Michael Shea (1946-2014)

Author Michael Shea, 67, died suddenly on February 16, 2014. Shea wrote fantasy, SF, and horror, and was known for his literary ambition and sophisticated prose. His novel Nifft the Lean (1983) won a World Fantasy Award, as did novella “The Growlimb” (2004).

Shea’s first novel A Quest for Simbilis (1974) was a British Fantasy Award finalist and an authorized sequel to Jack Vance’s Dying Earth book The Eyes of the Overworld. Novels The Mines of Behemoth (1997) and A’rak (2000) are sequels to Nifft the Lean, and standalone novels include The Color out of Time (1984, a sequel to Lovecraft’s 1927 story “The Colour Out of Space”) and In Yana, the Touch of Undying (1985). He recently began writing dark, satirical novels about the movie industry: The Extra (2010) and sequel Assault on Sunrise (2013).

Shea was also a noted short fiction writer, with “The Angel of Death” (1979) nominated for a Nebula Award and “The Autopsy” (1980) nominated for Hugo and Nebula Awards. Some of his short work is collected in World Fantasy Award finalist Polyphemus (1987), The Autopsy and Other Tales (2008), and Copping Squid and Other Mythos Tales (2009).

Michael Shea was born July 3, 1946 in Culver City in Los Angeles CA and grew up there. He moved to the Bay Area in 1987, settling in Healdsburg CA. Shea is survived by his wife of 35 years, artist Linda Shea who also writes under the name Lynn Cesar, and their two adult children.

For more, see his entry in The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction.

See the April issue of Locus for a complete obituary and appreciations.