just comes down to is the reader's interest in the thing being infodumped (which isn't even necessarily a matter of how interested they were before reading the book!).
You know, that's not entirely my experience. And--sudden example of a carnival/circus!--The Night Circus comes immediately to mind. I LOVED the premise, and it absolutely leaned into it as a central focus, the details, both practical and sensual. I wanted to go there. And yet--well, okay, I liked it a lot more than I probably would have liked a similar length and writing style book about rock climbing, I admit it. But, the characters were pretty flat, and the plot was thin, and I ended up walking away with "that was just okay," rather than the LURVE that so many people seem to have for it.
A book that started off with fabulous world building that I had to put down because I was like "when the actual plot start? who are these people? I -want- to like this but dear god:" Gormenghast.
I really love a certain type of SF that I think of as "problem-solving SF"
Fair. I guess for me, it always comes down to whether or not I'm interested in the people. And/or, to a lesser extent, the plot. I can do -fairly- thin characters and an exciting, easy to follow plot in a setting I'm interested in (and readable writing style)--the Dresden Files comes to mind. They're also funny and fast paced, and at least some of the characters are likable and relatable, and grow over the course of the series.
An example of a book I couldn't finish that leaned in with a vengeance and was obviously brilliant writing: The Left Hand of Darkness. Yeah. It just took too long for me to get into the actual people, and I strongly disliked at least one of them.
tl:dr I mostly read genre, but high concept alone almost never does it for me, no matter how richly and well done it is or even how interesting the premise was for me.
no subject
You know, that's not entirely my experience. And--sudden example of a carnival/circus!--The Night Circus comes immediately to mind. I LOVED the premise, and it absolutely leaned into it as a central focus, the details, both practical and sensual. I wanted to go there. And yet--well, okay, I liked it a lot more than I probably would have liked a similar length and writing style book about rock climbing, I admit it. But, the characters were pretty flat, and the plot was thin, and I ended up walking away with "that was just okay," rather than the LURVE that so many people seem to have for it.
A book that started off with fabulous world building that I had to put down because I was like "when the actual plot start? who are these people? I -want- to like this but dear god:" Gormenghast.
I really love a certain type of SF that I think of as "problem-solving SF"
Fair. I guess for me, it always comes down to whether or not I'm interested in the people. And/or, to a lesser extent, the plot. I can do -fairly- thin characters and an exciting, easy to follow plot in a setting I'm interested in (and readable writing style)--the Dresden Files comes to mind. They're also funny and fast paced, and at least some of the characters are likable and relatable, and grow over the course of the series.
An example of a book I couldn't finish that leaned in with a vengeance and was obviously brilliant writing: The Left Hand of Darkness. Yeah. It just took too long for me to get into the actual people, and I strongly disliked at least one of them.
tl:dr I mostly read genre, but high concept alone almost never does it for me, no matter how richly and well done it is or even how interesting the premise was for me.