What makes a fiction novel appealing to you?

Character development, no plot holes, varied settings, suspence, tension and escalation and an ending I don't see coming within the first few chapters.

I personally enjoy novels that focus more on internal conflicts within the main characters (both protagonist and antagonist).

For me, it goes back to Aristotle's "Poetics."
First and foremost is character. They are from where the story will arise. If I like them, I'm going to want to see what happens with their lives and relationships. If it's a thriller I'm reading, I'm going to be at least concerned and at most terrified for them.
Thought is big with me. How much thought did the writer place into her work? How many big ideas are at play here? Is it making a statement or maybe even teaching me something I didn't know?
As a writer, I tend to look at the author's prose style and diction. I prefer authors who use description and symbolism over ones that just plain spell it out flat.

And if the book has super powers, cool technology, fight scenes, and hot women...well, so much the better! :)

You need a lot of pictures since readers are more lazy today. The presentations in the computer game "Max Payne" has enough artwork to make it feel like a movie while it's written like a book. A free download of the first chapter as a flash presentation with sound might give good publicity and stands out from all plain text stories.

an escape from the ordinary and everyday drudgery

I enjoy fiction that COULD be true, could have been true, or might be true someday, but at the same time, I also enjoy very mythical stories....just don't like something that's off the wall like "my best friend just sprouted fairy wings and turned me into a cat" sort of crazy thing. To illustrate my idea, I can best think of movie examples; a story along the lines of My Super Ex-Girlfriend would just be too crazy for me....it's like mixing something that otherwise COULD be realistic with something totally crazy, never-gonna-happen kind of thing.

Someone else reading it to me, or it being turned into a movie....