Michael Shea

• Name — Michael Shea • Born — 3 July 1946 • Birthplace — Los Angeles, California, U.S. • Died — 16 February 2014 • Occupation — Author • Education — University of California, Los Angeles University of California, Berkeley • Genre — Science fiction, fantasy, horror

Shea was born to Irish parents in Los Angeles in 1946. There he frequented Venice Beach and the Baldwin Hills for their wildlife. He attended UCLA and Berkeley and hitch-hiked twice across the US and Canada. At a hotel in Juneau, Alaska, Shea chanced on a battered book from the lobby shelves, The Eyes of the Overworld by Jack 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 by DAW Books. It was Shea's first publication, A Quest for Simbilis (1974), and an authorized sequel to Vance's two Dying Earth books then extant. ISFDB notes that it "became non-canonic" in 1983 when Vance "continued... The Eyes... in a different direction." Subsequently, Shea ranged all over the L.A. Basin, painting houses and teaching English 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 the Bay Area where (prior to 1987) he held a variety of occupations, including instructor of languages, construction laborer, and night clerk in a Mission District flophouse. 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 the Hugo Award and Nebula Award. His next published work was the novella "Polyphemus" (Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Aug 1981). His story "The Frog" appeared in The 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 called Nifft the Lean (1982). Nifft showed that Shea had developed the exotic style of Vance and Clark Ashton Smith, plus the ingenuity of Fritz Leiber's Gray Mouser stories, to produce an extravagant quest novel. It won the 1983 World Fantasy Award as year's best novel. Shea followed up with The Color out of Time (1984), a work influenced by the Cthulhu Mythos, and In 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 by Arkham House. Shea continued the adventures of Nifft in The Mines of Behemoth (Baen, 1997), serialised one year earlier in the Algis Budrys magazine Tomorrow Speculative Fiction, and in a novel The A'rak (2000). The Nifft stories are "sword-and-sorcery" modeled on Jack Vance, notable for their imaginative depiction of the world of demons and their blend of horror, flowery diction, and occasionally crude humor. Shea's work overlaps the science fiction and fantasy genres, e.g., thematic use of demons and aliens that act as endoparasites. Shea's interest in Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos continued throughout his career. Copping Squid and Other Mythos Tales (2010) is a collection of such tales. Shea died unexpectedly on February 16, 2014.

On 26 October 2022, a dramatization of “The Autopsy” streamed on Netflix as the third episode of Guillermo del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities.

Shea's first publication was an authorized contribution to the Dying Earth series by Jack Vance • A Quest for Simbilis (1974, OCLC 2128177)

• Nifft the Lean (DAW, 1982) • The Mines of Behemoth (Baen, 1997) • The A'rak (Baen, 2000) Several months before publishing the third book, Baen Books re-issued the first two in one volume, The Incompleat Nifft (Baen, 2000). The three Baen titles used matching cover art by Gary Ruddell with differences in jacket design. In 1994 Darkside Press published a limited edition of Nifft the Lean with a very long subtitle in "440 signed, numbered copies, bound in 'demon-skin'".

• The Color Out of Time (1984) • In Yana, the Touch of Undying (1985) • I, Said the Fly (Silver Salamander Press, 1993) —limited edition of 300 copies • The Extra (2010) — based on Shea's short story of the same title, intended as the first of a trilogy • Assault on Sunrise (2013) • Mr. Cannyharme (2021)

• Fat Face (1987)

• "The Angel of Death" (1979) • "The Autopsy" (1980), adapted for Guillermo del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities (2022) • "Polyphemus" (1981) • "Nemo Me Impune Lacessit" (1982) • "That Frog" (1982) • "The Horror on the #33" (1982) • "The Fishing of the Demon-Sea" (1982) • "Come Then, Mortal, We Will Seek Her Soul" (1982) • "The Goddess in Glass" (1982) • "The Pearls of the Vampire Queen" (1982) • "Shag Margold's Eulogy of Nifft the Lean, His Dear Friend" (1982) • "Grunt-12 Test Drive" (1983) • "Creative Coverage, Inc." (1983) • "Uncle Tuggs" (1986) • "Fill It With Regular" (1986) • "The Extra" (1987) • "Fat Face" (1987) • "Delivery" (1987) • "I, Said the Fly" (1989) • "Salome" (1994) • "Tollbooth" (1995) • "Johnny Crack" (1995) • "Fast Food" (1995) • "Piece A' Chain" (1996) • "Water of Life" (1999) • "For Every Tatter in Its Mortal Dress" (2000) • "The Rebuke" (2002) • "The Growlimb" (2004) —World Fantasy Award, Best Novella • "The Pool" (2007) • "Tsathoggua" (2008) • "The Battery" • "The Presentation" • "Copping Squid" • "Dagoniad"

• "Reprisal by Mitchell Smith" (2005)