I’ll second Bronze and Photopia. Galatea can work as well, but a new player won’t learn much he could reuse in other games.
I must say I am not a puzzle fiend, I also tire of old school games really fast. I like games where everything is significant and interesting, no large maps, no endless wandering, no irrelevant puzzles. I also don’t consider length an indicator for quality. That’s why I love Comp games, by the way.
What brought me to IF were games like Glowgrass: It is Sci-Fi, Comp-length, has emotional impact, and does a nice perspective trick with the descriptions(which is good use of medium for me).
I’ll also recommend every single of Pacian’s works. He has a great sense of pacing, I really like his writing, and his games are neither too long nor too hard.