Books read in 2014

10. Hogfather, Terry Pratchett
9.  Black Widow: The Name of the Rose, Marjorie Liu, Daniel Acuna
8.  Agent of Change, Sharon Lee and Steve Miller (e)
7.  The Emperor's Agent, Jo Graham (e)
6.  Eternity and a Day, Aline Hunter (e)
5.  Kindred Rites, Katharine Eliska Kimbriel (e)
4.  Billy the Kid, the Endless Ride, Michael Wallis
3.  The Steerswoman, Rosemary Kirstein (e)
2. Uncovered, Jordan Matter
1.  Dancers Among Us, Jordan Matter

In which Rolanni is cranky

So, over here at Tor.com, there are at this writing 19 reviews and one interview on display on the first page.  Three of those 19 reviews are for Baen books; the rest by Publishers Divers.

The three Baen books under review are:  Cauldron of Ghosts, by Weber and Flint, The Sea Without a Shore, by David Drake, and Carousel Sun, by Sharon Lee.

There's a reason I'm telling you this.

Of the  three Baen books reviewed, two are held up and mocked for their covers, before the review is even engaged.  Full disclosure:  One of those is Carousel Sun, which has a rooster on the cover. Which is apparently hilarious.  Especially since, yanno, there's a rooster in the book.  The other book so mocked is Cauldron of Ghosts.  David Drake's book, I am actually relieved to report, received a respectful and affectionate review, with no mention of the cover.

Now, 'way back before the rocks cooled, I reviewed professionally.  And what I reviewed was the stuff between the covers --  the story arc, the characters, the structure, the theme.   The cover was understood to be a sales piece, and I, the reviewer, was understood not to be an artist, an art reviewer, or an art director.  The only time I might mention the cover would be to point out that the author's name was spelled wrong.

While I do very much understand that Baen covers are considered highly mockable in the wider SF community, I question that mocking when it appears on the site of a competitor, and when the only two covers mentioned at all are Baen covers.  This strikes me as dishonest at best, and agenda-driven at worst.

Back in the day, had I suddenly made it my mandate to include cover art in my reviews, I would have reviewed all the covers, in order to provide my readers with a balanced opinion of all the books.  Because that was, after all, my job.