rich Vampires 4) - Geneva Lee (N) [tp]

• For a Lifetime (Timeless 3) - Gabrielle Meyer (N) [hc] [tp]

• Fortune's Envoy (Cyber Dreams 3) - Plum Parrot (N) [tp]

• Ghostroots - 'Pemi Aguda (C) [hc]

• Henry Heckelbeck Does Not Need a Sitter - Wanda Coven (CB) (YA) [tp] [hc]

• Hyde & Seek (Jekyll & Hyde Inc. 2) - Simon R. Green (N) [hc]

• I Ran Away to Evil (I Ran Away to Evil 1) - Mystic Neptune (N) [tp]

• Into the Sideways World - Ross Welford (N) (YA) [tp]

• Jerry, Let Me See the Moon - Jeffrey Ebbeler (N) (YA) [hc]

• Loneliness & Company - Charlee Dyroff (N) [hc]

• Mother Knows Best: Tales of Homemade Horror - Lindy Ryan (Editor) (A) [eb] (#ehh)

• No Malto Left Behind! - Ryder Windham (CB) (YA) [tp] [hc]

• People in Glass Houses (Harmony) - Jayne Castle (N) [hc]

• Perfect Little Monsters - Cindy R. X. He (N) [eb] [tp] (#ehh)

• Queens of Themiscyra - Hannah Lynn (N) [tp]

• Quest for the Wishing Stone (Dungeoneer Adventures 3) - Ben Costa, James Parks (N) (YA) [hc]

• Red Side Story (Shades of Grey 2) - Jasper Fforde (N) [eb] [hc] [tp]

• Rooster and the Dancing Diablo (Los Monstruos 2) - Diana López (N) (YA) [hc]

• Seize the Day (Empress 1) - J. V. Simms (N) [tp]

• Shock the Monkey (The N.O.A.H Files 2) - Eric Elfman, Neal Shusterman (N) (YA) [hc]

• Skandar and the Chaos Trials (Skandar 3) - A. F. Steadman (N) (YA) [hc]

• Spin of Fate (The Fifth Realm 1) - A. A. Vora (N) (YA) [hc]

• Supplication - Nour Abi-Nakhoul (N) [eb] [tp] (#ehh)

• Sweet Nightmare (The Calder Academy 1) - Tracy Wolff (N) (YA) [hc]

• The Brides of High Hill (The Singing Hills Cycle 5) - Nghi Vo (CB) [hc]

• The Daily Grind 4 (The Daily Grind 4) - Argus (I) (N) [tp]

• The Dark Side of the Sky - Francesco Dimitri (N) [tp]

• The Demon of the Absurd - Rachilde (C) [tp]

• The Eccentrics (Knight Watch 3) - Tim Akers (N) [tp]

• The Games of Olympus (Theos 2) - Arthur Wordsmith (N) [tp]

• The Hunting Dark (The Enlightenment Project 2) - Lynn Hightower (N) [hc]

• The Ministry of Time - Kaliane Bradley (N) [eb] [hc]

• The Silver Curse (The Silver Curse 1) - Anna Orr (N) [tp]

• The Silverblood Promise (The Last Legacy 1) - James Logan (N) [tp] [hc]

• The Skandar Collection (Skandar 1-3) - A. F. Steadman (O) (YA) [hc]

• The Sky King (Skyriders 2) - Polly Holyoke (N) (YA) [tp]

• The Sword Unbound (Lands of the Firstborn 2) - Gareth Hanrahan (N) [tp]

• The Things We Miss - Leah Stecher (N) (YA) [hc]

• The Traitor's Son - Dave Duncan (N) [tp]

• The Z Word - Lindsay King-Miller (N) [eb] [tp] (#ehh)

• Thelma the Unicorn - Kate Howard (CB) (YA) [tp]

• True Colors - Abby Cooper (N) (YA) [hc]

• When the Devil - Emma E. Murray (CB) [tp] (#ehh)

• World of Wreckage (Torth 3) - Abby Goldsmith (N) [tp]

May 9

• Flooded Secrets (The Chronicles of Nerezia 2) - Claudie Arsenault (N) [eb] [tp]

May 12

• 41: An Autobiography - J.D. Buffington (NF) [eb] [tp] (#ehh)

May 14

• As the Sparrow Flies (Sojourners' Saga 1) - Chad Corrie (N) [tp]

• Blood & Fury - Tessa Gratton, Justina Ireland (N) (YA) [hc]

• Blood on the Tide (Crimson Sails 2) - Katee Robert (N) [tp]

• Burning Sky - John Darnton (N) [hc]

• Cinderwich - Cherie Priest (N) [tp]

• Clairboyance - Kristiana Kahakauwila (N) (YA) [hc]

• Cloaked Deception - Timothy Zahn (N) [hc]

• Dry Lands - Elizabeth Anne Martins (N) [tp]

• Finn and Ezra's Bar Mitzvah Time Loop - Joshua S. Levy (N) (YA) [hc]

• Flyboy - Kasey LeBlanc (N) (YA) [hc]

• Horizon of War (Horizon of War 1) - Hanne (I) (N) [tp]

• Howls from the Scene of the Crime: An Anthology of Crime Horror - Jessica Peter & Timaeus Bloom (Editors) (A) [hc] [tp] (#ehh)

• I'm Afraid You've Got Dragons - Peter S. Beagle (N) [hc]

• It Waits in the Forest - Sarah Dass (N) [hc]

• Moon Madness (Camp Sylvania 2) - Crystal Maldonado, Julie Murphy (N) (YA) [hc]

• My Darling Dreadful Thing - Johanna van Veen (N) [tp]

• Onyeka and the Heroes of the Dawn (Onyeka 3) - Tọlá Okogwu? (N) (YA) [hc]

• Player Manager 3 (Player Manager 3) - Ted Steel (N) [tp]

• Puzzleheart - Jenn Reese (N) (YA) [hc]

• Rise of the Strongest Sovereign 2 (Rise of the Strongest Sovereign 2) - Kaz Hunter (N) [tp]

• Road to Ruin (Magebike Courier 1) - Hana Lee (N) [tp]

• The Amethyst Kingdom (The Five Crowns of Okrith 5) - A. K. Mulford (N) [tp] [hc]

• The Boo Hag Flex - Justina Ireland (CB) (YA) [hc]

• The City Beyond the Stars (The Kingdom Over the Sea 2) - Zohra Nabi (N) (YA) [hc]

• The Dangerous Ones - Lauren Blackwood (N) (YA) [hc]

• The Garden of Delights - Amal Singh (N) [tp]

• The Gift of Guthix (RuneScape) - Erin M. Evans (N) [tp]

• The Haunting of Lake Lucy (Ghost Writers 1) - Sandy Deutscher Green (N) (YA) [tp] [hc]

• The Honey Witch - Sydney J. Shields (N) [tp]

• The House That Horror Built - Christina Henry (N) [eb] [tp] (#ehh)

• The Last Rhee Witch - Jenna Lee-Yun (N) (YA) [hc]

• The Many Faces of Ista Flit (Tidemagic 1) - Clare Harlow (N) (YA) [hc]

• The Red Grove - Tessa Fontaine (N) [eb] [hc] (#ehh)

• The Witches of Bellinas - J. Nicole Jones [eb] [hc] (#ehh)

• The Wolf's Eye (The Order of the Seven Stars 2) - Luanne G. Smith (N) [tp]

• The Worst Perfect Moment - Shivaun Plozza (N) (YA) [hc]

• Tomorrowing - Terry Bisson (C) [hc] [tp]

• Truth or Wolf - Anne Marsh (N) [tp]

• Woodworm - Layla Martinez, trans. Sophie Hughes & Annie McDermott (CB) [eb] [tp] (#ehh)

May 16

• Lost in the Garden - Adam S. Leslie (N) [eb] [tp] (#ehh)

May 17

• Kosa - John Durgin (N) [eb] [tp] (#ehh)

• Religion and Science Fiction: An Introduction - James H. Thrall (NF) [tp] [hc]

May 20

• The Lamplighter - Crystal J. Bell (N) (YA) [tp]

May 21

• A House Like an Accordion - Audrey Burges (N) [tp]

• Battlemaster (Victor of Tucson 5) - Plum Parrot (N) [tp]

• Blood Torn (The Immortals (Shelley Wilson) 2) - Shelley Wilson (N) [hc] [tp]

• Chained Destinies - D. Jordan Redhawk (N) [tp]

• Cruel Nights - Jason Nahrung (N) [tp]

• Escape Velocity - Victor Manibo (N) [hc]

• Final Strike (The Dresden Codex 3) - Jeff Wheeler (N) [tp]

• Freeset (Four Cities 2) - Sarina Dahlan (N) [tp]

• Goddess of the River - Vaishnavi Patel (N) [hc]

• Head Full of Lies (Harlan Winter 2) - Jordan Farmer (N) [tp]

• Heavenbreaker - Sara Wolf (N) [hc]

• Hidden Fury - Bjorn Hasseler (CB) [tp]

• How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying (Dark Lord Davi 1) - Django Wexler (N) [tp]

• In Our Stars (The Doomed Earth 1) - Jack Campbell (N) [hc]

• In the Shallows - Tanya Byrne (N) [hc]

• Journey's Revenge (1544 2) - Simone Kelly (N) [tp]

• Keepers of the Stones and Stars - Michael Barakiva (N) (YA) [hc]

• Liar's Test - Ambelin Kwaymullina (N) (YA) [hc] [hc]

• Little Sisters and Other Stories - Vonda N. McIntyre (C) [tp]

• Looking for Love in All the Haunted Places - Claire Kann (N) [tp]

• Lost Ark Dreaming - Suyi Davies Okungbowa (N) [hc]

• Mazi - Koji A. Dae (CB) [eb] [tp] (#ehh)

• Mind Games - Nora Roberts (N) [hc]

• Pliable Truths (Star Trek: The Next Generation) - Dayton Ward (N) [tp]

• Relight My Fire (The Stranger Times 4) - C. K. McDonnell (N) [hc] [tp]

• Reverberations (Manabound 2) - Travis Albrecht (N) [tp]

• The Charmed Friends of Trove Isle - Annie Rains (N) [tp]

• The Dead Spot: Stories of Lost Girls - Angela Sylvaine (C) [eb] [tp] (#ehh)

• The Lamplighter - Crystal J. Bell (N) [eb] [tp] (#ehh)

• The Magic Paintbrush - Eric Darnell, Kat Zhang (N) (YA) [hc]

• The Menace at the Mall - Steve Behling (CB) (YA) [hc]

• The Road Trip Rewind - Danny Tamberelli, Kate Tamberelli (N) [tp]

• The Shabti - Mageara C Lorenz (N) [eb] [hc] [tp]

• Vainglorious (Ciaphas Cain) - Sandy Mitchell (N) [tp]

• We Mostly Come Out at Night: 15 Queer Tales of Monsters, Angels & Other Creatures - Rob Costello (A) [hc]

• You Like It Darker - Stephen King (C) [hc]

May 23

• Find Him and Kill Him - Cody J. Thompson (N) [eb] [tp] (#ehh)

• Cursed Shards: Tales of Dark Folklore - Leanbh Pearson (Editor) (A) [eb] [tp] (#ehh)

May 24

• Blood Covenant - Alan Baxter (N) [eb] (#ehh)

May 28

• Beyond the Aetherial Veil (Odyssey of the Ethereal 2) - Jamie Kojola (N) [tp]

• Dreadful - Caitlin Rozakis (N) [tp]

• Evan Miller Is Waking Down (Dreambending) - Jerel Law (N) (YA) [tp]

• Flawless Girls - Anna-Marie McLemore (N) (YA) [hc]

• Ghostdrift (The Finder Chronicles 4) - Suzanne Palmer (N) [hc]

• NecroTek (NecroTek 1) - Jonathan Maberry (N) [hc]

• Shadows in the Stacks: A Horror Anthology - Vincent V. Cava, James Sabata, & Jared Sage (Editors) (A) [tp] (#ehh)

• Song of the Mysteries (The Wars of Light and Shadow Arc IV: Sword of the Canon 3) - Janny Wurts (N) [hc]

• The Burning Witch 3 (The Burning Witch 3) - Delemhach (N) [tp]

• The Fireborne Blade (The Fireborne Blade 1) - Charlotte Bond (N) [hc]

• The Only Light Left Burning (All That's Left in the World 2) - Erik J. Brown (N) (YA) [hc]

• The Rictus Grin and Other Tales of Insanity - Erica Summers (C) [eb] [tp] (#ehh)

• Waking the Dead and Other Fun Activities - Casey Lyall (N) (YA) [hc]

May 29

• Feral - Bryan Alaspa (N) [eb] (#ehh)

May 30

• From the Belly - Emmett Nahil (N) [eb] [tp] (#ehh) (#ehh)

​

Edit1: Added in horror books listed on Emily C. Hughes' blog that I didn't already have (tag #ehh)

​

Archive

Previous "SFF books coming ..." posts have been collected here. (Thank you mods).

​

Main Sources

• ISFDB forthcoming books at https://www.isfdb.org/fc.cgi

• Rob J Hayes' monthly blog posting on new self-published books: https://www.robjhayes.co.uk/blog/

• io9's monthly list of new sci-fi and fantasy books.

• Horror books mentioned on Emily C. Hughes' blog: https://readjumpscares.com/

• Upcoming Sci-Fi & Fantasy Books listed at Risingshadow: https://www.risingshadow.net/library/comingbooks

• Locus Forthcoming Books https://locusmag.com/forthcomingbooks/

• Publisher "new" and "Coming Soon" web pages such as: https://publishing.tor.com/coming-soon/ and https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/imprint/orbit/

• Reviews of ARC books by various users in this sub.

• Other occasional posts to this sub announcing up-n-coming books.

Starter Villain is John Scalzi’s latest novel and in standard Scalzi fashion, it’s packed full of witticisms and social commentary. It follows Charlie, a down-on-his-luck ex-financial reporter turned substitute-teacher after a messy divorce and layoff upends his life. Charlie’s only asset is the house of his late father, which even then is managed by a trust. Only due to some sloppy legal wording in the will does he manage to live there in perpetuity. Life sucks for Charlie.

Charlie’s estranged uncle dies, and leaves behind his fortune attained from his parking garage empire. He is contacted by his uncle’s assistant, who informs him that it was the final wishes of his uncle to purchase his house from the trust and gift it to Charlie outright—but only if he stands for his uncle at the funeral. As far as deals go, that’s a pretty straightforward no-brainer, but then it starts to get a little weird at the funeral.

I didn’t see the knife until the dude was just about to stab it into my uncle’s corpse.

More accurately, I did see it. But my brain didn’t register it as an actual, no-bullshit, holy-shit-that’s-actually-a-knife knife until the dude, who had produced it from an overcoat pocket, cocked back his arm in a windup to drive the frankly rather substantial blade into my uncle’s already cold and lifeless heart.

Things continue apace from there as it’s revealed that Uncle Jake wasn’t just a parking garage magnate, but primarily was a super villain complete with a volcano island base and sapient henchmen cats. Oh, and this is all yours now, Charlie. Stop worrying about the old house and worry about more pressing things, like how the dolphins are on a labor strike.

“I was in a union myself,” I said. “Chicago Tribune Guild.”

“But you’re not anymore, are you? Now you’re management! A suppurating bourgeois fistula of oppression!”

“Bourgeois fistula! Bourgeois fistula!” the rest of the dolphins chimed in unison.

​

There’s a lot to like in Starter Villain. It’s incredibly readable, has a good amount of humor throughout, and has some solid commentary on venture capitalists, tech bros, and executive culture (one of the main villainous income strategies is selling everything as a service, of course). There’s some cool things here, like class-aware dolphins and feline spies.

But I also found it to have a bit too much of the standard Scalzi weak spots as well. Characterization is shallow, if not entirely non-existent. Everyone is wrapped in witticisms to the point that I was finding myself losing track of what person said what clever line during dialogues. Characters lack unique voices completely, and exist really more as a way for Scalzi to explore the ideas. This is his style, but it worked for me much better in Redshirts than here.

Honestly, outside of some excellent high points (do I need to mention the dolphins again?) I found the book to be sort of.. uneventful. I don’t think I’ll say boring, because I never struggled to read it, but it was far blander than I was expecting. The main stage for the story is an international villain conference that doesn’t really ooze with excitement, and there’s no strong characterization to save the book from the slower parts.

I think Scalzi handicaps himself with limitations that dampen the creativity of the setting. Yes, your uncle was worth a trillion dollars, but his companies and holdings are so massively illiquid that you really only have 5 million bucks or so at any time. And yes, we are incredibly powerful and governments rely on us for a huge swath of services they can’t get anywhere else, but oh my god what do you mean your fingerprints are on a murder weapon, we could be in serious trouble! These decisions managed to strike me as profoundly silly in a book that already didn’t take itself seriously. You either have power*,* or you don’t. I couldn’t help but thinking there could have been far more creative ways to explore this version of super villainy than worrying about someone planting fingerprints on a pistol. It deflated it a bit for me.

And the ending.. yeah, I couldn’t stand it. I won’t spoil anything here but it felt like a very lazy and bland twist—to the point I would have preferred it if things weren’t explained. It was the final knife in the corpse for me.

But ending aside, I didn’t really ever dislike reading the book. It was fast, there were some exceptionally entertaining parts, and the boring parts were dull but not actively annoying. It just didn’t have the polish it needed to shine.

3/5 stars.

You should read Starter Villain if:

• You want a fast, humorous read for your cross-country airplane flight.
• You’re fine with weaker characterization, and heavy witticisms.
• You’ve read Scalzi before and like his style.

This is also posted on my blog: I Should Read More.

​

https://preview.redd.it/rljz9vx2xmwc1.png?width=685&format=png&auto=webp&s=f411a81ee030eb95fe5a43a10f13452fa24df366

I was reading a book earlier this month and the plot twist was that the MC’s best friend was secretly evil and wanted to rule everything and stuff but it felt like the author just pulled the plot twist out of nowhere.