OK, we give in. Since everyone else was doing it, the peer pressure got to be too much for us. So the SFBC has joined the stampede of year-end lists, and declared the following to be our Books of the Year.

Ellen Asher on the SFBC's SF Book of the Year, Rainbows End by Vernor Vinge:

This fast-paced adventure has more twists and turns than a demented plate of spaghetti.  It's set in a not-too-distant future where technological marvels are everywhere, and where a powerful politician has a well-intentioned plan for world domination.  You have to love a story that casts a computer-savvy rabbit as a major player, along with an unlovable poet and some bookish types determined to save the local university library from ultimate digitalization.  It’s great fun, and even has a thing or two to say about the world we’re all busily creating.

(Runners-up in the SF category are Glasshouse by Charles Stross and Farthing by Jo Walton.)

And Andrew Wheeler (me) on the SFBC's Fantasy Book of the Year, The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch: