Re:Good Riddance to Long Books
by stevecalifornia on Friday October 07, 2022 @03:58PM
(#33126196)
I recently wrote a science fiction novel that I intentionally kept short (50,000 words - 200 pages- readable in a weekend). When reading, I don't finish most of what I start because it takes 80-100 pages to get to the hook. I understand that there is a joy in reading a long novel that builds up a character, but most of the time these novels are just tedious. I couldn't finish the 2020 Hugo Award winner because for the first 50 pages it was the protagonist moving into an apartment, unpacking stuff and walking around in a city. It kills me.
[ Parent
| on HN ]
Re:Good Riddance to Long Books
by adhesive_wombat on Friday October 07, 2022 @04:33PM
(#33126559)
What really winds me up is when you have 1000 pages of book (or even 3000 pages of series) and then the ending drops in 50 pages.
Looking at you Peter F. "A god turned up and fixed everything lol" Hamilton, but it seems to happen a lot in sci-fi, maybe because the author prefers worldbuilding to a satisfying plot resolution.
Though I think in some cases the publisher puts their foot down and tells the author that the N-logy ends here and there's not going to be a N+1th volume, so the author just slaps a desultory ending on it and ships it.
I want to mix you and Neal Stephenson in a room, unlimited ink (toner too if you sweet talk me), and a large extra cheese from Uncle Enzo's.
100%. I think the same thing for many technical books.
My pet peeve with technical books is unintentional filler - things you can learn within minutes by googling it and easily amount to 50%+ of most books. Show me the obscure API workarounds and tricks that will take me weeks to find out instead.
Seems weird to get hung up over the number of words and page. Pretty sure your 200 pages could bore me to death as well.
harder
> I couldn't finish the 2020 Hugo Award winner because for the first 50 pages it was the protagonist moving into an apartment, unpacking stuff and walking around in a city.
That would be "A Memory Called Empire". I really enjoyed that book. Sure, you could boil it down to moving into an apartment... From having lived on a space station to an alien world, as a new ambassador, dumped into intrigue. That's quite a lot of unpacking.