FOTSGreg: I'd say that's a good sign, to be interested in a character like that. When I started bic'ing soon after starting to read this thread, i couldn't wait to get back to the story. I decided to focus on finishing the thread and a lot of real world vehicle repair (just came in from bleeding the master cylinder), but I read a little of it yesterday and loved it. Maybe I'll throw it away as my first novel, but it's fun.
Jim: regarding three hundred pages and you were finished, I felt that too. The story doesn't need anything--it's taught and lean--but it was easy to feel the universe in that universe. Hmm.
"As far as more potential in the storyline, in your better books (such as I *koff koff* write), you should have a feeling that there's a whole universe out there."
Yes, I return to writers who write the better books with that feel. It's worth my time, as you said somewhere long ago.
So a guy like Stephen King fleshes out and dives around in all that potential, coming up with a 900 page novel. Extreme cases would be his Dark Tower series (haven't read them), Tolkien's world (lifelong favs) and so on. Oh, and War and Peace of course. C'mon. I know it's a classic, but is that really a novel? Seems like an epic.
I don't read horror, except for King. Once in a greeeat while I pick up one of his books, quite an accomplishment on King's part. I agree, btw that his short stories are quite good.
Then there's McInerny who dips briefly into this universe and comes up with a black pearl like bright lights, big city. I just read an old Jack Vance novel, very short, in which he got the job done in the amazingly convincing world of Tchai.