long book != better

I was thinking the other day that most of today's sci-fi/fantasy books are too long, and for that matter completely boring. There are only so many "boy/girl saves world from ruthless oppressor" storylines I can take!

Not only that, these books are becoming far too long. Space Odyssey 2001 and Planet of the Apes were brief stories, but the authors did an excellent job of keeping to the story, but still being descriptive.

It seems to me as though the new breed of sci-fi/fantasy is becoming drab, unimaginative, and long-winded.

How does anyone else here think/feel about this?

#define max_length_interested
if(book>max_length_interested || mind==bored)
{stop_reading();}
else
{read while (Book!=eof)}

When I saw this post, I thought you were going to talk about programming books, and I was going to talk about the crappy C++ book I got.

Anyways, you're kinda right. Normally, if the book is real long and ends up sucking, I just don't finish it - no reason to torcher yourself for some payoff at the ending that may or may not be there (side note: why do so many books and games do this? "Sure, the rest of this bit, but look at our cool ending!"). Two of the best books I've ever read were long, though (IT and The Stand).

> becoming drab, unimaginative, and long-winded.

That's why I quit reading classic-style fantasy and moved to cyberpunk. Sure, it's still drab and unimaginative occasionally, but the books tend to be shorter than other kinds of fantasy books.