Quote:
Originally Posted by Yolina
Absolutely, however, that 500+ pages trad pub book 1 of a trilogy that I couldn't finish was historical fiction. When you get various bits of background repeated several times throughout, nearly word for word (I'm talking about half a page worth each time) it just becomes irritating padding. Either the publishers/author were a tad greedy (hey, how about we stretch this to a trilogy instead of having just one book) or they assumed that readers are too stupid to remember what was explained previously  I guess it could just be sloppy editing but the repeats were so obvious that I really doubt it.
I really couldn't care less how long or short a book is as long as I enjoy it  I read mostly what is categorised as literary fiction and the majority of my books are under 300 pages; when I do read stuff from other genres, everything seems to be 500 pages or thereabout. |
I agree if there is going to be stuff thrown it it shouldn't slow or stall the storyline. I started Jean Auel's "Valley of Horses" but as yet have never finished it. One minute we're reading about her heroine and the next it's all this stuff about the geological features of the landscape. A little bit of that goes a long way. Hollywood used to say "if you want to send a message use Western Union." And I understand Sinclair Lewis once told a young author that if he wanted to read about the Azores he'd pick up National Geographic not a novel.