tree wolf image by chic2view on 123RF.com

Somehow, we’ve come to the end of another fantastic Wyrd and Wonder.

This year promised to be bigger and better than ever to celebrate five years of this fantastic feature – and it did not disappoint!

As ever, a huge thanks to our hosts  Imyril, Lisa, Jorie, Ariana, and Annemieke for organising this extra special year.

I’d also like to thank all our contributors who joined in, who put up with my many links to Google Docs – thanks for making it fun Nils, Jonathan, Scarlett, Julia, Asha, Theo, Gray, Dorian, Shona, Hil, and Lucy.

So, how did we celebrate? 

Nils, Scarlett and I took part in this year’s read along of Guy Gavriel Kay’s The Summer Tree

Week 1 | Week 2| Week 3 | Week 4

Every Monday, we brought you our five-star reads in five words, each week focussing on the following topics:

Since Last Time  – our favourite reads since last year’s Wyrd and Wonder

Forest Fantasies – fantasy reads set in forests

Mascots – fantasy books featuring the Wyrd and Wonder mascots

Single-Serve – smaller fantasy reads

Subgenres – our favourite books from our favourite subgenres in fantasy

Every Thursday, Nils, Julia, and I looked back over five years’ worth of Wyrd and Wonder photo challenges

Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4

Our Tough Travels post for this month focused on the prompt of that day, Fantasy Landscapes

And Julia gave us an update of her favourite Self Published SFF books

Here’s what we read this month:

And we even managed to squeeze in some interviews, guest posts and cover reveals:

Interview with Steve McHugh

The Kheld King Cover reveal

Magic Systems – a Guest Post with Rebecca Zahabi

An Excerpt of The Splendid City by Karen Hueler

Interview with E. G. Creel

Interview with J. Michael White

Nils was in charge of the Bingo again this year!

As we did so well last year, we thought we’d give it another shot this year!

Here were the rules:

• Read fantasy books! Hopefully some of them match some of the prompts 🙂
• Each read may only be used for a single prompt
• Novellas count (for any prompt)
• The read-along prompt can only be completed by The Summer Tree by Guy Gavriel Kay
• Post your completed bingo card on your blog or any social media channel at the end of the month and tag me so I can see how you got on and include you in the draw
• Completed bingo cards must be posted by end of day on June 1st

We thought with The Hive doing this as a team it would also be a good way to see how diversely we all read during Wyrd and Wonder, and give you a glimpse into what we all enjoyed reading this month. As you can see the fantasy genre does have such a huge variety to it, it’s not all wizards and dragons!

Here’re the Bingo Squares we managed to cross off:

We managed to smash it once again! I mean, it helps having a large team of compulsive readers…

Below is a list of the books we read for each prompt, and which one of us read them. We’ve even included a bonus book, if more than one of us read a different book which fitted the same prompt. Links to Goodreads pages so you can bump up your TBR!

Enchanted Woods

Motherbridge by George Mann. (Graphic Novel)

Read by Beth.

Award Nominee

Temporary Agency by Rachel Pollack.

Read by Jonathan Thornton.

Say it in Verse

The First Poems in English poetry collection.

Read by Asha.

Portal Fantasy 

Wandering Inn by Piratebea.

Read by Julia.

Wolf 

The Hunger of the Gods by John Gwynne.

Read by Nils.  

Epic

Dragon Mage by M.L. Spencer.

Read by Dorian Hart.

Crow

Yesterday Crumb and the Storm in a Teacup by Andy Sagar.

Read by Asha.

Don’t Leave the Path

Dragon Storm: Ellis and Pathseeker by Alastair Chisholm.

Read by Asha.

Shapeshifters

Where Werewolves Fear to Tread by Alan Gordon.

Read by Julia.

Bonus

Kinship and Kindness by Kara Jorgensen.

Read by Asha

Bite-sized Delight

Walking on Cowrie Shells collection of short stories by Nana Nkweti

Read by Jonathan.

Pegasus

Misrule by Heather Walter.

Read by Asha. 

Fae

Nettle and Bone by T. Kingfisher

Read by Julia.

Freebie

We Burn Together by Isabel Ibañez.

Read by Shona. 

Fictional Language

Meta: Game On by Xander Black.

Read by Lucy.

Bonus

A Ritual of Flesh by Lee C Conley. 

Read by Julia.

Mythic

Mischief Acts by Zoe Gilbert.

Read by Beth.

Book within a Book

The Stardust Thief by Chelsea Abdullah.

Read by Scarlett.

Forest Guardian

The Dark Between the Trees by Fiona Barnett.

Read by Lucy. 

(Grim) Dark

Ordinary Monsters by J.M. Miro.

Read by Nils. 

Phoenix

The Phoenix and the Carpet by Edith Nesbit.

Read by Asha

Reread

Dogs of War By Adrian Tchaikovsky.

Read by Lucy.

Bonus

Sacred Cat Island by Harmon Cooper.

Read by Gray.

Readalong

The Summer Tree by Guy Gavriel Kay.

Read by Beth, Nils and Scarlett.

Urban Fantasy 

Sin Du Jour series by Matt Wallace.

Read by Gray. 

Bonus

One Foot in the Fade by Luke Arnold.

Read by Asha

Dragon

How to Love Your Elf by Kerrelyn Sparks.

Read by Asha.

Talking Animals

Swashbucklers by Dan Hanks.

Read by Shona.

Nature Spirit

Silver in the Woods by Emily Tesh.

Read by Julia. 

And finally, it wouldn’t be Wyrd and Wonder without their photo challenge. We love taking part in this every year!

You can find all of Jonathan and Scarlett’s posts on their Instagram, and there may be some from the rest of us I’ve missed, so you can check our pages here:

Jonathan | Nils | Julia | Scarlett | Beth | Wyrd And Wonder

Day 1 – Best Laid Plans

What were we planning on reading for the month ahead?

Day 2 – Can’t Wait to Read

Day 3 – #Trope Tuesday – Enchanted Wood

This year, Tuesdays were all about tropes!

Day 4 – Woodland Creatures

Day 5 – 5-star Fantasy Reads

Day 6 – Mythic

Time to celebrate a subgenre – whether it’s a retelling or a secondary world that has that mythic feel

Day 7 – Say What?

A book featuring a fictional language (or languages)

Day 8 – Undergods

Small-fry deities, demi-gods and divine helpers who steal the limelight and deserve more love

Day 9 – #MapMonday

Day 10 – #TropeTuesday – Don’t Leave the Path

Whether you need to cross Mirkwood or navigate the lands of the Fae, straying from a woodland path can be a dangerous excursion in fantasy realms… was the hero of your story wise enough to heed the warning?

Day 11 – Weapon of Choice

Day 12 – Step into Another’s Shoes

If you could swap lives with a fantasy character, who would you want to be and why?

Day 13 – Epic

Time to celebrate a subgenre – the big one (in scope and page count)

Day 14 – A Book within a Book

Day 15 – #ShelfieSunday

Day 16 – Current Read

Day 17 – #TropeTuesday – Spirit of Nature

Nature spirits and deities (feel free to extend beyond forests)

Day 18 – Fantasy Landscapes

Day 19 – More Than Meets the Eye

Shapeshifters! Werewolves, yokai, rogarou, Fae – illusion or physical shifters are all fair game

Day 20 – Dark

Time to celebrate a subgenre – choose your path wisely, whether you love grimdark, dark fantasy or horror

Day 21 – #StackSaturday

Day 22 – Bite-size Delight

Short stories and novellas

Day 23 – Book Rainbow

Day 24 – #TropeTuesday Forest Guardian

The witch, the woodsman, the (were)wolf pack, the green man – there’s many types of guardian, which will you celebrate?

Day 25 – Love it or Loathe it

What cover art themes / tropes instantly make you pick up a book – or put you off it? [We went with covers/tropes we love]

Day 26 – #ThrowbackThursday

Celebrate the backlist – or midlist – or a classic – or just something you haven’t talked about for a year or two

[Beth went with previous Wyrd and Wonder reads, and Julia went with a title she hasn’t read in a while!]

Day 27 – Portal Fantasy

Time to celebrate a subgenre – visiting other worlds (especially ones with woods in them!)

Day 28 – Imaginary Verse

A favourite fantasy poem or song (from a book or written as stand-alone speculative poetry)

Day 29 – Spine Poetry

Make your own poem or story from the titles of books on your shelf

Day 30 – Wyrd and Wonderful

A book that you were introduced to during (this or a previous) Wyrd and Wonder

[Julia went with books she’s bought this WW]

Day 31 – Fave W&W Read

That’s it for this year’s Wyrd & Wonder!

Thank you to everyone who followed our posts, we hope you enjoyed!