The Green Man
#1914.16 adjusted 4.13 for sample size in the official ranking · full ranking
Books 8 books Status Ongoing 2018–present Reading commitment High Juliet E. McKenna Last reviewed 2026-08-29
Overview
The Green Man is a contemporary fantasy sequence set in present-day England, following Daniel Mackmain, a dryad's son who can see the supernatural creatures hidden inside the modern world. Across eight novels published between 2018 and 2025, Juliet E. McKenna draws Daniel into investigations that mix a grounded, rural-England setting -- Derbyshire's dales, old forests, small-town life -- with old British folklore made real: the Green Man himself, the Wild Hunt, boggarts, naiads, and other beings out of half-forgotten story. Daniel's dual nature, human enough to move through ordinary life but tied by blood to the woodland world his mortal father cannot fully see, gives the series its recurring tension between the two halves of his identity. McKenna, previously known primarily for secondary-world epic fantasy, used the sequence to build a folklore-grounded urban fantasy that treats English rural landscape and half-remembered custom as source material in its own right, rather than importing tropes wholesale from other traditions.
Urban fantasy, Mythic fantasy · For Adult
Core Canon: Reading Order (8 works) counts toward ranking
The Green Man Juliet E. McKenna
| Work | Year | Internal chron. | Canon | Rating | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | The Green Man's Heir | 2018 | 1 | core | 3.90 (1,669 ratings) |
 | The Green Man's Foe | 2019 | 2 | core | 4.27 (656 ratings) |
 | The Green Man's Silence | 2020 | 3 | core | 4.28 (516 ratings) |
 | The Green Man's Challenge | 2021 | 4 | core | 4.32 (416 ratings) |
 | The Green Man's Gift | 2022 | 5 | core | 4.35 (357 ratings) |
 | The Green Man's Quarry | 2023 | 6 | core | 4.43 (312 ratings) |
 | The Green Man's War | 2024 | 7 | core | 4.51 (187 ratings) |
 | The Green Man's Holiday | 2025 | 8 | core | 4.30 (189 ratings) |
A continuing, currently-open contemporary-fantasy sequence; no further volume has been announced beyond the eighth as of this research pass.
Quick answers
- How many books are in The Green Man? The Green Man's Core Canon is 8 books.
- What is the reading order for The Green Man? Publication order, starting with The Green Man's Heir. Full list and years in the Core Canon table above.
- Is The Green Man finished? Ongoing (2018–present).
- How much reading does The Green Man take? High reading commitment (estimated from 8 Core Canon books · ~2,629 pages).
- How is The Green Man ranked? #191 in this site's official ranking, based on 4,302 reader ratings across 8 Core Canon books. See the full ranking for how this is calculated.
Why is it ranked #191?
Ranked #191 in the official ranking.
- Average reader rating of 4.16 across 8 core books.
- A smaller readership (4,302 ratings), so the score carries less weight of numbers.
- Uneven reception: its books range from 3.90 to 4.51.
- Less than 0.01 behind #190, Impossible Creatures (a finer tie-break level decides the order).
- Below the top-10 average of 4.45.
Why explore this universe?
Highly rated · 8 books · Ongoing · 4k ratings · Ranks #191 overall
Good choice if you want a long-running urban fantasy universe that's still ongoing, with new books still coming.
Reading order
Publication order (8 Core Canon books)
- The Green Man's Heir (2018)
- The Green Man's Foe (2019)
- The Green Man's Silence (2020)
- The Green Man's Challenge (2021)
- The Green Man's Gift (2022)
- The Green Man's Quarry (2023)
- The Green Man's War (2024)
- The Green Man's Holiday (2025)
Documented internal/story chronology is recorded for every Core Canon book here, and matches publication order exactly, with no divergence to show separately.
Awards (verified)
- British Fantasy Award (Fantasy Novel (Robert Holdstock Award)), 2025: nominated: The Green Man's War; One of five nominees; the award went to a different novel that year.
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Suggestions computed from what The Green Man and each of these worlds have in common on record (subgenre, audience, shape, reading commitment and score), not a documented narrative connection.
- The Hollows Urban fantasy · Ongoing · High commitment · 4.30
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- The Iron Druid Chronicles Urban fantasy / Comic fantasy · Complete · High commitment · 4.21
- October Daye Urban fantasy · Ongoing · High commitment · 4.20
Official resources
Research details
Ranking metrics: weighted average 4.16 across 4,302 ratings on 8 Core Canon books. See Why is it ranked here? above for the full breakdown, or the full ranking.
How do we know this?
Admission: The Green Man admitted as a single-author, series-scope universe accepted 2026-08-29
Sources: (see source tier definitions)
Last reviewed: 2026-08-31
Rule: Core Canon = all 8 published novels (2018-2025), one continuous sequence in publication order. No Expanded Canon: no companion short fiction set in this world was found.