Ngl I feel like early early Evenson was far more focused on the level of the word. But that might just be a result of listening to the audiobooks while blasting mushrooms
The novellas “The Fifth Head of Cerberus” and “Forlesen” can both be read in The Best of Gene Wolfe”. All the stories in that collection are bangers but I could compile a second collection of Wolfe stories that are just as as good. So it’s really Some of the Best.
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I would also say that if you are taking off from this story, The Fifth Head of Cerberus is very relevant
(in general The Best of Gene Wolfe collection has a lot of the good starting points IMO)