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Narrative
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Bernard: You're going on holiday. You want trash. But you want different kinds of trash. [To female customer] You're a woman, you want social themes, believable characters. [To male customer] You, you want plots, suspense. This'll do you both. There's this temp, right? She's 29, she can't get a boyfriend, oh my God.
Female Customer: Great!
Male Customer: No way.
Bernard: And she's got twelve hours to stop nuclear war with China.
The junk food of the literature world: a lap-breaking 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 for lack of anything else to do.
You can see it in your mind's eye, can't you? The author's name in embossed letters, the gaudy colors on the cover, the title reading something like "The Sword of Flame" or "The King of Thieves", and a cover illustration by Darrell K. Sweet or Jeff Easley. Usually light reading — the airport novel isn't something you seek out for profound thoughts, 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 magic swords and prophecies, already.
These novels tend to be High Fantasy, and are almost always Doorstoppers. They often feature a Contemptible Cover. If not, expect a sequel that follows up some much more popular work like a leech; Pride And Prejudice sequels are popular, as are Biblical Fan Fiction. Again, expect generic but respectable covers, probably with embossed fancy scripts.
It is usually a derogatory term — "Get your nose out of the airport fantasy and read something worthwhile!" — but it is not necessarily bad, per se. You just need to keep your expectations in check. Done well, Airport Fantasy might be deliciously campy or even So Bad Its Good. What were you going to spend that $6.99 on, anyway? Some people even actively seek it out...supposedly.
The more common (and non-genre-specific) terms for this level of literature are "beach book" or "airport novel," which also encompass Clancy-style techno-thrillers, adventure books, Joan Collins-style romance novels, and other light fare. Writers like Sidney Sheldon made thriving careers out of this sort of book.
Also notable is the fact that you may end up getting lucky, and finding a really good author who's just on a downswing in their career. This troper discovered Clive Cussler in an airport. (It was a reprint of Dragon.)
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