Neal Stephenson’s Quicksilver, part one of The Baroque Cycle, runs a scant 927 pages. Part 2, The Confusion is already available, so you can take both with you to the beach or cottage!
Judging from Quicksilver, these books, even more than Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, form a coherent whole. My review must be read with the understanding that nearly 2000 pages remain, and the story, at present, is incomplete.