Best fantasy novels by year
Here’s my list of best fantasy novels, updated for ones I read in 2014.
| Winner | Runner Ups | |||||
| Year | Author | Title | Author | Title | ||
| 2012 | Will McIntosh | Hitchers | Joanne Bertin | Bard’s Oath | ||
| 2011 | Carrie Vaughn | After the Golden Age | ||||
| 2010 | ||||||
| 2009 | ||||||
| 2008 | ||||||
| 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 | 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 | W | Sarah Zettel | The Usurper’s Crown | ||
| 2002 | Sarah Zettel | A Sorcerer’s Treason | Christopher Moore | Lamb | ||
| 2001 | Ursula K. Le Guin | The Other Wind | nW | Eoin Colfer | Artemis Fowl | |
| Jasper Fforde | The Eyre Affair | |||||
| 2000 | Guy Gavriel Kay | Lord of Emperors | w | Nalo Hopkinson | Midnight Robber | hn |
| 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 | w | Orson Scott Card | Heartfire | ||
| Tanya Huff | Summon the Keeper | |||||
| Guy Gavriel Kay | Sailing to Sarantium | w | ||||
| Jim Munroe | Flyboy Action Figure Comes With Gasmask | |||||
| 1997 | Neil Gaiman | Neverwhere | ||||
| 1996 | George R. R. Martin | A Game of Thrones | n | 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 | hnW | ||||
| 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 | w | Barbara Hambly | The Dark Hand of Magic | |
| Pratchett & Gaiman | Good Omens | w | Robert Jordan | The Eye of the World | ||
| Ursula K. Le Guin | Tehanu | N | ||||
| James Morrow | Only Begotten Daughter | nW | ||||
| Anne Rice | The Witching Hour | |||||
| R.A. Salvatore | Homeland | |||||
| 1989 | Orson Scott Card | Prentice Alvin | hn | |||
| 1988 | Orson Scott Card | Red Prophet | hn | 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 | hw | 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 | w | ||||
| 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 | w | Michael Ende | The Neverending Story | |
| 1978 | Stephen R. Donaldson | The Illearth War | w | |||
| 1977 | Terry Brooks | The Sword of Shannara | ||||
| Stephen R. Donaldson | Lord Foul’s Bane | w | ||||
| 1976 | Anne Rice | Interview with the Vampire | ||||
| 1975 | ||||||
| 1974 | ||||||
| 1973 | Ursula K. Le Guin | The Farthest Shore | William Goldman | The Princess Bride | ||
| 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 | ||||