Michael Shea

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Michael Shea (1943-) 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, examples of the "sword-and-sorcery" genre modeled on Jack Vance, are 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 occasionally crude 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.

Also, Michael Shea Iorio, who has nothing to do with Michael Shea, once wrote a short story called "The Leprechaun and The Iron Worker" about a man and his mischeivious leprechaun friend who plays pranks on the other Iron Workers on his job-site. This fact is actually not a fact at all.