Novel Effect

-I think if we're now already saying the title of the song has to do with a character who isn't at all present during the screen, then you can't exactly rule out the title of the other track being about FoxyBro and it just playing afterwards as his epilogue of sorts. He said goodbye in a way, so the song plays -Curse of Dreadbear shows he succeeds is the issue. 1983 is the only year implied, and he succeeds. There is nothing stopping all of this just happening in the same year -That's the point, I don't think any of this implies grief in the first place. I think he was sad and angry, not grieving. The wilting flower can very easily represent sadness and the 'end of beauty', and I just don't think this song title means anything unless you purposefully single this one out and apply exceptions to it -Again, it's said he never made anything with love. Not just his daughter, anything at all. It's an umbrella statement, encompassing everything this man has ever created. The whole point is that even when he 'loves', it never actually is. That's why he immediately repurposes the MCI in TFC. I'm talking about both Williams. Movie William having a favourite child and pictures of what he at that point still considered a perfect family doesn't show love, it's the same thing as the novels. Effectively property he can shape into his whims. William viewing something as love doesn't make it care. It's a man who fundamentally doesn't understand it effectively larping love. He doesn't actually feel it, he doesn't actually care, it's something he wants but can't actually achieve. This is the case in the movies and games as well. That's why he grabs a knife and chases Vanessa with it and screams at her that he loves her. Movie 2 makes that even more obvious, because both Michael and William tell Vanessa to her face that she is property to be owned by William. That's why he was so sad. His favourite was wasted, and in an almost funny way it's recontextualised now with Michael, as William realizes he's all he has left with Michael being the lesser of the two. All the Henrys do the same thing. All of them want justice for Charlotte. Two of them ended their lives when they thought they got that justice. All of them became reclusive and left. And truth be told, we don't know what Game Henry's or Movie Henry's period of grieving is. For all we know they had the same months-long spiral that TSE Henry had. That grief just eventually settled into emptiness because Ella wasn't around, instead of a manic need to rebuild his daughter. In the same way, William Afton does not love in any continuity. He expresses that 'not loving' differently in each, though -That doesn't really matter, we don't have a reason to believe CC did anything special to be outright loved as the only Afton kid. If the argument is specifically about CC, then he would still have the Vanessa role of just being William's favourite. So yeah, I think this absolutely still applies. He at most was William's favourite who he saw a lot of potential in just like Vanessa

plenty of people make professional quality music with stock plugins in any DAW. if you like them then use them! I do love and use bitwig stock plugins often personally I use other plugins sometimes because I prefer the interface, not because it sounds better. for example multiband dynamics, in bitwig it's treated as a container where you can't view all 3 bands at once. So I usually just use xfer OTT or the multiband comp in serum 2 fx because of the similar interface. sometimes I use other plugins for novel effects, or because they do one specific thing really well and I enjoy that simplicity. But I think you can achieve most things with stock plugins if you know what you're doing.

First get books about stuff he likes. Then start regularly going to the library together. I got my son a special tote bag. We'd go to the library and he would pick out books on his own. Then we would keep them in the special bag, taking out and putting back in upon reading. Then they didn't get lost. Also, there is an app called Novel Effects that you can use that makes sound effects on your phone as it listens to you read. You have to buy a subscription but it is really, really cool.Also check out Vooks on YouTube. They read the books with animated pictures and shows the words highlighted as it reads.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=bTbBSEfecuo&pp=ygUUbm92ZWwgZWZmZWN0IGV4YW1wbGU%3D It’s a mobile app. I use it with a speaker as suggested. My kiddos know that when they hear the chime that the book has “magic”. It’s not free but they do run specials a few times a year. I think it’s well worth it. I’m an elementary school librarian who often subs in kindergarten. If I don’t use novel effects for like 2 weeks the kids ask when the magic is coming back. They’re still engaged without it but it adds a little something special.

This post is part of a series of reviews. To see them all, click [here](https://www.reddit.com/user/ZeroCentsMade/comments/u36aib/my_doctor_who_reviews/). # Novel Information * Novel: Doctor Who: The New Adventures (VNA) #14 * Published: 20th May 1993 * Companions: Ace, Benny * Writers: Andy Lane and Jim Mortimer # Spoiler-Free Review *Lucifer Rising* is both a key story in building up the relationship of the new TARDIS team of the 7th Doctor, Ace and Benny – character dynamics which in my opinion it absolutely nails - and an inventive, if a bit overstuffed, story in its own right. It's a bit slow to get going and there's maybe a few too many characters, but it's got a really strong story and some fun twists and turns that I don't want to get into here because it *will* spoil the story. Oh and I absolutely love Legion. No, I'm not going to say who or what Legion. If you've got any interest in the VNAs definitely pick this one up for some important character follow up from previous novel [*Deceit*](https://www.reddit.com/r/gallifrey/comments/1s4oxd7/the_great_status_quo_reset_deceit_virgin_new/). *Deceit* and [*Love and War*](https://www.reddit.com/r/gallifrey/comments/1pph6zg/lovers_become_pawns_love_and_war_virgin_new/) are the obvious ones you'll want to be sure to have read before this one, as this follows up on a lot of elements, mostly character stuff for Ace, that are introduced in those novels. # Full Review *I’ve hurt \[Ace\], Bernice. I keep hurting her. With the best of intentions, but still the pain exists. The mistrust. The feeling of betrayal.* – The Doctor So the previous VNA, [*Deceit*](https://www.reddit.com/r/gallifrey/comments/1s4oxd7/the_great_status_quo_reset_deceit_virgin_new/), saw Ace's return to the TARDIS after missing just three novels, a gap that I maintain was too short. Regardless, she's back now, and the range has a new *status quo* to explore. And *Deceit* for better or for worse, kind of left us in an awkward place, with this new TARDIS team feeling very fragmented. So it would be up to the next novel, and its co-authors Andy Lane and Jim Mortimer, to explore these new character dynamics, and maybe find something a bit more stable for this trio in *Lucifer Rising*. And honestly, I think they absolutely nailed that aspect of the novel. I can definitely imagine a lot of people disagree with me on this point. Ace is *a lot* in this novel and she's definitely a lot less likable than she used to be. But I actually really liked what was done with Ace here. And with Benny. And with the Doctor. Coming out of *Deceit* I wasn't sold on this trio as the main cast for this novel series. And I still feel like we could have used more time with Benny as the sole companion. But this novel effectively demonstrates how Ace has changed in the past three years and how she will, in fact, be able to work with Benny and the Doctor again. While there's still an uncertainty there, and I don't think by this end of this novel Ace and Benny *like* each other exactly, and I can't imagine that Benny trusts Ace entirely, the novel does at least seem to develop a mutual respect between the two, as well as letting Ace somewhat trust the Doctor again. And, you know, maybe that's enough. *Lucifer Rising* is probably most notable for being the first adventure with this new TARDIS team established. But if it's notable for anything else it's the extent to which it mines *Doctor Who* continuity for its backstory. Most notably this in many ways serves as a sequel to [*Colony in Space*](https://www.reddit.com/r/gallifrey/comments/14gj4ee/mastery_of_space_and_time_colony_in_space_review/). Like *Colony* there's a lot of talk about how overcrowded the Earth is. And of course the Interplanetary Mining Corporation (IMC) serve as antagonists in this novel, just as they did in the prior television story. And one of the side characters is Adjudicator Bishop, who holds the same rank that the Master pretended to have in *Colony*. It's an odd choice to be sure, although IMC have kind of had an ongoing presence through the recent VNAs. It does actually tie in to Ace's departure in [*Love and War*](https://www.reddit.com/r/gallifrey/comments/1pph6zg/lovers_become_pawns_love_and_war_virgin_new/), where IMC had a minor presence. And I quite like *Colony in Space*, at least when IMC are being the main villains, so it's nice to see the strong worldbuilding from that story getting some followup. Though for a while it feels more like *Lucifer Rising* is echoing *Colony in Space's* worldbuilding rather than actually building upon it. At least unless you remember that the Master was specifically called an Adjudicator in *Colony*, which I didn't until double checking once IMC got involved in the plot. That's because at first our main plot is removed from the corporations that clearly have undue influence on human governance. At the start we're introduced to the crew of an Earth Central base on Belial, a moon orbiting the planet of Lucifer. The crew is there to try and discover new sources of energy on Lucifer, since Earth Central has noted some anomalies there. There appears to be an indigenous life form, who appear mostly in the form of shifting lights, similar to auroras, that have been named Angels (oh yeah, there's an absurd amount of Christian imagery running through this one, but you probably guessed that from the title). And Paula, the daughter of Miles Engando the base commander, has either just committed suicide or died in a spacesuit (called starsuits in this book for some reason) malfunction. And the Doctor thinks that it's not only a malfunction but someone intentionally caused that malfunction. So we've set up a murder mystery. The Doctor is acting as your Hercule Poirot stand-in (I wanted some variation from using Sherlock Holmes as a point of reference for the Doctor, as apt as it might be). But there's also an official presence in the form of the aforementioned Adjudicator Bishop. Bishop, naturally, suspects the Doctor and his friends, who aren't official members of the base staff and seem to have appeared out of nowhere. While the rest of the staff seem to trust the Doctor because…the Doctor is just kind of capable of doing that, Bishop isn't so convinced, and has the Doctor as his prime suspect for sabotage. Except you keep getting these hints that the plot isn't really going to focus on the murder mystery aspect of things. Most notable is how much time is spent on Alex Bannen, the base's lead scientist. While he's a bit of a jackass (a lot of a jackass honestly), he's not really presented as a meaningful suspect in Paula's death. What he is doing is investigating the Angels and the mysteries of the Lucifer system. I'm not going to get into the specifics here, but suffice to say there's a cavern that Bannen has dubbed the "mushroom farm" full of artificial, mushroom-like growths that Bannen thinks are the key to extracting energy from Lucifer. And again, a lot of time is spent on investigating this point, even though it seems tangential at most to the investigation into Paula's death. And then there's this moment where we discover that the Doctor has realized that Ace manipulated Benny into taking them to this point in time, implying some greater importance to the events of this novel. And almost as soon as we discover who killed Paula (and a few others by this point), the novel has moved on. Because IMC have arrived. And Ace is working for them. I'll cover this more later, because I have a lot to say about Ace in this novel, but by this point the main plot of the novel becomes clearly about two things. The first is IMC's takeover and abandonment of the Lucifer project. The second is the angels. The first point is simpler. You see, elsewhere in human space, Earth Central has fallen. From what people seem to say, it's been a long time coming too. Earth Central's power has been weakening as compared to the Corporations, like IMC, for a long time, and now finally they've taken over. This actually leaves Bishop kind of stranded without a place as he derives his power from Earth Central interestingly enough. Then it's discovered that the reason Ace rejoined the TARDIS in the first place was to travel back to this point and meet up with an IMC operative called "Legion" (more on Legion later), because in the future where, as we know from *Deceit* corporations do indeed have extreme levels of control over the government, Ace worked for IMC. Lucifer is of interest to IMC due to it having some strategic importance in the Dalek war, but the events of this novel have rendered the system inaccessible. So a large part of this novel is actually Ace manipulating events for the benefit of the future, which definitely makes a change from the Doctor doing the manipulating. Of course the other part is a bit more complicated. The Angels were once corporeal buildings who harnessed something called "morphic fields" (hey, that's a real world pseudoscience!) to change their form into what we see today. Ace theorizes, and we're supposed to understand her to be correct, that they've come to view their new world as heaven, and everything outside it as hell. This makes them isolationist balls of light, and not very friendly to the outside world. Still, they're largely benign, and the humans' attempts to find a source of energy on Lucifer have messed with their systems and life cycles. Not to mention the whole morphic field thing nearly results in the transformation of the human race into something entirely different. I think both halves of this plot, as well as the opening murder mystery plot were all handled quite well. Admittedly, I did feel like this novel got off to a bit of a slow start, probably because it had a lot of concepts and characters to introduce. This in turn lead to it feeling a bit difficult to get a handle on the character dynamics between our TARDIS team though the novel would eventually make up for that. Still, considering this was a new trio for these novels it's a shame that we don't get a better sense of how these three will work together earlier. And as mentioned above what this novel has in abundance is characters. Probably a few too many characters, although I can't say there were any bad characters. Still, especially in the first half before IMC takes over, it did sometimes feel a bit difficult to keep track of who everyone was or why they were important. And then IMC adds in a bunch of new characters, and while things get simplified to some degree between various deaths and IMC kind of supplanting everything, I think we could have paired down the characters a bit without losing much of value. Still, those characters. Beginning with the Project Eden Crew, they are led by Miles Engado. As mentioned above before the beginning of the novel, Miles lost his daughter Paula to starsuit sabotage. In early scenes he's presented as stoic but not uncaring, trying to maintain his professionalism through tragedy. Over the course of the novel it's revealed that that is an issue with Miles. He wasn't a bad father, or husband but after he lost his wife, he tried not to show too much emotion and focus on work. And here the same thing is happening. But bottled up emotions aren't removed emotions. Later on it's revealed that when she "died", Paula actually ended up merging with the Angels, somehow, creating an odd hybrid being. This is actually how it's confirmed that the Angels are sentient, although you probably could have guessed the novel was going in that direction from the beginning. It's also worth mentioning that Miles is Amerindian. He claims the Tewa culture from his father, although apparently that culture in reality died out in the mid 21st Century. I don't really have much to say about this, I'm certainly not the person to judge the authenticity of how the Tewa culture is presented here. But the Tewa culture and spirituality do form a bit of a backdrop for how he handles his daughter's death and his contacts with the Angels. By the end of the novel, he seems to have come to terms with the tragedies that happened while he was running Project Eden, and that's probably the best outcome you can hope for. He also has a girlfriend on the base…who turns out to be the killer. Piper O'Rourke is given a lot of time in the first half of the novel, and is mostly presented as sympathetic, right up until the point that you realize she's the killer of both Paula and project leader Federique Moshe-Rabaan. If *Lucifer Rising* were more focused on being a murder mystery, I might complain a bit about the lack of hints that she's the murderer – they exist but are very sparse and kind of hard to spot. Even in this instance I think a scene of Piper doing *something* shady might have served the plot. But because the murder mystery is kind of disguising the actual plot I don't think it's necessarily a huge issue. See Piper isn't evil, in spite of killing two people. She probably does get off a bit too lightly in this story, but she's still someone whose motivations you can at least sympathize with. Her husband Ben was a crewmember on the *Hydrax* a ship that dissapeared and whose crew is now presumed dead (and have [actually ended up in E-Space](https://reddit.com/r/gallifrey/comments/1cdaerr/do_vampires_naturally_develop_those_red_markings/)). However, IMC have claimed to Piper that they've found some trace of the *Hydrax* and dangled the possibility of seeing her husband again as motivation to be their mole on Project Eden. By the time Piper realized that IMC were full of shit, she'd done enough for them that they were now able to blackmail her into continuing to work for them. Does this excuse the deaths of Paula or Moshe-Rabaan? Of course not, but it does explain it, and ultimately I think Piper is a well-handled character. Now the implication in the Epilogue that she and Miles do end up getting together in spite of the deaths strikes me as unrealistic in the extreme, but in fairness a lot more has happened since then, and she and Miles ultimately worked together against IMC and to prevent the destruction of the human race, so that at least partially explains it. The Eden Project has a psychiatrist, Christine LaFayette, whose job is to try and determine if the Angels are intelligent. I liked Christine. Though she's occasionally presented as a bit standoffish and confrontational, she definitely has the emotional intelligence you would associate with her profession. I did sort of suspect her of the murders early in the novel mind, and she struck me as the kind of person who would be able to hide her involvement in that sort of thing. Still, in the end, she's mostly just kind of there. It eventually comes to light that her mother, Madrigal, is high up in one of Earth's very powerful corporations, eventually becoming Chairperson of the new Earth Alliance of Corporations. Christine has a lot of resentment for her mother, and when Madrigal gets a few brief scenes we see why. While most of Project Eden are set to be abandoned by IMC, Madrigal is sure to get her daughter off the planet. Not out of any love for her daughter mind, but because she views Christine, and the money spent on her education, as too much of an investment to be wasted. That actually serves to humanize Christine a fair bit, and she's always a positive presence in the novel when she shows up. I've mentioned Alex Bannen a bit before, the chief scientist on Project Eden, but I do need to spend some more time on him. Bannen, a bit like Miles, is very practical and tries not to let his emotions override his work. Like Miles he's lost his wife and child, both before the novel in this case, although we don't know for certain if his family died or he just lost them in riots. But while Miles commands a lot of respect from his coworkers and subordinates, Alex seems generally hated by anyone who has to work with him. And it's easy to understand why. Miles is, ultimately, respectful to the people around him and tries to do best by him. Alex is confrontational in the extreme, and generally views any resources that aren't going to him and his projects a waste. He is a very capable scientist however, explaining why he does in fact deserve his position. Alex is definitely a difficult presence in the novel. He does get a bit of a humanizing moment due to creating a simularity (that's a holographic simulation in the novel's terminology) of his son Mark. But outside of the periods where he's interacting with his simulated son he's just kind of a jerk. And that's not just me, or the narration of the novel, saying it, it's more or less confirmed as an objective fact. See the controls that allow the manipulation of the morphic fields that originally created the Angels are based around emotions. And Bannen can't control them very well because he's so disconnected from his emotions. Also he tries to rewrite the entire human race with the morphic fields. There is an element of tragedy to all this, fundamentally Bannen is grieving the loss of his family and just doesn't know how to process it. In his point of view sections there's a contempt for the systems of humanity that have created the world he lived in, and probably explains why he pushes to use the morphic fields. But, honestly, most of the time he just comes across as a jerk, and it makes it hard to feel like he's a fully realized character. There's a lot more project Eden crew but they're all pretty minor characters. Cheryl gets the most focus out of them. She and her husband Sam met aboard the ship that took them to Lucifer, and while he was originally with the crew of that ship, he joined the Project Eden team to be with his new wife. However Cheryl was having an affair with Paula. This isn't explored as much as you'd hope unfortunately. Sam's starsuit is eventually hit with the same virus that killed Paula. Yeah, after both people Cheryl loved are killed by Piper's virus she does at one point straight up try to murder Piper, probably the only time Piper's actions really come back to meaningfully bite her. Then there's Tiw Heimdall who seems to think he's some sort of Norse mystic and…exists. I didn't mind him, but there's really not much to say about him honestly, though authors Andy Land and Jim Mortimer were clearly going for some kind of wise mystic thing with him. Teal Green…has the oddest name I've run into since there was a character named Credit Card in [*Transit*](https://www.reddit.com/r/gallifrey/comments/1qijd0m/people_movers_transit_virgin_new_adventures_review/), and while he's an enjoyable presence, there's not too much say about him. Sent to investigate the death of Paula is Adjudicator Bishop, who I've already talked a bit about. He starts off seeming officious and difficult, more interested in protocol than human lives. He won't let you aboard his spaceship, regardless of the reason, until you've filled out the proper form. Oh and the form is on his spaceship. Which you aren't allowed on. No, he won't get them for you. This is a problem because being an Adjudicator allows to act, quite literally, as judge, jury and executioner. And to some extent, this version of the character never goes away fully. It's just that while he starts off as an antagonistic force, by the end he's just as invested in fighting IMC as our main cast. If you'll recall, Earth Central, from which Bishop derives his power, dissolves partway through the novel. But Bishop remains loyal to the idea of the Adjudicators and, as flawed as that system is, it's still better than the corporate-controlled system replacing it, allowing him to end the novel on the side of the heroes. And dead. The next character we're going to talk about kills him. As I said, when IMC arrive the novel kinds of changes focus. And while IMC takes up a lot of space in the novel, there's only one character from IMC that really deserves time. But, well, this is a weird one. Let me introduce you to the acting Captain of the IMC ship *Insider Trading* (no seriously, IMC actually called a spaceship *Insider Trading*), a seven-dimensional being known as Legion. So the second you meet this character obvious questions begin to arise. Questions like, "what does a seven-dimensional being need from the Interplanetary Mining Corporation". Or, "how does a seven-dimensional being climb the corporate ladder"? Or "what does a seven-dimensional being need with money"? And to hear Legion tell it, it is above such petty things as money. It's just that…Legion needs IMC resources to help its people and planet, so…um…it kind of does need money actually. It's funny, this being is literally beyond the concept of linear time, because time is a dimension it traverses as easily as any of our spatial dimensions. And then you see it in action and it's making decisions based purely on financial interest without a hint of any other concerns. The reason it needs to work with IMC are explained, mind you, it just ends up having the effect of making this creature of unimaginable power feel a bit mundane in its motivations. And I can see how this might feel a bit underwhelming for some readers. But personally, I loved this choice. Our introduction to this being is in a scene with Ace (because she travelled back in time specifically to connect up with it), where Legion flexes its enormous power. And indeed throughout the novel Legion is still a terrifying presence. But I very much enjoyed the mundanity of this being's motivations. It just tickled me. Which brings us neatly along to Ace. Ace has a complicated story this time around. While *Deceit* returned her to the TARDIS and established a new backstory for her, having spent her time away fighting the Dalek war, in retrospect it didn't actually do much to explore her character beyond that. *Lucifer Rising*, on the other hand, does a lot more work in this regard. And I'd imagine a lot of people don't like the changes made to her character in this novel. Personally though, while it definitely complicates her character a bit, I think overall *Lucifer Rising* does an effective job with the character, allowing her to shine a lot. As mentioned above, a lot of this novel sees Ace manipulating events to get what she wants. Her mission is to make contact with Legion and open up the Lucifer system as a potential base in the Dalek war in the future. Now it has to be acknowledged that Ace as an agent of a mega-corporation definitely feels a bit off, both to her pre-*Love and War* personality (both on television and in the VNAs), as well taking into account that at the end of *Love and War* she joined a nomadic anarchist collective. But as it's about fighting the Dalek war, I think I can just about justify it. Ace doesn't particularly care to help IMC, and she certainly never trusts Legion in this novel, for all that she seems to be working for it, but a war against the Daleks is the kind of fight that demands a willingness to ally with entities like the IMC. And as she's manipulating events throughout much of this novel, it kind of lets *Lucifer Rising* feel rather unusual for one of the VNAs. After all, we're used to the Doctor doing that sort of thing. But Ace is doing all of these sneaky little things and, well, you can really tell she's specifically the *7th* Doctor's protégé in these moments. In dealing with Legion, Ace is cautious in the extreme. I've often described interactions between the Doctor and villains in these novels as feeling like chess matches, and while Ace's interactions with Legion don't quite rise to that same level, there's definitely something similar going on here. And there are a number of moments that really demonstrate Ace's increased competence throughout this novel which are just generally fun to see. There's a particular sequence which takes up much of chapter 7 that sees Ace trying to navigate several members of the Project Eden crew through a crisis situation. The base on Moloch, one of Legion's moons, is coming apart due to, at the time, mysterious forces. Ace is focused, determined, and resourceful. She takes charge of the situation in a way that is just genuinely good to watch. While two people die, neither is entirely her fault, and yet you can tell she cares deeply for the losses, and blames herself a bit. That sequence is good to have in this novel, because at times it can feel like Ace doesn't care for the damage that her plan is doing. Of course that's not the case, and indeed there's a scene where Ace tries to fake being the kind of heartless person she's claiming to be, and both Benny and Christine can tell she's faking it. In quieter moments we see Ace reflecting on her past and her childhood dream of being a racecar driver. Maybe it's how messed up her life has gotten, but for the first time, we see Ace wishing she'd just stayed in Perivale, or even on Iceworld instead of going with the Doctor at the end of [*Dragonfire*](https://www.reddit.com/r/gallifrey/comments/1i71093/criminal_enterprises_dragonfire_review/). She even at one point reflects on a positive memory of Perivale. The memory itself feels entirely inconsequential but it's I think the first time we've ever heard of her having a positive experience from her childhood that isn't undercut by something negative. The Doctor, for his part, seems very concerned at who Ace has become, and is clearly trying to bring her back to who she used to be. Thing is, that's just not possible, and I think you can see in this novel him growing to accept that this new version of Ace is closer to being a match for him intellectually and at a maturity level. He tries to treat her like the kid she was, and she's just not having that. But also, she's capable of turning things around on him now. That's kind of the Doctor's main arc in this novel, it's really all about Ace. Otherwise, the Doctor develops an interesting relationship with a lot of the Project Eden characters, as well as Bishop. He and Bannen interact as fellow scientists, and the Doctor is probably the character that Bannen gets along best with (not that that's saying much). I really liked his interactions with Christine in particular, him interacting with a psychologist was fun, and while we don't get quite the psychoanalysis of the Doctor you might hope for, the two are still both able to get some sharp insights on the other. With Bishop I think you get the closest to the chessmaster version of the 7th Doctor in this novel. The Doctor is rarely truly in control of things in this book until the very end, but he does still manage to run circles around Bishop. Even when it seems like Bishop has got him, arresting the Doctor, it turns out that *that* was always part of the Doctor's plan, so that the real murderer would reveal themselves. Oh and the Doctor briefly is declared dead, but of course, that murder attempt by Piper just gets folded into his plans. I will say that with Ace back in the picture it can kind of feel like the Doctor is reverting back to his previous behavior a bit. Since Benny joined, the 7th Doctor has felt a bit more open. Not necessarily completely honest all the time, but less closed off and more willing to divulge things. Plus he just had a lot more trust in Benny a lot of the time. That last point hasn't gone away, but the Doctor does feel a bit more secretive in this novel than he has in the past few, like Ace's return has brought back all of those secrets and machinations that were associated with their time together on the TARDIS. And then there's Benny. After I wasn't entirely fond of how the [last](https://www.reddit.com/r/gallifrey/comments/1rhh1ut/timeline_of_destruction_the_pit_virgin_new/) [two](https://www.reddit.com/r/gallifrey/comments/1s4oxd7/the_great_status_quo_reset_deceit_virgin_new/) novels wrote Benny, it's nice to see her back to being her charming self. Granted she still feels a bit cold towards Ace in particular, but it feels more earned this time than the last. And the two are still getting along better than they were last time, at least until Ace's apparent allegiance to IMC is revealed. This novel definitely felt like Benny was back in character, and I enjoyed any narration from her perspective, but there's not much to say about her. Well, at least not until the ending of the novel. With Bannen having finally gotten the morphic field generator working, things are going haywire (because he can't control the thing), and in a desperation play, the Doctor gets his two companions to join hands with him, and they merge into a single being. Before we get to that, I will say that it does show a significant degree of trust that Ace and Benny have, not just in the Doctor, but in each other. That for all of their issues, this trio do still fundamentally know that each of them have their hearts in the right place. But yeah, the three merge into a single being. Alternatively called Acedoctorbernice, Doctorberniceace, or Berniceacedoctor depending on whose memories we're exploring, this being ends up effectively countering the morphic field generator…somehow. It's something to do with the strength of their emotions. But crucially the three each experience something from a lost loved one, either memory or imagined moment. For Ace she sees Jan, and is where we do learn she's somewhat let him go. For the Doctor, a meeting with his Hermit mentor, who got mentioned from time to time on the television show. And for Benny, probably the best of the three sequences, we get a meeting with what initial appears to be an alien called a Vart but turns out to be the father she lost. The effect of these sequences is that all three get to understand each other a little better, exploring an imagined scenario from the others' perspectives. Ace and Benny must find any insight into the Doctor's mentality precious, and I imagine it demystifies him a bit to them. Ace's memory gives the others, especially Benny, a bit more perspective on Ace's somewhat hostile attitude towards the Doctor throughout. And for Benny, a reminder of some of the tragic dimensions of her past must help the others empathize with her a little better. With the caveat that I'm not quite fond of the implications of Ace's sequence (I might not have liked the romance with Jan, but I think it's dismissed a little too easily here), it's still a great section overall. Inventively presented and insightful for each of our leads' characters. At the end of the novel there is still some question as to whether Ace will return to the TARDIS or once again leave to live her own life. But as she says, "Family’s where, when you come back, they’ve got to take you in. Like it or not, you’re my only family." She says this to the Doctor, and much earlier in the novel at that, but it still holds true. Ace both seems to envy the trust that Benny puts in the Doctor, trust that she used to have, she also recognizes that Benny envies her deeper relationship with the Doctor. But whatever the case, it does feel like by the end of the novel the trust between all three is being recovered. Maybe they're not all family yet, but they're getting there. It's a really strong end to a novel that is otherwise quite good, but a bit messy. The murder mystery section feels a bit underdeveloped and there's a few too many characters. Still there's a lot of really inventive concepts in this one – I especially enjoyed the weirdness that was Legion – and a generally fun plot. It takes a while to get going, but it's worth it, and definitely improves on the character dynamics that *Deceit* introduced. **Score: 7/10** # Stray Observations * Normally I don't have a ton of historical information about these novels because it's not easy to find and a lot of the stuff that I do find, frankly, just isn't that interesting. However when I was writing about Bishop it occurred to me how much he reminded me of a Judge from the Judge Dredd series (though I've not actually read/seen anything from that franchise I should point out). And it turns out there's a very good reason for this. Bishop was originally supposed to *be* Judge Dredd, as Virgin Publishing was going to publish a series of novels based on that property and this would have been a backdoor pilot. However those plans fell through, and Bishop was created as an original character instead. * I think for the first time I don't really have anything to say about this cover. It's just fine. Which admittedly makes it one of the better VNA covers. Hell, the woman pointing the gun at me is certainly an attention getter. Although if that's supposed to be Ace, make that two covers in a row where Ace just doesn't look like herself. And…oh God there's a baseball bat in her rucksack that's definitely meant to be Ace. Why is it so hard to make a drawing of Sophie Aldred that looks like Sophie Aldred? * Part 1, comprising just two chapters, is written from the perspective of a computer collecting data from recordings at the Eden base for Adjudicator Bishop. That last fact we don't learn until the end of Part 1. While most of it is written like a standard novel, there's occasional intrusions of computer instructions. This includes which person's perspective the novel is being written from at any given point. It's an odd framing device, but it kind of works. * Benny apparently wears, or at least has been wearing, her hair in dreadlocks. I've never imagined her looking like that. * The Doctor uses the "eney meney miney moe" rhyme to choose a direction, but instead of "tiger" he goes for "catch a Rutan by the toe". I'm pretty sure Rutans don't have toes, but you do you Doc. * Possibly thanks to her travels with the Doctor or her three years in Spacefleet, Ace can now recognize an oxygen generator easily. * In chapter 3, Bishop notes the absurdity of how the Doctor will just show up in a secure facility and pretty quickly have everyone acting like he's in charge. It's pretty rare that someone points this out, I rather enjoy seeing it happen. * Ace refers to the 25th Century as "my time". It's kind of odd, she spent three years there, which can't be too much longer than the time she spent on the TARDIS, and before that she was from the 1980s (I don't think she ever really considered Iceworld home). I suppose, to be fair, Ace doesn't really have a proper time, as she's never really felt at home anywhere besides the TARDIS. The three years she spent in the 25th Century were probably enough to reset her perspective. * The Doctor reveals that the Adjudicators will eventually lose their place in maintaining justice within human space, eventually regressing into an order of assassins known as the Knights of the Grand Order of Oberon. That order's name in pulled from the tv show, specifically from [*Revelation of the Daleks*](https://www.reddit.com/r/gallifrey/comments/1geo9iv/the_music_of_extermination_revelation_of_the/), where a former member of that order, Orcini, is a major character. * At this time in the future, sheep are extinct, having all died off in something called "The Ozone purge of 2106". * Engado is 87 years old which he considers to be "in his prime". That suggests human lifespans are much longer by this point of the future. * The Doctor sings a bit of the Venusian lullaby, the same one he sang to Aggador back in [*The Curse of Peladon*](https://www.reddit.com/r/gallifrey/comments/15kzdm1/leave_behind_your_past_the_curse_of_peladon_review/). According to Benny, *Klokeda partha mennin klatch* is "one of the most bawdy rhymes in the known universe". Which I'll admit, I wouldn't have guessed from the Doctor's description of it as a Venusian lullaby or the fact that it's set to "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen". * It's implied that the Doctor has some sort of supernatural or psychic ability to make people trust him and those around him, explaining how he's able to make people in authority accept him more easily. * Among Bishop's apparent successes during his career as an Adjudicator is "The Macra case". No way of knowing if he was the person who did the investigation after the events of [*The Macra Terror*](https://www.reddit.com/r/gallifrey/comments/zyru6e/there_is_no_such_thing_as_macra_the_macra_terror/) but it seems, at the very least, implied. * He also was responsible for dealing with "the Kroagnon affair". This is probably not referring to the events of [*Paradise Towers*](https://www.reddit.com/r/gallifrey/comments/1i02jcd/build_high_to_be_ice_hot_or_be_made_unalive_as_a/) but rather the earlier project of the great architect Kroagnon, "Miracle City" which turned out to be a murder city (as was Kroganon's style). * Even as a schoolgirl, Ace was apparently intimidating enough that a barman who knew perfectly well that she and her friend Julian were both underage was unwilling not to serve them drinks. Sounds about right. * Legion removes a juggling ball of the Doctor's outside of our three dimensional space. The Doctor manages to grab it back. It might seem surprising that he can do that, but this actually sounds like it might be the "transmigration of object" trick that the 3rd Doctor used in [*The Ambassadors of Death*](https://www.reddit.com/r/gallifrey/comments/13r2dfs/moral_duty_the_ambassadors_of_death_review/). * The novel is divided into five parts, each with their own title. So far perfectly normal, even if five parts is more than you'll typically see. Anyway, part five is called *Lucifer Rising*. You'll notice that's the same as the name of the book. * Since I just talked about the parts, might as well mention that each one also has a sketch of a scene from the part at the beginning. They're perfectly fine. A bit basic looking, but not bad. They kind of remind me of a black and white comic book. * The Doctor claims that there are so many humanoid species in the universe because of "morphic fields". Essentially, Time Lords evolved first, then imprinted their morphic field into the universe. Morphic fields were proposed in real life by Dr. Rupert Sheldrake, but quickly discredited and are pure pseudoscience. * So I'm going to put this down here, because it's probably best kept out of the main review: timeline issues. As mentioned, this novel is particularly linked with *Colony in Space* using a lot of that story's terminology, and most importantly, worldbuilding. *Colony in Space* was set in 2472, as explicitly shown via a calendar. Thing is, this novel is clearly *after* the events of *Colony*, as we see the fall of the Adjudicators happen during the events of the novel, whereas the Master pretended to be an Earth Adjudicator in *Colony*. Which would be all well and good…except this novel is also explicitly set *before* the events of [*The Dalek Invasion of Earth*](https://www.reddit.com/r/gallifrey/comments/v8udfu/closing_the_door_the_dalek_invasion_of_earth/), which the Doctor further clarifies took place in 2158. Weirdly enough, both of these television stories confirmed their dates on television via a…paper calendar, technology that definitely won't be archaic by the 22nd or 25th Centuries. Next Time: And now back to the television series. The Doctor is hanging out of his friends when an astronaut steps out of a lake to shoot him. And that's not even the confusing part.

Only to be promptly shat on by this exact scene. Filoni undid her death and cut her off from Quinlan, who was the impetus for her character development in the novel. Effectively Filoni is resetting the character what she was in season 5 of TCW, the last time that he did anything with her, Christie Golden be damned. I did not particularly like Dark Disciple and I think Christie Golden is a pretty awful writer, but even she did not deserve the disrespect that Filoni dropped on her story with this.

Hi all, I was selling my books at an event recently, and a parent recommended I check out the app "Novel Effect" and get my book on it (I am not affiliated with this app in anyway, have never used it, did not know about it). My questions are: Do you use the app? Do you like it? Does it recommend books to you, or do you have to search for them? Have you ever purchased a book or checked it out from your library because of the app? Before I move forward, I just want to make sure I'm associating my book with a well-liked app that's useful to parents/teachers/librarians. Also- if you have a different app you use for reading to your kids, I'd love to hear about it! I'm usually against increasing screentime, but I do understand there are situations where a digital book is the only option. I want my book to be available for those kids, too! Thanks in advance for any insights!

((If it's okay with... Novel_Effect and MAYBE whoever has Blaze, is this good enough and I do apologise for 0 notice. Since Alice was taken into the Sol Zone/Dimension by Miles [Condemned AU], it was a little difficult on how to explain. But, if you wish to not participate for a lack of warning, I completely understand.)) *After there was some time, Alice wouldn't know if the place she was fixed... or would be for that matter of fact. Why would she go back to somewhere running rampant with Infected Zombot Mobians... Oh, what if the worst had happened already and everyone was all a walking roboticized thing?* *She started to feel sorry... more specifically more about how she left Miles "Tails" Prower when she just left him to find his Sonic. Did priorities take over? Were she... that concerned about the Cybernetic Tails that got her to drop everything and look for him? She had felt bad about that and... if she were to ever find him... she'd just pull him into a hug and wrap her wings around him... may others see that be damned... she has to apologise and... that was the only way she knew how to apologise to him from her Safe Haven.* *But, Alice wouldn't know if that would calm down the 1-1 Miles lookalike in the yellow furred coat... but some* ***Energy*** *was brewing up that knew better. It had been watching since she had arrived inside of the Eggman facility before this Metal stuff happened... and... it pondered to itself, not about Miles "Tails" Prower... but the other one... the one that had some form of... what would it call it... "Armour"? And then it thought, remembering the black fur...* < ~~*^(Was he... the* ***^(original..?)***~~ > *If so... it wanted to meet him more...* ***Personally*** *and see what the* ***Others*** *did to him. Did* ***They*** *scar him so much that he couldn't have a nice recovery? So... what was it?* *In between this, Alice knew this place was... far more pristine now that she has her bearings in tow. And, wow..! Wherever she was... it was kept to a top level of care unlike she had seen! And better yet, the outside... oh, how beautiful it was truly! No Zombots in sight... just the hedge maze as far as the eye can see, flowers that made her want to go and follow the definition literally of smell the roses, and a pool that would feel so tranquil to just float in and feel like she's rather* ***Weightless.*** *But, that aside... she finally took a stroll outside of the room and saw that there was ALOT more to be desired, and to be remembered if she had to go back, which was the more likely result to happen. And... she kept on strolling along the corridors of such a place... the Knight statues along the were evenly spaced out... the decor was always kept to a royal standard... who knows how long she could go for!* *She was amazed by such an elegant condition that, Alice even tried to remain away from such a wonderful sight she was walking though... and... who knows? Anybody could just turn the corner right now and... possibly scare her poor soul...*

THE “RED DEATH” had long devastated the country. No pestilence had ever been so fatal, or so hideous. Blood was its Avatar and its seal—the redness and the horror of blood. There were sharp pains, and sudden dizziness, and then profuse bleeding at the pores, with dissolution. The scarlet stains upon the body and especially upon the face of the victim, were the pest ban which shut him out from the aid and from the sympathy of his fellow-men. And the whole seizure, progress and termination of the disease, were the incidents of half an hour. But the Prince Prospero was happy and dauntless and sagacious. When his dominions were half depopulated, he summoned to his presence a thousand hale and light-hearted friends from among the knights and dames of his court, and with these retired to the deep seclusion of one of his castellated abbeys. This was an extensive and magnificent structure, the creation of the prince's own eccentric yet august taste. A strong and lofty wall girdled it in. This wall had gates of iron. The courtiers, having entered, brought furnaces and massy hammers and welded the bolts. They resolved to leave means neither of ingress or egress to the sudden impulses of despair or of frenzy from within. The abbey was amply provisioned. With such precautions the courtiers might bid defiance to contagion. The external world could take care of itself. In the meantime it was folly to grieve, or to think. The prince had provided all the appliances of pleasure. There were buffoons, there were improvisatori, there were ballet-dancers, there were musicians, there was Beauty, there was wine. All these and security were within. Without was the “Red Death.” It was toward the close of the fifth or sixth month of his seclusion, and while the pestilence raged most furiously abroad, that the Prince Prospero entertained his thousand friends at a masked ball of the most unusual magnificence. It was a voluptuous scene, that masquerade. But first let me tell of the rooms in which it was held. There were seven—an imperial suite. In many palaces, however, such suites form a long and straight vista, while the folding doors slide back nearly to the walls on either hand, so that the view of the whole extent is scarcely impeded. Here the case was very different; as might have been expected from the duke's love of the bizarre. The apartments were so irregularly disposed that the vision embraced but little more than one at a time. There was a sharp turn at every twenty or thirty yards, and at each turn a novel effect. To the right and left, in the middle of each wall, a tall and narrow Gothic window looked out upon a closed corridor which pursued the windings of the suite. These windows were of stained glass whose color varied in accordance with the prevailing hue of the decorations of the chamber into which it opened. That at the eastern extremity was hung, for example, in blue—and vividly blue were its windows. The second chamber was purple in its ornaments and tapestries, and here the panes were purple. The third was green throughout, and so were the casements. The fourth was furnished and lighted with orange—the fifth with white—the sixth with violet. The seventh apartment was closely shrouded in black velvet tapestries that hung all over the ceiling and down the walls, falling in heavy folds upon a carpet of the same material and hue. But in this chamber only, the color of the windows failed to correspond with the decorations. The panes here were scarlet—a deep blood color. Now in no one of the seven apartments was there any lamp or candelabrum, amid the profusion of golden ornaments that lay scattered to and fro or depended from the roof. There was no light of any kind emanating from lamp or candle within the suite of chambers. But in the corridors that followed the suite, there stood, opposite to each window, a heavy tripod, bearing a brazier of fire that protected its rays through the tinted glass and so glaringly illumined the room. And thus were produced a multitude of gaudy and fantastic appearances. But in the western or black chamber the effect of the fire-light that streamed upon the dark hangings through the blood-tinted panes, was ghastly in the extreme, and produced so wild a look upon the countenances of those who entered, that there were few of the company bold enough to set foot within its precincts at all. It was in this apartment, also, that there stood against the western wall, a gigantic clock of ebony. Its pendulum swung to and fro with a dull, heavy, monotonous clang; and when the minute-hand made the circuit of the face, and the hour was to be stricken, there came from the brazen lungs of the clock a sound which was clear and loud and deep and exceedingly musical, but of so peculiar a note and emphasis that, at each lapse of an hour, the musicians of the orchestra were constrained to pause, momentarily, in their performance, to hearken to the sound; and thus the waltzers perforce ceased their evolutions; and there was a brief disconcert of the whole gay company; and, while the chimes of the clock yet rang, it was observed that the giddiest grew pale, and the more aged and sedate passed their hands over their brows as if in confused reverie or meditation. But when the echoes had fully ceased, a light laughter at once pervaded the assembly; the musicians looked at each other and smiled as if at their own nervousness and folly, and made whispering vows, each to the other, that the next chiming of the clock should produce in them no similar emotion; and then, after the lapse of sixty minutes, (which embrace three thousand and six hundred seconds of the Time that flies,) there came yet another chiming of the clock, and then were the same disconcert and tremulousness and meditation as before. But, in spite of these things, it was a gay and magnificent revel. The tastes of the duke were peculiar. He had a fine eye for colors and effects. He disregarded the decora of mere fashion. His plans were bold and fiery, and his conceptions glowed with barbaric lustre. There are some who would have thought him mad. His followers felt that he was not. It was necessary to hear and see and touch him to be sure that he was not. He had directed, in great part, the moveable embellishments of the seven chambers, upon occasion of this great fete; and it was his own guiding taste which had given character to the masqueraders. Be sure they were grotesque. There were much glare and glitter and piquancy and phantasm—much of what has been since seen in “Hernani.” There were arabesque figures with unsuited limbs and appointments. There were delirious fancies such as the madman fashions. There was much of the beautiful, much of the wanton, much of the bizarre, something of the terrible, and not a little of that which might have excited disgust. To and fro in the seven chambers there stalked, in fact, a multitude of dreams. And these—the dreams—writhed in and about, taking hue from the rooms, and causing the wild music of the orchestra to seem as the echo of their steps. And, anon, there strikes the ebony clock which stands in the hall of the velvet. And then, for a moment, all is still, and all is silent save the voice of the clock. The dreams are stiff-frozen as they stand. But the echoes of the chime die away—they have endured but an instant—and a light, half-subdued laughter floats after them as they depart. And now again the music swells, and the dreams live, and writhe to and fro more merrily than ever, taking hue from the many-tinted windows through which stream the rays from the tripods. But to the chamber which lies most westwardly of the seven, there are now none of the maskers who venture; for the night is waning away; and there flows a ruddier light through the blood-colored panes; and the blackness of the sable drapery appals; and to him whose foot falls upon the sable carpet, there comes from the near clock of ebony a muffled peal more solemnly emphatic than any which reaches their ears who indulge in the more remote gaieties of the other apartments. But these other apartments were densely crowded, and in them beat feverishly the heart of life. And the revel went whirlingly on, until at length there commenced the sounding of midnight upon the clock. And then the music ceased, as I have told; and the evolutions of the waltzers were quieted; and there was an uneasy cessation of all things as before. But now there were twelve strokes to be sounded by the bell of the clock; and thus it happened, perhaps, that more of thought crept, with more of time, into the meditations of the thoughtful among those who revelled. And thus, too, it happened, perhaps, that before the last echoes of the last chime had utterly sunk into silence, there were many individuals in the crowd who had found leisure to become aware of the presence of a masked figure which had arrested the attention of no single individual before. And the rumor of this new presence having spread itself whisperingly around, there arose at length from the whole company a buzz, or murmur, expressive of disapprobation and surprise—then, finally, of terror, of horror, and of disgust. In an assembly of phantasms such as I have painted, it may well be supposed that no ordinary appearance could have excited such sensation. In truth the masquerade license of the night was nearly unlimited; but the figure in question had out-Heroded Herod, and gone beyond the bounds of even the prince's indefinite decorum. There are chords in the hearts of the most reckless which cannot be touched without emotion. Even with the utterly lost, to whom life and death are equally jests, there are matters of which no jest can be made. The whole company, indeed, seemed now deeply to feel that in the costume and bearing of the stranger neither wit nor propriety existed. The figure was tall and gaunt, and shrouded from head to foot in the habiliments of the grave. The mask which concealed the visage was made so nearly to resemble the countenance of a stiffened corpse that the closest scrutiny must have had difficulty in detecting the cheat. And yet all this might have been endured, if not approved, by the mad revellers around. But the mummer had gone so far as to assume the type of the Red Death. His vesture was dabbled in blood—and his broad brow, with all the features of the face, was besprinkled with the scarlet horror. When the eyes of Prince Prospero fell upon this spectral image (which with a slow and solemn movement, as if more fully to sustain its role, stalked to and fro among the waltzers) he was seen to be convulsed, in the first moment with a strong shudder either of terror or distaste; but, in the next, his brow reddened with rage. “Who dares?” he demanded hoarsely of the courtiers who stood near him—“who dares insult us with this blasphemous mockery? Seize him and unmask him—that we may know whom we have to hang at sunrise, from the battlements!” It was in the eastern or blue chamber in which stood the Prince Prospero as he uttered these words. They rang throughout the seven rooms loudly and clearly—for the prince was a bold and robust man, and the music had become hushed at the waving of his hand. It was in the blue room where stood the prince, with a group of pale courtiers by his side. At first, as he spoke, there was a slight rushing movement of this group in the direction of the intruder, who at the moment was also near at hand, and now, with deliberate and stately step, made closer approach to the speaker. But from a certain nameless awe with which the mad assumptions of the mummer had inspired the whole party, there were found none who put forth hand to seize him; so that, unimpeded, he passed within a yard of the prince's person; and, while the vast assembly, as if with one impulse, shrank from the centres of the rooms to the walls, he made his way uninterruptedly, but with the same solemn and measured step which had distinguished him from the first, through the blue chamber to the purple—through the purple to the green—through the green to the orange—through this again to the white—and even thence to the violet, ere a decided movement had been made to arrest him. It was then, however, that the Prince Prospero, maddening with rage and the shame of his own momentary cowardice, rushed hurriedly through the six chambers, while none followed him on account of a deadly terror that had seized upon all. He bore aloft a drawn dagger, and had approached, in rapid impetuosity, to within three or four feet of the retreating figure, when the latter, having attained the extremity of the velvet apartment, turned suddenly and confronted his pursuer. There was a sharp cry—and the dagger dropped gleaming upon the sable carpet, upon which, instantly afterwards, fell prostrate in death the Prince Prospero. Then, summoning the wild courage of despair, a throng of the revellers at once threw themselves into the black apartment, and, seizing the mummer, whose tall figure stood erect and motionless within the shadow of the ebony clock, gasped in unutterable horror at finding the grave-cerements and corpse-like mask which they handled with so violent a rudeness, untenanted by any tangible form. And now was acknowledged the presence of the Red Death. He had come like a thief in the night. And one by one dropped the revellers in the blood-bedewed halls of their revel, and died each in the despairing posture of his fall. And the life of the ebony clock went out with that of the last of the gay. And the flames of the tripods expired. And Darkness and Decay and the Red Death held illimitable dominion over all.

**Mage, sorcerer & wizard** are all used interchangably in Tarrantia to classify a spellcaster that is formally trained in a specific path of spellcasting, they have a very academic approach to magic and will always belong to an 'ink dynasty'. **A druid** is a similar, but older tradition, someone trained by a more experienced practitioner in folk magic, druidic magic is far more complex and older than magecraft and thus noone really knows how it works, just that it does. **Alchemy** is a specific taboo-ridden practice within magecraft that involves learning more than a single path and then mixing them together for novel effects, an alchemist is a mage who practices alchemy. **Conjurers** are a different breed of spellcaster altogether as they get their powers gifted by powerful immortal entities from the world of dream, the place that all magic originates from. **Witch & warlock** are non-specific derogatory names applied to any kind of spellcaster, usually used by people who do not know enough about magic to distinguish between the different types of magic-users that exists. **Sigilism & bardic magic** are altogether different from magecraft, druidism or conjuring, those three all work by forcing open a hole in the dreamveil which separates the worlds of dream and reality in order to manifest magic in the physical world, both sigilism and bardic magic instead manipulate the dreamveil to manifest magic for the user, without causing any damage to the boundary between dream and reality.

Nice touch, but after the Angron: Slave of Nuceria is a bit lacking in terms that after the splat it basically finishes the sentence. The Angron novel effect acts as if the whole action scene was tore apart, covered in rage and mystery. Still love the idea here, but it lacks the narrative behind it imo. https://preview.redd.it/lezd3rynahmg1.jpeg?width=1600&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2751e463e83b58b250f83b0bee8d3dbb9300e1eb

Fluffy McWhiskers Cuteness Explosion is fun and silly. There is no point to it. But kids love it. Any of the Jory John food group books are a great choice. They're clever, they have great illustrations and they always have a positive message. Pig the Pug is popular (and gross). Kids love gross books. The Questioneers picture book series by Andrea Beatty has great options. The books rhyme and have a positive message. There's a free app called Novel Effect that provides a soundscape as you read. Any book you read using that app will be a HUGE hit!

I understand that line feels powerful to you, and the quote the same, but neither are relevant to what I am saying. Heresy, communist, gaslight, etc. All have been depowered through overuse. This isn't a novel effect specific to fascist, it is an old one applicable to everything. Its the same mechanism The Boy Who Cried Wolf warned about ages past. Of course, sometimes there really are wolves. Maybe you think this is one of those times; you are certainly welcome to whatever opinion. I am just making the point that being wrong has consequences, and being wrong enough, for long enough, assists the very people you mean to obstruct. If that is risk is acceptable to you, then by all means continue.

**Bonus** A few other magic I was thinking of for the setting: **Event Echoing**: Through elaborate rituals and meditation, people trained in this magic can learn to create echos of past events. At first this requires an elaborate ritual every time the magic is used, but with repetition they can get it down to something they can do in 6-18 seconds. For example, meditating at a sight of lighting strike, beating drums, trying to evoke the feelings and sensation of it, a practitioner of this magic can create a miniature lightning bolt with a few hours of ritual. With a few years practice this gets down to a few minutes, and another few years of practice this gets down to the 6-18 seconds. Most cultures or peoples only have a few well guarded examples of this magic, and even with access to more a typical practitioner might only learn few anyway because of the time investment. Common events echoed with this magic include lightning strikes, flash fire, spring bloomings, first frosts, rain storms, and natural springs. A ritual for fresh air from plant life being standardized and simplified was what triggered Sealed Dungeon magic to explode in success. Codification of this magic, such that practitioners can rapidly develop novel rituals for novel effects to echo, has enabled copying the magic from dungeons by very skilled practitioners, although this process if finicky and unreliable. **Consumptive Transfer**: By ritually consuming part of creatures warped by Sealed Dungeon dreamlogic, the consumer can permanently gain a small portion of their senses, strength, speed, or endurance, persisting even outside Dungeons. With high mastery, skilled user of this can even copy minor reality warping beyond these categories. Excessive use of this magic can warp practitioners of it into monsters. **Veneration**: By pouring attention and focus into a single material object by a large number of people that object can gain minor reality warping powers. Inadvertently used by many cultures to boost/enable **Event Echoing**, or as part of rituals/superstitions/religions without really understanding it. These powers are finicky and also tend to run out if the pattern of veneration is not maintained well enough. Discovery and exploration of the rules of this magic enabled strategies for boosting objects then maintaining their effects with a single practitioner of this magic. This magic can be used on living things and even people, but is much less efficient this way, and often monstrously warps them. **Shade Binding**: People warped by Dungeon magic, Veneration, or Consumptive Transfer often leave an echo of their magic after they die that can be bound (with a combination of ritual techniques combined from consumptive transfer, veneration, and event echoing) by a practitioner of shade binding. This magic typically takes the form of a ghostly form summoned/released by the practitioner that does the magic.