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, a collection of four linked novellas called "Nifft the Lean" (1982). "Nifft" showed that Shea had developed the exotic style of Vance and 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.