Way back in January, I kicked off a game of bingo. Much to my surprise, I’ve seen a few others hooping in to join. The goal of book bingo is, of course, to tick off some boxes, but beyond that it’s an attempt to broaden horizons and seek out books that we might otherwise overlook. In mine, there are twenty-five challenges to complete, and now that we’re at the end of the year, it’s time to see how I did.
Another One Bites The Dust – Defiant, by Brandon Sanderson
Good Things In Small Packages – Flight of Honour, by Richard S. McEnroe
Welcome Aboard – Deathworlder, by Victoria Hayward
Old Timer – Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley
Beep Boop – Service Model, by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Under The Radar – Siege of Vraks, by Steve Lyons
Small Beginnings – Raft, by Stephen Baxter
All Tied Up – Star Trek: Shadow Lord, by Laurence Yep
Bits & Pieces – Before the Golden Age 3, edited by Isaac Asimov
Better, Together – The Heir of Caladan, by Brian Herbert & Kevin J. Anderson
Best Buds – A Canticle for Leibowitz, by Walter M. Miller Jr.
No One Can Hear You Scream – FAILED
FREE SPACE – Fractal Noise, by Christopher Paolini
A Ship & A Crew – Star Trek: Intellivore, by Diane Duane
Cultural Exchange – A View from the Stars, by Cixin Liu
Supermassive – The Reality Dysfunction, by Peter F. Hamilton
Nothing Human – Startide Rising, by David Brin
Centennial – Lord of the World, by Robert Hugh Benson
Terra Firma – Death Wave, by Ben Bova
The Popular Kid – Way Station, by Clifford D. Simak
Strange New Worlds – Starwolf, by Edmond Hamilton
All Guns Blazing – Ender’s Game, by Orson Scott Card
Four-Legged Friend – FAILED
You Are Here – Stand on Zanzibar, by John Brunner
Well, well, well. Would you look at that? I only failed to find a book for two of the challenges. One could argue that David Brin’s Uplift series fits the Four-Legged Friend box, but since those animals are uplifted, I chose not to use it. Animal companions have been sadly absent, though there have been a fair few monsters along the way.
On the topic of monsters, I couldn’t find an SF horror book, though a few Warhammer books had their horrible moments. SF horror is something I’m definitely going to look into in 2025, so feel free to hit me up with recommendations, because I am clearly flailing around in the dark.
I don’t know if I’ll do a new Bingo next year, but there will definitely be some kind of SF Challenge. Let me know if this is something you’d be interested in.
At Boundary's Edge 
