Michael Shea is an American fantasy horror and science fiction author living in California. He is a multiple winner of the World Fantasy Award and his works include Nifft the Lean (1982) (winner of the World Fantasy Award) and The Mines of Behemoth (1997) (later republished together as The Incomplete Nifft, 2000), as well as The A’Rak (2000) and In Yana, the Touch of Undying (1985). The Nifft stories are wonderful examples of the “sword-and-sorcery” genre modeled on Jack Vance, notable for their imaginative depiction of the world of demons (which could be read as a satire on 1980s greed and consumerism) and their blend of horror, flowery diction, and humor. One earlier novel, The Color out of Time, is an homage to H. P. Lovecraft’s “The Colour out of Space”; and his first novel, A Quest for Simbilis, is an authorized sequel to Vance’s The Eyes of the Overworld. Polyphemus (1987) is a collection of stories published by Arkham House. There are overlaps between Shea’s work in the science fiction and fantasy genres, e.g., demons and aliens that act as endoparasites. What’s not to love about an endoparasitical demonic alien, I ask you?
Michael Shea
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