I don't count DNF's, but then I also have the custom of bailing within 50 pages if I don't enjoy my read. Or in the case of nonfiction, if I'm neither being entertained nor informed. I have always gone by page count in my book diary because I read books of all sorts of lengths.

Edited to add: I used to compare book/page counts with people, but all it really proves is who has free time. There's no point.

I think that extreme formality was also used as a way of indicating dislike and displeasure. Patronizing on purpose, with a side order of "I'm getting close to challenging you to a duel."

Weber was at one point a history grad student working toward a PhD. It's his tragic flaw: to him, all the back story stuff IS interesting. He was also absent the day the "show, don't tell" unit was covered in writing class.

But I'll forgive him one heck of a lot for "Ooops," said Shannon Forraker.

Butcher falls under fantasy rather than science fiction, but he is indeed one heck of a fun writer. Also very good at drawing character.

Weber tries hard, but sometimes you need a machete to find your way through all the exposition to the Crowning Moments of Awesome.

You beat me to it.

I enjoyed both this book and the previous "The Martian." ("Artemis" was a swing and a miss IMO.) I'm not at all male, linear, or STEM oriented, but I find this one quite readable. That may be because I cut my teeth on Isaac Asimov's stilted prose, but there's a lot of good stuff here.

ITYM "if only humans were completely unlike humans."

We already have a perfectly good, very efficient fusion power plant located 93 million miles away. Let's work with that one some more.

So knowing this, you deliberately doomed us all? You bastard.