Best fantasy novels by year
Here’s an updated list, including books I read in the last 2 years.
| Winner | Runner Ups | |||
| Year | Author | Title | Author | Title |
| 2014 | Claire North | The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August | ||
| 2013 | Julie E. Czerneda | A Turn of Light | ||
| 2012 | Will McIntosh | Hitchers | Joanne Bertin | Bard’s Oath |
| 2011 | Erin Morgenstern | The Night Circus | Carrie Vaughn | After the Golden Age |
| Jo Walton | Among Others | |||
| 2010 | ||||
| 2009 | ||||
| 2008 | Ursula K. Le Guin | Lavinia | ||
| 2007 | Sarah Zettel | Sword of the Deceiver | ||
| 2006 | Daniel Quinn | After Dachau | ||
| 2005 | Elizabeth Kostova | The Historian | Orson Scott Card | Magic Street |
| Michelle Sagara | Cast in Shadow | |||
| 2004 | Guy Gavriel Kay | The Last Light of the Sun | Sarah Zettel | The Firebird’s Vengeance |
| 2003 | Audrey Niffenegger | The Time Traveler’s Wife | Orson Scott Card | The Crystal City |
| Jo Walton | Tooth and Claw | Gregory Maguire | Mirror Mirror | |
| Sarah Zettel | The Usurper’s Crown | |||
| 2002 | Sarah Zettel | A Sorcerer’s Treason | Christopher Moore | Lamb |
| 2001 | Ursula K. Le Guin | The Other Wind | Eoin Colfer | Artemis Fowl |
| Jasper Fforde | The Eyre Affair | |||
| 2000 | Guy Gavriel Kay | Lord of Emperors | Nalo Hopkinson | Midnight Robber |
| Mercedes Lackey | Brightly Burning | |||
| 1999 | Joanne Bertin | Dragon and Phoenix | Orson Scott Card | Enchantment |
| Barbara Gowdy | The White Bone | |||
| Gregory Maguire | Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister | |||
| 1998 | Yves Meynard | The Book of Knights | Joanne Bertin | The Last Dragonlord |
| Charles de Lint | Someplace to Be Flying | Orson Scott Card | Heartfire | |
| Tanya Huff | Summon the Keeper | |||
| Guy Gavriel Kay | Sailing to Sarantium | |||
| Jim Munroe | Flyboy Action Figure Comes With Gasmask | |||
| 1997 | Neil Gaiman | Neverwhere | ||
| 1996 | George R. R. Martin | A Game of Thrones | Megan Whalen Turner | The Thief |
| Sean Russell | Sea Without a Shore | |||
| 1995 | Robin Hobb | Assassin’s Apprentice | Orson Scott Card | Alvin Journeyman |
| Guy Gavriel Kay | The Lions of Al-Rassan | |||
| Gregory Maguire | Wicked | |||
| Garth Nix | Sabriel | |||
| Philip Pullman | The Golden Compass | |||
| Sean Russell | World Without End | |||
| 1994 | Sean Stewart | Nobody’s Son | Charles de Lint | Memory and Dream |
| James Morrow | Towing Jehovah | |||
| Anne Rice | Taltos | |||
| 1993 | Anne Rice | Lasher | Barbara Hambly | Dog Wizard |
| Laurell K. Hamilton | Guilty Pleasures | |||
| 1992 | Guy Gavriel Kay | A Song For Arbonne | Sean Russell | Gatherer of Clouds |
| 1991 | Sean Russell | The Initiate Brother | ||
| 1990 | Guy Gavriel Kay | Tigana | Barbara Hambly | The Dark Hand of Magic |
| Pratchett & Gaiman | Good Omens | Robert Jordan | The Eye of the World | |
| Ursula K. Le Guin | Tehanu | |||
| James Morrow | Only Begotten Daughter | |||
| Anne Rice | The Witching Hour | |||
| R.A. Salvatore | Homeland | |||
| 1989 | Orson Scott Card | Prentice Alvin | ||
| 1988 | Orson Scott Card | Red Prophet | Terry Brooks | Wizard at Large |
| Barbara Hambly | The Silicon Mage | |||
| Anne Rice | The Queen of the Damned | |||
| Fred Saberhagen | Stonecutter’s Story | |||
| Tad Williams | The Dragonbone Chair | |||
| 1987 | Orson Scott Card | Seventh Son | Terry Brooks | The Black Unicorn |
| Ken Grimwood | Replay | Stephen R. Donaldson | A Man Rides Through | |
| Barbara Hambly | The Witches of Wenshar | |||
| Moore & Gibbons | Watchmen | |||
| Terry Pratchett | Mort | |||
| Fred Saberhagen | Sightblinder’s Story | |||
| 1986 | Frank Miller | Batman – The Dark Knight Returns | Terry Brooks | Magic Kingdom For Sale – Sold! |
| Stephen R. Donaldson | The Mirror of Her Dreams | |||
| Barbara Hambly | The Silent Tower | |||
| Guy Gavriel Kay | The Darkest Road | |||
| Guy Gavriel Kay | The Wandering Fire | |||
| Fred Saberhagen | Woundhealer’s Story | |||
| 1985 | Barbara Hambly | Dragonsbane | Terry Brooks | The Wishsong of Shannara |
| Anne Rice | The Vampire Lestat | |||
| 1984 | Guy Gavriel Kay | The Summer Tree | Fred Saberhagen | The Third Book of Swords |
| Barbara Hambly | The Ladies of Mandrigyn | |||
| 1983 | Tim Powers | The Anubis Gates | Piers Anthony | On a Pale Horse |
| Fred Saberhagen | The First Book of Swords | Marion Zimmer Bradley | The Mists of Avalon | |
| Stephen R. Donaldson | White Gold Wielder | |||
| Barbara Hambly | The Armies of Daylight | |||
| Barbara Hambly | The Walls of Air | |||
| Fred Saberhagen | The Second Book of Swords | |||
| 1982 | Barbara Hambly | The Time of the Dark | Terry Brooks | The Elfstones of Shannara |
| Stephen R. Donaldson | The One Tree | |||
| David Eddings | Pawn of Prophecy | |||
| Raymond E. Feist | Magician: Apprentice | |||
| 1980 | Stephen R. Donaldson | The Wounded Land | ||
| 1979 | Stephen R. Donaldson | The Power That Preserves | Michael Ende | The Neverending Story |
| 1978 | Stephen R. Donaldson | The Illearth War | ||
| 1977 | Terry Brooks | The Sword of Shannara | ||
| Stephen R. Donaldson | Lord Foul’s Bane | |||
| 1976 | Anne Rice | Interview with the Vampire | ||
| 1975 | ||||
| 1974 | ||||
| 1973 | William Goldman | The Princess Bride | Ursula K. Le Guin | The Farthest Shore |
| 1972 | Richard Adams | Watership Down | ||
| 1971 | Ursula K. Le Guin | The Tombs of Atuan | ||
| 1970 | ||||
| 1969 | ||||
| 1968 | Peter S. Beagle | The Last Unicorn | Ursula K. Le Guin | A Wizard of Earthsea |
| 1967 | ||||
| 1966 | Jack Vance | The Eyes of the Overworld | ||