Line #22 Main/AirportNovel


1	[[quoteright:350:[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS9E13TheJoyOfSect https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bookstore_0.jpg]]]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:"Do you have anything by {{Creator/Robert Ludlum}}?"\
3	"[[GetOut Get out!]]"]]
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5	->''"It is a simple universal law [that] people always expect to use a holiday in the sun as an opportunity to read those books they've always meant to read, but an alchemical combination of sun, quartz crystals and coconut oil will somehow metamorphose any improving book into a rather thicker one with a name containing at least one Greek word or letter (''The Gamma Imperative, The Delta Season, The Alpha Project'' and, in the more extreme cases, even ''The Mu Kau Pi Caper''). Sometimes a hammer and sickle turn up on the cover. This is probably caused by sunspot activity, since they are invariably the wrong way round."''
6	-->-- '''Creator/TerryPratchett''', ''Literature/TheLastContinent''
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8	The junk food of the literature world: a paperback you buy cheaply at an airport bookshop to fill your time during a flight. Maybe you finish it in the hotel room; maybe you save it for the return trip. Either way, you know perfectly well that, as much of a page-turner it may be, you just bought it for the lack of anything else to do.
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10	Usually light reading -- the airport novel isn't something you seek out for profound thoughts, [[ContemplateOurNavels philosophical insight]] or masterly writing; it's just something to take the boredom and discomfort of travel away for a few hours. It has to be engaging and exciting, though -- a story that wades through 200 pages of {{Expospeak}} before getting to the good stuff isn't doing its job. Get to the action and/or romance, already!
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12	It is usually a derogatory term -- "Get your nose out of the airport novel and read something worthwhile!" -- but Administrivia/TropesAreTools. Done well, Airport Novels might be deliciously {{camp}}y or even SoBadItsGood. What were you going to spend that $6.99 on, anyway? Some people even actively seek them out as a literary equivalent to the UnabashedBMovieFan.
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14	On the other hand, some decent authors write or have written Airport Novels, including the famous author Creator/StephenKing.
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16	Also called a Beach Book; or, in French, ''romans de gare'' ("railway station novels"). Fantasy books in the genre are called airport fantasy.
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18	Airport Novels are not defined so much by content -- they can encompass Clancy-style techno-thrillers, crime fiction, {{romance novel}}s, HighFantasy, and others -- but by social function. They are almost always {{Doorstopper}}s, yet with simplistic writing that's easy to read quickly, and often feature a [[CoversAlwaysLie misleadingly lurid cover]]. If not, expect a sequel that follows up some much more popular work like a leech; ''Literature/PrideAndPrejudice'' sequels are popular, as are Biblical FanFiction.
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20	These books are always of cheap manufacture, rarely designed to last more than one or two readings. Often seen as the SpiritualSuccessor to the PulpMagazine. Compare ExtrudedBookProduct.
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22	Remember that just because you didn't buy it in an airport doesn't make it high-brow literature, and likewise, if you did buy a book at an airport that doesn't necessarily make it an airport novel; you can get the likes of ''Literature/AmericanGods'' in airport bookstores. Some modernized airports have dedicated bookstores whose catalog could rival any normal one, or even the ability to "rent" a book - read it, return it when you come back (or to another location that has the same chain) and get something like half back what you paid.
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24	Despite the fact that anyone who can afford a plane ticket can probably afford something to read an eBook on, this is still a ways from becoming a DeadHorseTrope. Paper books don't need batteries, are less devastating to lose one, and some airlines still insist you turn off electronic devices during takeoff and landing. Many airport novels are also published as eBooks nowadays.
25	----
26	!!Common tropes:
27	* CantGetAwayWithNuthin: If you're a villain in one of these books, you ''will'' get what's coming to you. Even if it's on the last page [[KarmaHoudiniWarranty and you were basically home free]]. Unless you're in a horror-genre novel, in which case you do have a fair chance of getting away with it all.
28	* ClicheStorm: Practically a given.
29	* DetectiveDrama: A common plot for airport mysteries is to follow a shockingly gruesome crime, usually by a ThemeSerialKiller. Expect lots of gory descriptions of the killer's victims.
30	* {{Doorstopper}}: You need ''something'' to fill up that 5-hour flight!
31	* ExtrudedBookProduct: Most airport novels fall into a few genre archetypes (romance of the previously heartbroken, techno-thriller, police investigation story, etc.), and within an archetype are somewhat indistinguishable from each other.
32	* HappilyEverAfter: For the main protagonists and their allies, 99% of the time.
33	* LadyNotAppearingInThisGame: The cover typically has miscellaneous fanservice to balance it out, though (see below).
34	* MadLibThrillerTitle: As the page quote illustrates, an Airport Novel is likely to be titled this way, especially after the popularity of ''Literature/TheDaVinciCode''.
35	* MsFanservice/ MrFanservice: Regardless of the actual genre of the book, it's almost guaranteed to have at least one shameless sex scene involving one or both of these.
36	* ParentWithNewParamour: This is also a common plot for the romance type. Usually subtype 1, where the kid takes a shine to the suitor and tries to nudge their parent along.

Context Main / AirportNovel