Polyphemus – Shea, Michael

Michael Shea (1946-2014) was one of the finest American authors of speculative fiction of modern times, and Polyphemus (1987), originally published as a limited edition hardcover by Arkham House, features the best of his short fiction, in which he deftly blends the genres of horror, fantasy, and science fiction. In the title story, an exploration team on a desert planet encounters a terrifying alien monstrosity. In “The Angel of Death,” a serial killer hunting innocent women turns out to be a visitor from another world. In “Uncle Tuggs,” a more traditional horror story infused with a dose of black humor, a series of grisly and bizarre deaths ensues that may be connected to the mysterious disappearance of old Uncle Tuggs, and in “The Horror on the #33” a wino witnesses a horrific murder committed by a strange wasp-headed monster on a city bus. The classic story “The Autopsy,” which Algis Budrys called “one of the most successful meldings of science fiction with horror that I have ever encountered” and which was filmed for Guillermo Del Toro’s Netflix series Cabinet of Curiosities, tells of an aging pathologist called in to perform an autopsy — but what he discovers during his examination is chilling and unthinkable.

A landmark collection of modern speculative fiction now available again at long last in this edition, which features a new introduction by Laird Barron.