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Michael Shea (July 3, 1946 – February 16, 2014) was an American fantasy, horror, and science fiction author living in California. He has won "year's best" World Fantasy Awards for the novel ''Nifft the Lean'' and the novella ''Growlimb''.〔 ==Life and work== 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 ESL to adults by night. In 1978 he met his second wife, artist and author Lynn Cesar. They had two children, Adele and Jacob. 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 which was nominated for both the Hugo Award and Nebula Award 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." 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, the collection of four linked novellas ''Nifft the Lean'' (1982).〔 ''Nifft'' showed that Shea had developed the exotic style of Vance (perhaps influenced by 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. Some betray the possible stylistic influence of Stephen King. 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.〔("Exclusive: Read the Copping Squid Short Story from ''Black Wings of Cthulhu''!" ), Mr. Dark, Dread Central, March 27, 2012.〕 Shea died unexpectedly on February 16, 2014.〔(Michael Shea (1946-2014) ) Locus Online News, March 3, 2014.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Michael Shea (author)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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