Michael Shea | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | (1946-07-03)July 3, 1946 Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Died | February 16, 2014(2014-02-16) (aged 67) |
| Occupation | Author |
| Alma mater | University of California, Los Angeles University of California, Berkeley |
| Genre | Science fiction,fantasy,horror |
| Website | |
| michaelsheaauthor | |
Michael Shea (July 3, 1946 – February 16, 2014) was an American fantasy, horror, and science fiction author. His novelNifft the Lean won theWorld Fantasy Award, as did his novellaGrowlimb.[1]
Shea was born to Irish parents in Los Angeles in 1946. There he frequented Venice Beach and the Baldwin Hills for their wildlife. He attendedUCLA andBerkeley and hitch-hiked twice across the US and Canada. At a hotel inJuneau, Alaska, Shea chanced on a battered book from the lobby shelves,The Eyes of the Overworld byJack Vance (1966). Four years later, after a brief first marriage and one year hitch-hiking through France and Spain, he wrote a novel in homage to Vance, who graciously declined to share the advance offered byDAW Books. It was Shea's first publication,A Quest for Simbilis (1974), and an authorized sequel to Vance's twoDying Earth books then extant.ISFDB notes that it "became non-canonic" in 1983 when Vance "continued ...The Eyes ... in a different direction."[2]
Subsequently, Shea ranged all over the L.A. Basin, painting houses and teachingEnglish as a second language to adults by night. In 1978 he met his second wife, artist and author Lynn Cesar. They had two children: Adele and Jacob. Shea moved to theBay Area where (prior to 1987) he held a variety of occupations, including instructor of languages, construction laborer, and night clerk in aMission Districtflophouse.
In 1979 Shea published the story "The Angel of Death" (Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Aug 1979). This was followed in 1980 by "The Autopsy" (Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Dec 1980), a story nominated for both theHugo Award andNebula Award.
His next published work was the novella "Polyphemus" (Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Aug 1981). His story "The Frog" appeared inThe Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction (Apr 1982). Shea was quiet for a few years but re-emerged with his second book, a collection of four linked novellas calledNifft the Lean (1982).[3]Nifft showed that Shea had developed the exotic style of Vance andClark Ashton Smith, plus the ingenuity ofFritz Leiber's Gray Mouser stories, to produce an extravagant quest novel. It won the 1983World Fantasy Award as year's best novel.[1]
Shea followed up withThe Color out of Time (1984), a work influenced by theCthulhu Mythos, andIn Yana, the Touch of Undying (1985), about a vain opportunist's search for immortality in a land of fable.Polyphemus (1987) is a collection of deft science fiction and horror stories published byArkham House.
Shea continued the adventures of Nifft inThe Mines of Behemoth (Baen, 1997), serialised one year earlier in the Algis Budrys magazineTomorrow Speculative Fiction, and in a novelThe A'rak (2000). The Nifft stories are "sword-and-sorcery" modeled onJack Vance, notable for their imaginative depiction of the world ofdemons and their blend ofhorror, flowery diction, and occasionally crude humor.
Shea's work overlaps the science fiction and fantasy genres, e.g., thematic use of demons andaliens that act asendoparasites. Shea's interest in Lovecraft'sCthulhu Mythos continued throughout his career.Copping Squid and Other Mythos Tales (2010) is a collection of such tales.[4]
Shea died unexpectedly on February 16, 2014.[5]
In an overview of Shea's work, Chris Gilmore praised Shea's fiction, stating "Shea has a racy line in grue and writes with energy, imagination and precision", and expressed particular admiration for the stories inPolyphemus.[6] However, Gilmore also took issue with Shea's use of gigantic monsters in books such asA Quest for Simbilis andNifft the Lean, arguing that the use of such creatures vitiated Shea's ability to describe scenes in detail.[6] Gilmore also criticised Shea's story "The Pearls of the Vampire Queen" as being excessively violent, arguing that its protagonists kill one person and seriously injure another when the story did not require them to perform such actions.[6]
ReviewingThe Incomplete Nifft,Elizabeth Hand declared that "not evenBosch could capture the sheer, obsessive teemingness of Shea's world. . . . In their picaresque and unrelenting strangeness, Shea's tales evokeJack Vance andLord Dunsany,Clark Ashton Smith'sZothique tales, as well asThe Worm Ouroboros; but what his work most reminds me of isDavid Lindsay'sA Voyage to Arcturus, a book which had always struck me as being sui generis. Having read and delighted inThe Incompleat Nifft, I must create a new category for this beautiful, terrifying work, part sword-and-sorcery, part season in hell. Call it Shea generis."[7]
On his list of "The 13 Most Terrifying Horror Stories",T. E. D. Klein placed Shea's story "The Autopsy" at number eleven.[8]
On 26th October 2022, a dramatization of “The Autopsy” streamed on Netflix as the third episode of “Guillermo do Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities.”[9]
WorldCat contributing libraries report French editions ofA Quest for Simbilis andNifft the Lean and German editions of several books.[10]
Shea's first publication was an authorized contribution to theDying Earth series by Jack Vance[2]
Several months before publishing the third book,Baen Books re-issued the first two in one volume,The Incompleat Nifft (Baen, 2000,ISBN 0-671-57869-3). The three Baen titles used matching cover art byGary Ruddell with differences in jacket design.[3]
In 1994Darkside Press published a limited edition ofNifft the Lean with a very long subtitle in "440 signed, numbered copies, bound in 'demon-skin'" (ISBN 0-940841-39-8).[3][11][a]
Shea has won major "year's best" awards, both conferred by theWorld Fantasy Convention and selected by open nominations and panel of judges.[1]
His works have also been highly ranked, or one of a few finalists or nominees, for several other major awards.[1]
