Indeed - the final few novels lacked the finesse of the earlier works. I believe Pterry, in common with many authors, would produce a basically complete manuscr

Indeed - the final few novels lacked the finesse of the earlier works. I believe Pterry, in common with many authors, would produce a basically complete manuscript, and then relentlessly iterate on it - removing inconsistencies, adding detail, etc, until the final result was a truly excellent reading experience. In his last years I believe Pterry was not actually physically writing himself, but working through an amanuensis. I can easily imagine that this massively complicated the revision process and the novels, probably from Unseen Academicals onwards read to me more like earlier drafts than finished productions.