Robert Shea: A reader's guide

By TOM JACKSON
Blogger at RAWIllumination.net

When I began my RAWIllumination.net blog, it was pretty much focused on Robert Anton Wilson, although by that time I had realized that Robert Shea was an interesting writer in his own right, and not just as the co-writer of Illuminatus! While I write more often about Wilson at the blog, I also often write about Shea.

I have now read all of Shea's books (with the exception of an anomalous work, From No Man's Land to Plaza Del Lago, a short history book. Plaza Del Lago is a shopping center in Wilmette, Illinois.) So I thought it might be useful to write a short guide to all of the titles.

These books are available free or cheaply as ebooks and inexpensively as used books, although most are out of print. Mike Shea, Robert Shea's son and literary executor, has chosen to privilege making Shea's work available over trying to squeeze every last nickle of royalties and has released all of Shea's novels (except Illuminatus!)  under a Creative Commons license; if you want to make a movie out of one of them you must pay for the rights, but if you just want to read the book you are free to do  so at no cost with Mike's blessing.

I have not chosen to provide links for individual titles, but here are some ways to get both ebooks and paper books.

For ebooks, once you have decided which title you want to try, look at the Project Gutenberg Robert Shea titles (I suggest skipping his early short stories, which aren't very good), checking out the links at the official Robert Shea page, or searching for Shea at the Internet Archive (which seems to have all of his fiction titles.) Or just Google the title. Some titles also are available as properly formatted Kindles at a reasonable price on Amazon. I did buy the Kindle titles for Shike and All Things Are Lights. 

For paper copies, there are many places to look for used books. I recommend BookFinder.com as a good place to find reasonably-priced used books. 

If you only know Shea from Illuminatus!, I should explain that  his solo  novels are straightforward historical novels  with clear prose and little of the literary experimentation of Illuminatus!, which, while a genuine collaboration between Wilson and Shea, owes most of its style and experimentation in form to Wilson. There are connections, however, between Illuminatus! and Shea's solo novels. Most of them feature Illuminati-style secret societies  that have links to secret societies in other parts of the world, and explore many of the ideas featured in Illuminatus! I have written about All Things Are Lights, for example, as a kind of "thematic prequel" to Illuminatus!

Most of Shea's historical novels are set in the Middle Ages in a variety of locales, although his last published novel, Shaman, took him into a new artistic direction as it is set in the United States in the early 19th century and features a Native American hero. Shea was still busy writing historical  novels when he died of cancer in 1994 at age 61. 

Shea's first books, the two Shike novels, were his best sellers. They did really well. The rest of his career could be described as an attempt to repeat that success. His agent, Al Zuckerman, was very oriented toward helping his clients write blockbusters see also this,  and perhaps if Shea had lived longer, he could have come up with another big hit. That said, I enjoy all of Shea's novels. 

OK, here are the books, in chronological order of when they are published:

Shike. A novel set in medieval Japan at the time of the two attempted Mongol  invasions of the island, e.g. the thirteen century. It was Shea's most commercially successful book and sold really well. The books were published as two separate novels in 1981, Time of the Dragons and Last of the Zinja, before eventually being published as one book. 

All Things Are Lights. Following the success of Shike, Shea did not publish another work until 1986, when All Things Are Lights came out. Also taking place in the 13th century albeit in a different area of the globe, and set mostly in France during the reign of Louis IX, it includes descriptions of the war against the Cathars, including the 1243-1244 siege of the Cathar stronghold of Montségur  and the Seventh Crusade ((1248–1254).

All Things Are Lights is the novel which has the most connections to Illuminatus! (there's even a hint that the main hero's sister is an ancestor of Hagbard Celine). I have written about Lights as a "thematic prequel" to Illuminatus!

Here is a blog post with a detailed discussion of All Things Are Lights. 

The Saracen. Following All Things Are Lights, Shea returned to the Shike formula of writing one fictional work in the form of two volumes. So although The Saracen is really one story, it was published in two volumes in 1989, Land of the Infidel and The Holy War. Our hero this time is a Muslim warrior and spy, and the "land of the infidel" is medieval Italy in the 13th century, some years after the events of All Things Are Lights. The Wikipedia article says it "enjoys a strong cult following," and I did enjoy it. The Order of the Assassins are featured, and one of the characters is the son of the main characters in All Things Are Lights.

The Shaman. Shea's last published novel is something of a departure, as it is set on the American frontier in the early 19th century. The hero becomes a Sauk shaman and Native Americans are depicted sympathetically. I like this less well than Shea's other novels, but Mike Shea thinks it may have been his Dad's favorite novel.

 Every Day is a GOOD Day: Robert Shea on Illuminatus! Writing and Anarchism, is a collection of short pieces by Shea. It also includes two long interviews of Shea. I edited the book, which was published by Hilaritas Press in 2025, 50 years after Illuminatus! was first published. You can also get more information here.