Michael Shea (1) (1946–2014)

This is going to feel more like a review of the collection itself, rather than of the individual stories. Why? Because I already really enjoy Michael Shea. He's capable of really humanizing more esoteric horror and fantasy by grounding it in believable, identifiable, and realistic characters. He can do action that feels like a more believable Howard. At least, when he's at his best. And the initial half to two-thirds of this collection is some of his best.
Demiurge is as close to a complete collection of every cthulhu mythos related tale that Michael Shea wrote as you're likely to get (there's an outlandishly expensive Centipede Press collection that's probably more complete). I do not necessarily know if that is a good thing.
You see, its essentially the Perilous Press edition of Copping Squid, with a few other stories tacked on to the end. And I mean tacked on. Its clear to see why several of these entries may have been omitted from that collection, as they just don't hold up by comparison. Some of them don't even feel related to the cthulhu mythos besides stylistic similarities to Lovecraft. Taken on their individual merits, there are a couple of fun additional stories though.
Momma Durtt was fantastic, creative, original story about gangsters, truckers, poor small town folk, and maybe some sort of cthonic entity (or something else entirely?). For me, it had echoes of Ambrose Bierce's "Damned Thing."
Under the Shelf fooled me. Its opening with characters preparing to explore the ocean below the ice shelf had me prepped for a Jules Verne, Jacque Cousteau, Abyss, but-with-some-more-horror style adventure. It quickly and surprisingly morphs into one of the most action packed (and to some degree sci-fi channel movie goofy/campy) Shea short stories I've read.
Ultimately, though, none of the individual stories added on to this collection are good enough that you really need to read this in addition to Copping Squid. Barring being a completionist.… (meer)

I likely never would have picked up Michael Shea, let alone such a nice edition, if Chris Lackey and Chad Fifer of the H.P. Lovecraft Literary Podcast (at hppodcraft.com) hadn't invited the utterly delightful Patton Oswalt on the show to talk about several of these stories. And my life would have been the poorer for it.
This is a fantastic introduction to Shea's lovecraftian influenced work, for those (like myself) without the resources to pick up the extremely limited run and extremely expensive omnibus of all his work.
I know I frequently break down these collections with at least a little blurb about every or almost every story in the collection. However, I can't do them nearly the justice in terms of enthusiasm or depth of knowledge that Patton does on those episodes of Chris and Chad's podcast, so I'm going to recommend everyone go listen to those for more detailed information (really, just listen to every episode Chris and Chad have done).
There is not a single story that disappoints here, though many are present in several other collections or chapbooks, so completionists may find some repition. Themetically, these are all lovecraftian stories set in San Francisco. S.T. Joshi deserves some credit for selection and order here. Shea's deep knowledge and experience of the city rivals that of Lovecraft's knowledge of the New England states, and really helps these stories come alive with a vibrant, living, time and place. People, not stuff rarified intellectuals, receive similar treatment as entirely believable everymen (and women) who feel like believable portraits appropriate to the setting. More of O. Henry perhaps than Lovecraft in the skillful depictions of this cast of characters.
These definitely have the feel of world building, a 60s-80s weird san francisco perhaps, but don't expect some longterm payoff in terms of an over-arching plot.
There's enough here to please everyone from Lovecraft traditionalists to those looking for a more modern feel to their horror, with a lot of respectful portrayals of groups (sex workers, the homeless, addicts, and the poor) that don't normally receive such humane treatment in fiction.… (meer)

An (eventual) trio of professorial men (and woman) of action take on the forces left behind beneath a lake in Shea's sequal to Lovecraft's "The Colour out of Space." The remnants of that story have been gestating beneath the lake for decades, slowly becoming something both subtle and physically powerful that is now ready to openly reach out to...feed upon all life on earth? I guess? Their main opposition besides this creature? Forest rangers and late '70s/early '80s vacationing dads? Perhaps also their own alcoholism, as I can't remember the last time I've read a story in which anyone drinks as much and as continuously as these characters do (breakfast to bed, I kid you not). Its the equivalent of people chainsmoking in pre-1980s cinema.
I really love Shea's original work, including his obviously Lovecraftian influenced work. I started reading it semi-recently, thanks to Patton Oswalt's contributions to Chad Fifer and Chris Lackey's excellent podcast. Unfortunately, a lot of what makes his other work so appealing either doesn't work or is entirely absent here. Typically, he's focused on the average people in society, if not the underclasses. He portrays their lives accurately, interestingly, and with sympathy. But here, we're following upper middle (possibly even upper) class professors. It seems he's trying to merge Lovecraft's preferred, or at least most famous, scholar protagnoists ala Armitage or Dyer with his preferred man or woman of action, and it just doesn't work well. It comes across as clumsy pastiche instead of believable characters. Shea's enjoyment and understanding of the physicality of people, bodies in action and motion, is also almost always a key piece of his writing. Its here, but again, feels clumsily shoehorned into a Lovecraft story that was ostensibly about a barely percievable menace, an internal corruption that at best can be escapted from rather than a target to be fought. Setting is typically a living, breathing, complex factor in Shea's stories as well. He understands and communicates clearly the beauty of urban settings even when showing us their dirty, hidden, frequently ignored parts. Yet this story plops us down in a setting that couldn't be more rural.
I haven't yet read Shea's sequal to the Nifft the Lean stories, but I'm hoping this isn't a consistent failing when Shea attempts to work directly in the world's of others. Because coming off of his original work, this was extremely disappointing (though that cover art is on point). It seems like if he had written a straight homage to Lovecraft, or a straight Shea story that was simply inspired by Lovecraftian elements, this could have come out better than the hodgepodge of styles we ended up getting. It might have also benefitted from focus and brevity, more novella in length. Unless you're a completionist, I'd skip this one.… (meer)