Long vs Short
Some stories cannot be told in less than a 1000 pages and others just go on and on. It's not necessarily the length of the novel but the length of the series. For example George Martin's Fire and Ice series contains novels that are montrously large, but I couldn't picture them as being one page shorter. Whereas Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series felt like a short story stretched out to a full-length novel.
Stephen King's Gerald's Game and The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon (?) were two novels that could have been excellent short stories. IMHO!
The entire Dune series could not be a page shorter as that universe is so complex. Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon........I thought it would never end! His (much shorter) novel Diamond Age could have been longer.
I guess the bottom line is a good story written by a good author will find its equilibrium be it short or long.
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