The Cruel Sea
By Nicholas Monsarrat

Monsarrat's most famous novel was published in 1951 and would have been written while his own experience in the war was fresh, and probably raw. It is now seen as a classic and I understand why.

The author served on a naval escort in the North Atlantic during the Second World War, so has direct personal experience of the rigors he writes about. He forges a realistic, exciting and horrifying account of life on a warship. Things got very bad for Britain in the war until they finally started getting better.

It is very humbling to read of the terrible conditions, the suffering, tension and horror the men on these ships had to put up with. Pulled together from all across the world (British, Australian, Canadian etc.) and from all sorts of unlikely professions, they are dropped into a new world of conflict: war with the enemy, with the sea and with the elements. The worst of the ocean weather appears almost unbearable and, on top of this, the constant tension and terror of an unseen enemy, the hated U-Boat, picking off ships of the convoy by day and by night. The torpedoing and its aftermath will stay with me.

This book is grim in parts, but also very funny on occasion, especially the rest and re-fitting stop in New York. The crew discover that the Americans are just like us .. except when they aren't. A great novel of war and how people cope with it.

Arcane is an animated fantasy series released on Netflix and based on a computer game called League of Legends. This is definitely not something I would normally seek out but I heard (or read) that the series was very good. Well, thank goodness I decided to check it out because it is extremely good. In fact, I was quite astonished at how good it was.

The actual production was done by Riot Games and the French company Fortiche (careful on that site: full-on video playback). It was actually increasingly clear that there was a high French/European component to the show just by looking at it: I have a high regard for the French way of art and animation, particularly imaginative fantasy work like this.

So, I cannot recommend this highly enough: it is like a gritty, violent and stylish steam-punk comic strip mixed with a music video. Just beautifully put together with next to nothing left in an "uncanny valley" or clunky in any way.

As important as the style and animation, probably even more so, is the characterisation and storyline. And here too, the show works wonderfully: so well that you end up not only caring about people but even moved on occasion.

This type of series does not come along very often and it is easy to feel somewhat depressed at the state of film or video entertainment, especially since Marvel/Disney, DC and Amazon have imploded their quality so much recently. Arcane definitely raises the spirits.

I am not the only one who rates this so high: Arcane has won many awards, including the Emmy. Lots of people love it.

The Dream Master
By Roger Zelazny

When you read a book with "dream" in the title, you have to be prepared for some strange stuff and you'll find that in this short novel by the science-fiction author Roger Zelazny. This is my first time reading him.

In The Dream Master, Charles Render is a therapist who works by participating in his patients' dreams, controlling them in order to find the source of problems they have. He does this using a machine, a technological interface between himself and his subject. He is an expert at this sort of treatment but much care is required due to the risks of being so closely entwined at such a low-level of consciousness. Zelazny uses the process to explore aspects of our emotional and psychological state, neurosis and mental condition. Perhaps also the danger of over-confidence. There's potential for some imaginative sequences which he does well.

As I say, this is a short book and one I found hard to understand in a few places. Things were not necessarily clarified but it was clear that some scenes unfolded inside a dream world somewhere. What was actually happening, and why, was not easy to fathom. Such is the nature of the dream world but it can be frustrating in a novel. Zelazny seems to be an intelligent and cultured writer, making many references to classical or mythological themes, as well as themes of the unconscious. Clever stuff but you need to see the references he makes and, at times, perhaps he is too clever. The conclusion is not a great surprise but handled well. A certain sense of dread.

I am considering having a look at the novella the book is based on: He Who Shapes. The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (a very good and intelligent resource) has a useful paragraph on The Dream Master in its main article about Zelazny :

"In The Dream Master – for one of the few times in his career – Zelazny presented the counter-myth, the story of the metamorphosis which fails, the Transcendence which collapses back into the mortal world."