In the title story “Polyphemus,” an exploration team on a desert planet faces death when it encounters a terrifying alien monstrosity. In “The Angel of Death,” a serial killer who has a city on edge may finally have met his match in the form of a powerful interplanetary traveler. In the blackly humorous “Uncle Tuggs,” a series of grisly and bizarre deaths may be connected to the mysterious disappearance of old Uncle Tuggs. “The Horror on the #33” tells of a man’s struggle with a deadly and horrible monster on a city bus. And in the highlight of the collection, “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, an aging pathologist is called in to perform an autopsy—but what he discovers during his examination is chilling and unthinkable ...

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. A landmark collection of modern speculative fiction returns to print at long last in this edition, which features a new introduction by Laird Barron.