Overcomplicating!

In an effort to out-Hilary Hilary, I give you the rare back-to-back post.

I'm currently reading Allende's Inés of My Soul. And I have to ask, what is the consensus on whether (and how) an author is obliged to refresh their voice or the basic premise of their stories over the lifetime of their career?

Allende has always been one of my favorites. And as much as I am excited by the deliciousness of her winding storytelling in Inés, I am also a little disappointed. Though she returns to her roots, Inés feels no different then Eva Luna, The Infinite Plan, or Daughter of Fortune. It has all the same magic, but it's magic I've read before. Take for example the first few lines of Inés and Eva Luna.

Inés of My Soul
I am Inés Suárez, a townswoman of the loyal city of Santiago de Nueva Extremadura in the kingdom of Chile, writing in the year of our Lord 1580. I am not sure of the exact date of my birth, but according to my mother, I was born following the famine and deadly plague that ravaged Spain upon the death of Philip the Handsome.

Eva Luna
My name is Eva, which means "life," according to a book of names my mother consulted. I was born in the back room of a shadowy house, and grew up amidst ancient furniture, books in Latin, and human mummies, but none of those things made me melancholy, because I came into the world with a breath of the jungle in my memory.

Rereading the first lines of Eva, I'm drenched in an excited catharsis, a warm familiarity that urges me to keep reading until I live only in that world and no longer in my own. Yet Inés, though I am in fact arguing is exactly the same, does not hold quite the same power over me, and truthfully I cannot say why. I've even put it down in favor of a Ludlum novel (read trashy-yet-oh-so-good-can't-put-it-down-must-read-at-work airport book), what might be the ultimate insult coming from me.

So, is it that my expectations for Allende's new book were so high given my experiences with her earlier novels, that when she delivered the tried-and-true I felt it lacking? Is that fair? I certainly wouldn't be ecstatic if Allende broke the tradition all together and came out with some book about a woman living in Cape Cod, reeling in self-pity following her divorce, and finding herself "mysteriously" stuck in an affair with some (loser) guy at the expense of her kids. Let's leave those kinds of novels to Anita Shrieve. She's already written them all anyway.

In the meantime, I begin to wonder if it's just me. My difficulty connecting with Inés is parallel to my difficulty conecting with my own novel, one of this same genre. I'm starting to think I might scrap the novel all together and start again on something else...but what? And looking at the big picture—the career of the author—should I be putting together a strategic plan for my novels?