Interesting blog post putting forth the theory that Dune has ruined science fiction novels by being too long:

1. "Gone are the days of the 200 page book, which could be devoured in a couple of days. Instead, he says science fiction novels are less interested in telling interesting stories with novel ideas than in cramming in every detail until the book is better as a doorstop than a form of entertainment."

Really? THAT is the argument that Dune wrecked SciFi? I hate to say it but, under correct conditions, I can go through five, six, maybe eight hundred pages of SciFi in "a couple of days". When I read these little two hundred page books, they end almost before they begin. I'm consistently not reading the classics (such as Ender's Game mentioned in the post) because I can't stand making the emotional commitment to an engaging story and then having it end after a couple of hours. I want to be transported to an alternate reality and then KEPT THERE. That's what ESCAPE is and I hate moving to new universes every couple of hours.

Get an attention span.