I feel like my scowling, angry, bitter neighbor just yelled, “Get off my lawn or I’m calling the cops!” one too many times and keeled over dead of a thrombosis.

You remember him, don’t you? The Cranky Curmudgeon. The Sinister Minister of Snark. The Inspector Javert to every writer’s Jean Valjean. The Hooded Claw, waiting to call the cops if it sounded like you were having too much fun running through the sprinklers of life on a hot summer day. But now you get that sinking, pit-of-your-stomach feeling that the neighborhood will be all-too quiet without him. Too empty? I understand—I knew him too.

His name was Kirkus, and he used to review books.

Today the Nielson Company, fiduciary parent of Kirkus Reviews, announced that they were ceasing operations later this month. Flatline. The presses stop. The last reviewer will get to that final page, where it says THE END, and he’ll mean it.

I have mixed feelings about the whole thing. On the one hand, Kirkus gave me a fair dinkum write-up. But on the other, I know that was probably a fluke, like an execution at dawn and the rifles jammed. Because Kirkus is (for a few more weeks anyway) known for their cheeky, jagged, rusty can-opener reviews. And a lot of authors have the scars to prove it. (Many of those same authors are shedding nary a tear over this loss, and honestly I can’t blame them).

But the greater argument is this—what is the value of one person’s opinion? And is that opinion more qualified than, oh say, YOURS?

Because each Kirkus review, good or bad, is only the opinion of that one person assigned to that book. And said person may or may not have had a bad day, been beaten as a child, locked in a closet and forced to read Nancy Drew, etc.  

The beautiful (in my opinion) flipside to all of this is the collective, democratic will of readers though social websites like Goodreads.com. Which, ironically enough, landed $2 million in new financing on the same day that Kirkus announced they were scuttling the ship. (Vote here for your favorite books of 2009).

Some authors fear this. I’m not one of them. I’m all for any review model based on actual readers, because it shores up the chasm between what literary critics like and what people actually read. It’s a model that doesn’t look down its nose at SF&F, Romance, Manga, YA, or any other “category” of books. And it’s a democracy that lets Indie Bookstores retain their rightful power—as a literary electoral college.

Sure you get a few cranks. But democracies suffer them well. Single-opinion monarchies like Kirkus? Not so much. Or as the philosopher Lennon once said, Instant Karma's gonna get you…