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Originally Posted by Rob Instigator
Gene Wolf is too much of a wordsmith to have super mass appeal.
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Yeah.
Though he has really moved away from the dense Dickensian prose over the years. Some of his books are surprisingly bland stylistically, while others are conceptually and emotionally complex, but still read pretty simply compared to his earliest works (specifically Home Fires; most people could read it in a day, but the greater theme is way more thought provoking than the actual prose).
I think he's done some definite genre experimentation. He did a Lovecrafty book (An Evil Guest), he did a "magical realm" book (The Sorcerer's House), an outright high fantasy epic (The Wizard Knight). and lately he's been on a '50s noir/Americana kind of kick where I admit he's kinda lost me.
I like Wolfe best when he was world building under the shroud of mystery. So.. Book of the New Sun (plus Urth of the New Sun), Book of the Long Sun, Book of the Short Sun, Fifth Head of Cerberus, Peace, and The Wizard Knight, much later. The rest of his stuff is good, often great, but sometimes, after reading so many bizarre behemoths from his early years, not really very satisfying.