Quote:
Originally Posted by Katsunami
What do you mean exactly by dense? A lot of text in which not much happens?
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Not necessarily, but partly. It's to do with the language and pacing, and the structure of the story, as much as anything. A dense book is not necessarily bad - not by any means - but it feels like quite hard work to get through. It's maybe like watching an art-house film versus watching a blockbuster. You need to be in the right kind of mood to want to put the effort in.
I'm currently reading the third of three chunky paperbacks I wanted to get out of the way before the end of the year. It is definitely a book that feels dense, for all three of those reasons. Of the other two, the shorter one felt longer than the other.
The three books were:
Traitor's Gate - Kate Elliott. Just short of 800 pages. Part 3 of the Crossroads Trilogy (I think it's called, although I'm not entirely sure why). Epic fantasy. This was quite an easy and fast read, in the end. The language is straightforward. It's all one continuous tale, in which a lot happens but the strand of narrative drive is always there moving things along.
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay - Michael Chabon. This was about 600 pages, I think. The story was broken into several distinct shorter narratives, which chopped up the flow.
The System of the World - Neal Stephenson. Almost 900 pages. Part 3 of the Baroque Trilogy. Another one that's broken up into (three) parts. The language is more verbose and archaic, appropriate to the time in which the novel is set. There can be long stretches with not much happening. This one's not even that easy to hold.
Two of those are the final books in trilogies, and I've had them for years. I think that's fairly telling in itself.