On a busy European street, the killer serpentined through a crowd. He was a powerful man. Dark and potent. Deceptively agile. His muscles still felt hard from the thrill of his meeting.
At his best, Douglas Adams was a fine satirist and had a good point to make here and there. When his heart wasn't in it, he could be dreadful. And his best-known work has been dulled by popular repetition, much like the best jokes of Monty Python.
Heinlein's early-to-middle work is one masterpiece of lean, economical adventure storytelling after another, just as long as you don't take the philosophy too seriously. The late stuff is increasingly bloated, cranky and generally embarrassing. And while it isn't a popular opinion, I think you can see the rot start to set in in none other than Stranger in a Strange Land (though a few years later he was still capable of writing The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, probably his single best novel).
The comparison of Douglas Adams to Monty Python is a good one. I have enjoyed both considerably on my own... but once you start to hear other people "nerding out" on them, throwing lines back and forth out of context, rehashing all the less subtle moments, or engaging in long debates about minor points... it starts to get a little embarrassing.
Some time ago I discovered that if you watch a Monty Python's Flying Circus episode after not having consumed any Monty Python for a period of at least ten years, it is hilarious.
I'll often take a deliberate break from favorite books, TV shows, or music for this very reason. Familiarity does breed contempt for these things (for music, anyway; I read some studies about it a couple of years ago by a couple of researchers who were trying to figure out why the popularity of hit singles tends to follow a bell curve). After awhile, even favorite stuff can get old.
A good thing, too. There'd be no incentive for creative innovation otherwise.
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Heinlein's early-to-middle work is one masterpiece of lean, economical adventure storytelling after another, just as long as you don't take the philosophy too seriously. The late stuff is increasingly bloated, cranky and generally embarrassing. And while it isn't a popular opinion, I think you can see the rot start to set in in none other than Stranger in a Strange Land (though a few years later he was still capable of writing The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, probably his single best novel).
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A good thing, too. There'd be no incentive for creative innovation otherwise.