And Cat Who Walked Through Walls is a good example of his post-stroke writing. And no, they weren't really typical RAH.
And the ones you mention liking were pre-stroke (except -- technically -- Friday, but that one clearly had the hard work done before his stroke; it actually had a conclusion that resolved the plot-lines introduced in the first half. The polishing was not quite up to his standard; it lacked that spark of originality, and came off as reworking of his earlier material, but it was still a good read.
He was right in the middle of To Sail Beyond The Sunset when he had the stroke. I spotted the very page he was on when he had it, and found out about the stroke much later, which explained a great deal.
You should probably give him another try -- any earlier work of his. Any novel that invokes Universal Multi-Pantheistic Solipsism was written after the stroke, and is worth avoiding. The rest is all good. |
