What are you people, new?
• Amazon is just as "human" as a small bookstore. Sure there are automated recommendation engines, but also plenty of human beings selecting books to push. The idea that larger companies are somehow evil primarily by virtue of their size is juvenile.
• Shock horror, if you want to sell your books, you can't pretend that one of the largest retailer doesn't exist. (And if you think Amazon can be brutal in this respect, try working with Walmart.)
• Shock horror, publishers use their leverage to promote books. Pretty much every industry does things like this, in some form or another.
• I don't see why "Vines" reviewers have an obligation to do anything other than give their opinion on a book. They are not professional reviewers, they are not paid by a periodical.
• Is there any author alive who actually likes negative reviews? (Unless, of course, it's of a book by a particular nemesis.)
