Can't say I disagree. Wizard Knight through to Borrowed Man all left me pretty cold. Personally "A Land Across" felt comparatively accessible (if random) as com

Can't say I disagree. Wizard Knight through to Borrowed Man all left me pretty cold. Personally "A Land Across" felt comparatively accessible (if random) as compared to "An Evil Guest" (which felt unreadable), Home Fires or Borrowed Man. As an F/SF enthusiast, I'd say "crushing gradual disappointment" is more or less our lot. I think it's very easy to read way more sophistication and significance into people's earlier work based on enjoyment and sheer energy - then they slide into their ickier or more annoying obsessions, or redo their earlier work, or what have you. See also: Iain Banks, J.G. Ballard, Frank Herbert, Jack Vance, Roger Zelazny, Fritz Leiber... whether it's an appetite for gore, bad sex, bad (or just tedious) politics and social commentary, gadget-too-far driven plots - all of my favourite F/SF authors tend to drift over the years.