Firefly
Troubadour
Argh.. You're right. I'd forgotten how much I hate bad dialogue.
And about those doorstoppers... I've been reading The Way of Kings right now, (Brandon Sanderson) and there really aren't any long stretches of straight information. There is a ton of exposition but it's never more than a few sentences or a short paragraph at a time. (At least not that I've noticed...) Granted, those are on practically every single page, so it still slows the things down, but the tension is strong enough that I feel he can get away with it.
People's opinions on long books can be frustrating. I think that it's at least partially a publisher thing; longer books are more expensive to print but don't make much more money. For readers, (At least in fantasy) I think they tend to not mind something super long, as long as it's something they already like. (From what I've observed, anyway.) They don't want to make a huge time commitment for something unknown, but they'll take as much as they can get from their favorite author.
And about those doorstoppers... I've been reading The Way of Kings right now, (Brandon Sanderson) and there really aren't any long stretches of straight information. There is a ton of exposition but it's never more than a few sentences or a short paragraph at a time. (At least not that I've noticed...) Granted, those are on practically every single page, so it still slows the things down, but the tension is strong enough that I feel he can get away with it.
People's opinions on long books can be frustrating. I think that it's at least partially a publisher thing; longer books are more expensive to print but don't make much more money. For readers, (At least in fantasy) I think they tend to not mind something super long, as long as it's something they already like. (From what I've observed, anyway.) They don't want to make a huge time commitment for something unknown, but they'll take as much as they can get from their favorite author.