Safe Return Doubtful

This collection is dominated by the first story. At long short story or short novella length, Muri is the reimagining of Melville’s Benito Cereno as a piece of climate fiction, and with a much darker tinge to it, so much that it becomes a horror story.
The few remaining polar bears are being transported to the Antarctic as the various governments try to patch up their errors, or alleviate their guilt.
The action takes place on the icebreaking ship, Procession, upon which the sleuth of Baffin Bay bears has been loaded. Previous such journeys have ended badly with crews mysteriously losing their sanity.
Shelby’s writing is excellent, both in the passages involving the events that take place, and in her descriptions of the environment. It makes me wonder that this could have been stretched into a full novella.

There’s a degree of satire in Muri, but the rest of the stories, which vary greatly in length, are heavily satirical and written largely as humour. As clever as they were in places, I couldn’t warm to the style of humour.

Shelby is an upcoming American writer with obvious potential. These stories first appeared in various magazines over the last eight years. I would encourage her to listen to the darker side if her personality in the future; she does after all quote Poe as being a serious influence on her writing.

My GoodReads score 3 / 5