Well, this is one way to avoid having too much to do at the end of the year, I guess -- decide arbitrarily that the year is basically over, and pick your "Best of" then.

Publishers Weekly has chosen that course, and their list of the 100 Best Books of the Year includes five officially SF/Fantasy/Horror titles:

• The Armies of Memory by John Barnes
• Pretender by C.J. Cherryh
• The Empire of Ice Cream by Jeffrey Ford
• Dark Harvest by Norman Partridge
• No Present Like Time by Steph Swainston

Not in the same ghetto, but still on the list, are:

• The Road by Cormac McCarthy (Fiction)
• Valley of Silence by Nora Roberts (Romance)

Hey, boss? Seeing as how the year's already over, I'm going to take off for Christmas break now -- is that OK?