Summer is well and truly here, time to slow down and read all the books. It’s also time for one last round of fantasy suggestions to help those taking part in Annemieke’s Dancing with Fantasy and Sci-Fi reading challenge! 

Dance magic dance

The Dancing with Fantasy and Sci-Fi reading challenge is a casual prompt challenge that is running right through until the end of the year. You can play books you’ve already read this year to fill your dance card if you decide to join the dance now – you’re not limited to books you read between now and New Year (…which really would be ambitious, blimey).

There are three dance cards: SF, Fantasy and General (which is a bonus category of 10 extra prompts to pair with either or both of the other cards). The challenge is to read a book for every prompt on each card you play, but each book can only be counted against one prompt.

What to read?

There are some straightforward prompts to get you started (with the genre or just with the happy buzz of filling your card), and some more challenging ones to help push you a little. The trick is to remember that the prompt doesn’t need to be the primary focus of the plot – it just has to feature in some way!

I’m suggesting 3-10 books per prompt, split across 3 sub-categories: well-loved books for genre classics and/or bestsellers; new in 2019 for new releases I’m excited about; and top tips for personal favourites and/or books I’m really intrigued to read. My suggestions include books from my possible challenge TBR, plus books I’ve read and recommend (marked with an asterisk*).

	Well-loved	New in 2019	Top tips
Gods	Jacqueline Carey: Kushiel’s Dart* Robert Jackson Bennett: City of Stairs*	Silvia Moreno-Garcia: Gods of Jade and Shadow Julie E Czerneda: The Gossamer Mage Ann Leckie: The Raven Tower	Tasha Suri: Empire of Sand* Pat O’Shea: The Hounds of the Morrigan*
Animal Companion	Naomi Novik: Temeraire* Tamora Pierce: Alanna*	Paul Krueger: The Steel Crow Saga Kira Jane Buxton: HollowKingdom	Kristen Britain: Green Rider Robert Westall: The Cats of Seroster*
Matriarchy	William Moulton Marston: The Wonder Woman Chronicles† Naomi Alderman: The Power	Samantha Shannon: The Priory of the Orange Tree	Alexandra Christo: To Kill A Kingdom* Michelle West: The Sun Sword
Set in our world	Seanan McGuire: Discount Armageddon* David Mitchell: The Thousand Autumns of David de Zoet	David Dalglish: Soulkeeper T Frohock: Where Oblivion Lives Roshani Chokshi: The Gilded Wolves	Ellen Klages: Passing Strange* Bryan Camp: The City of Lost Fortunes Daniel Jose Older: Shadowshaper
Witches	Madeline Miller: Circe Alice Hoffman: Practical Magic	Shelby Mahurin: Serpent and Dove Sarah Beth Durst: The Deepest Blue	Paul Cornell: Witches of Lychford* Kate Forsyth: The Witches of Eileanan
Magical Law Enforcement	Ilona Daniels: Magic Bites Jasper Fforde: The Eyre Affair	P Djèlí Clark: The Haunting of Tram Car 015 Marshall Ryan Maresca:  A Parliament of Bodies (The Maradaine Constabulary 3)	Daniel O’Malley: The Rook* Sergei Lukyanenko: Nightwatch* George Mann: Wychwood*
Thief	J R R Tolkien: The Hobbit* Megan Whalen Turner: The Thief V E Schwab: A Darker Shade of Magic*	Gareth Hanrahan: The Gutter Prayer Zoraida Córdova:  Hollow Crown Cate Glass: An Illusion of Thieves	Intisar Khanani: Sunbolt* Gelineau & King: Best Left In The Shadows*
Pirates	Tim Powers: On Stranger Tides Robin Hobb: Ship of Magic William Goldman: The Princess Bride	Danielle L Jensen: Dark Shores Surely there must be more! Any ideas?	Alexandra Christo: To Kill A Kingdom* Tricia Levenseller: Daughter of the Pirate King
Portal fantasy	Guy Gavriel Kay: The Summer Tree* Michael Ende: The Neverending Story*	Erin Morgenstern: The Starless Sea Alix E Harrow: The Ten Thousand Doors of January	Foz Meadows: An Accident of Stars Barbara Hambly: The Time of the Dark*
Warrior	Rebecca Roanhorse: Trail of Lightning* Mark Lawrence: Red Sister Andrzej Sapkowski: The Witcher	Evan Winter: The Rag of Dragons Anthony Ryan: The Wolf’s Call M L Wang: The Sword of Kaigen	Katharine Kerr: Daggerspell* Serial Box: Born to the Blade* Bradley Beaulieu: Twelve Kings

† Obviously this is an excuse to read any Wonder Woman really, but since seeing Dr Marston and the Wonder Women, if – and it’s a big if – I were to finally pop my comics cherry this is almost certainly where I’d start.

Looking for more suggestions?

Annemieke published some excellent suggestions with the original challenge post – I’ve been trying to avoid overlap, so there’s plenty more for you to choose from! And then there’s my suggestions for the remaining prompts:

Sci-Fi dances: batch 1 | batch 2

Fantasy dances: batch 1

Got some suggestions? Add them in the comments!