fiction critics, the latter because the animation of
Frankenstein’s monster is the result of scientific
principles rather than the supernatural. The novel
was so gruesome for its time that many believed
Shelley, who was still in her teens when she wrote
it, was incapable of having produced a work of that
nature.
The novel has since become a part of common
culture, primarily because of the movies, given that
the prose of the original is quite difficult for casual
modern readers. Many writers have attempted to
write sequels and retellings, including such a di-
verse lot as Brian W. Aldiss, Christopher Isher-
wood, Fred SABERHAGEN, and Theodore Rosczak.
FRANKENSTEIN UNBOUND (1973) by Aldiss in-
cludes Mary Shelley herself as a character.
Although Shelley wrote additional novels, none
of them involve the fantastic except for The Last
Man(1826), which is set in a future world following
a devastating plague and which is science fiction.
She did write a number of short stories, including
several that involve ghosts, reanimation, and other
wonders. The best of these is “Transformation”
(1831), in which a man switches bodies with a de-
monic dwarf, supposedly for a short period although
the dwarf reneges when the time is up. Most of her
short fiction was assembled as Collected Tales and Sto-
ries(1976) and with a slightly different selection as
The Mortal Immortal(1996). Shelley’s reputation
stands on a single work, but that work has been im-
measurably important in literature in general as well
as within the two genres that claim it.
Shepard, Lucius(1947– )
Lucius Shepard began writing fiction in the early
1980s, mostly science fiction although his first
novel in that genre, Green Eyes(1984), was a ra-
tionalized zombie story. His first major effort in
fantasy was “The Man Who Painted the Dragon
Griaule” (1984), which was followed by two fur-
ther stories, The Scalehunter’s Beautiful Daughter
(1988) and “Father of Stones” (1989), all set in a
magical alternate reality dominated by a dragon so
large it contains a small separate society of its own.
Shepard’s extremely unusual use of what might
seem otherwise a typical fantasy attracted consid-
erable attention.
The short novel Kalimantan(1990) mirrored
some of the themes of Shepard’s earlier science fic-
tion, which often involved experimentation with
drugs, in this case leading to contact with disem-
bodied spirits. Shepard then turned to the vampire
legend and transformed it dramatically in the
bizarre and rewarding The Golden(1993), wherein
a group of the undead live in a vast European cas-
tle and must solve the crime when one of their
number is murdered. The vampire society is partic-
ularly original and rich in detail.
Although Shepard was relatively unproductive
during the balance of the 1990s, he returned to the
genre with Valentine(2002), a somewhat marginal
story that postulates that some humans may have
the ability to alter the laws of chance. Louisiana
Breakdown(2003) is an enigmatic novel about a
stranded motorist who falls in love with a woman
who is the focus of a sort of communal pact with
magic. A police officer develops a set of unusual
physical symptoms after shooting a suspect in
Floater(2003) and finds himself caught up in the
middle of a voodoo war. The protagonist of A
Handbook of American Prayer (2003) has his
prayers answered, but not by the entity he thought
he was addressing. Although all four of these nov-
els are thoughtful, intelligent, and entertaining,
they lack the enthusiasm and wider-ranging imagi-
nation of his earlier work.
Several of his later short stories are much
more memorable than his novels. The best of
these are the two thematically related stories in
Two Trains Running(2004), which involve Shep-
ard’s actual experiences researching an article
about people who illicitly ride on freight trains.
Shepard’s short story collection, The Ends of the
Earth(1991), won a World Fantasy Award but is
predominantly science fiction. His recent novels
show a definite drift toward mainstream fiction,
but much of his short fiction is still clearly aimed
at a genre audience.Sherman, Josepha(unknown)
There are only a handful of authors who can write
well for both adult and young adult audiences.
Josepha Sherman, whose work is very often based
on authentic folklore, is one of those rarities, who316 Shepard, Lucius