Year's Best Fantasy Books in Order
Year's Best Fantasy contains 9 books, published between 2001 and 2009. The first book is Year's Best Fantasy (2001) and the newest is Year's Best Fantasy 9 (2009). Publication order is the reading order below.
- Books
- 9
- Published
- 2001–2009
- Confirmed
- 9 of 9 titles
- Pages on record
- 2,619 in 6 of 9 books
- Reading time
- 44–65 hours
Reading time is an estimate, not a recorded figure: 2,619 pages at 300 words a page, read at 200–300 words a minute, covering the 6 of 9 titles with a page count on record.
Year's Best Fantasy is an annual anthology line of nine volumes published between 2001 and 2009, one a year. No single author stands behind the line: the listing credits Kage Baker on seven volumes and Neil Gaiman on two. Recorded subjects are fantasy fiction, American and English fantasy fiction, and American short stories. The volumes run from Year's Best Fantasy (2001) to Year's Best Fantasy 9 (2009), each numbered in sequence. The median recorded length is 434 pages across six measured volumes.
How many Year's Best Fantasy books are there?
Year's Best Fantasy has 9 books, released between 2001 and 2009.
Year's Best Fantasy Books in Publication Order
The table lists all 9 Year's Best Fantasy books in the order they were published, with the release year, the page count where one is on record, and how many independent book listings confirm each title. Catalogue data as of September 2026.
- 1Year's Best Fantasy2001 · confirmed 4/42001–4/4
- 2Year's Best Fantasy 22002 · 512 pages · confirmed 3/420025123/4
- 3Year's Best Fantasy 32003 · 512 pages · confirmed 4/420035124/4
- 4Year's Best Fantasy 42004 · 484 pages · confirmed 3/420044843/4
- 5Year's Best Fantasy 52005 · confirmed 3/42005–3/4
- 6Year's Best Fantasy 62006 · 355 pages · confirmed 4/420063554/4
- 7Year's Best Fantasy 72007 · 372 pages · confirmed 3/420073723/4
- 8Year's Best Fantasy 82008 · 384 pages · confirmed 3/420083843/4
- 9Year's Best Fantasy 92009 · confirmed 3/42009–3/4
Do you have to read Year's Best Fantasy books in order?
You should read the Year's Best Fantasy books in publication order, the order of the numbered table above. The catalogue does not record whether each Year's Best Fantasy book also stands alone.
Where to start with Year's Best Fantasy
Start with Year's Best Fantasy (2001), the earliest published title.
What is the newest Year's Best Fantasy book?
Year's Best Fantasy 9 (2009) is the newest Year's Best Fantasy book released so far.
Is there a new Year's Best Fantasy book coming?
No next Year's Best Fantasy book is announced in the catalogue, which is a gap in the listings it merges rather than a sign that the run has ended.
Year's Best Fantasy at a glance
- No recent titles
- The newest Year's Best Fantasy title on record dates from 2009, 17 years ago. No later title is catalogued.
- Release pace
- Year's Best Fantasy books have appeared about one a year on average.
- Length
- 2,619 pages across the 6 of 9 books with a recorded length, a median of 434 pages each.
- Busiest decade
- Most Year's Best Fantasy books, 9 of 9, were published in the 2000s.
- Corroboration
- 3 of the 9 titles appear in all four independent book listings, and every one of them in at least three.
- Attribution
- Of the 9 titles, 5 are credited to Kage Baker, 2 to David G. Hartwell, 2 to Kathryn Cramer and 2 to Neil Gaiman.
What the Year's Best Fantasy books are about
7 of the 9 Year's Best Fantasy books carry subject tags in Open Library's catalogue. The subjects below are the ones that recur across them, most frequent first: fantasy is tagged on 7 of 7. The subjects are cataloguers’ headings, not a plot summary.
- Fantasy 7 of 7 books
- Short stories 2 of 7 books