It’s my personal head cannon that both the auora cycle and the Illuminae Files happen in the same universe purely because of this 

I’m not really vibing with The first to die at the end, it’s so sappy and too much of a summer book for me

Originally when I read the Aurora Cycle I only owned the first book and borrowed the next two from the library, HOWEVER, I recently bought the 3-book box-set so now I have them all and that makes me very happy indeed

Also I need friends who are in this fandom so yes hi everyone what's up

Mechs headcanons because fuck you and fuck your train

Marius goes by he/they probouns

Ts bottles its feelings up because it doesn’t know how to handle them

Due to the lack of knowledge of Raph’s backstory, she changes it every time someone asks

After Marius’ act of pulling a violin from nowhere in prison, they learned to do it on command so now every time he does it everyone but him are confused

I hc that Lyf goes by any pronouns and because of this Marius will use pronouns that just end up sticking and Lyf now uses them unironically

Trans lesbian Nastya forever and ever, amen

Brian will sometimes just carry the others over his shoulders. He just does it and depending on who he picks up he’s either shot, punched at, or is met with zero resistance

Genderfluid Tim forever and ever, amen

Jonny will sometimes wear platforms to feel tall but it never works out cause he doesn’t know how to walk in them

I like to imagine that ts has a souvenir from every planet that the mechs visited and if it wasn’t on a planet with them, the others would grab one for ts

Marius and Raph constantly look into Lyf’s eyes because they’re “a gay rainbow” and it makes the two of them very happy

I see a lot of people put Jonny into angst situations but y’all are sleeping on the potential that ts’ backstory has

Speaking of Jonny angst, he will sometimes still have nightmares about certain events that happened during One Eyed Jacks and the Carmilla era and when this happens he will seek out anyone who was on the Aurora pre-Tim

People always say that Brian is a giant heater and because of this Jonny or Tim will flop onto Brian whenever he’s piloting during Aurora’s night cycle and sleep there

I’ve been thinking about Tim wearing a strawberry dress and that got me thinking of Brian in a strawberry-themed suit. And I mean like a vest that has strawberries on it, a white dress-shirt, and some light pink dress-pants (someone pls draw this, I beg)

Ivy will create book forts in her library if left alone for long enough

Aurora air locked Carmilla. End of story

HI it has been an eternity since i've been active on tumblr, but the search of content for smaller fandoms keeps bringing me back. the last time i posted anything and reblogged stuff was more than two years ago, so i think it's time for a lil introduction post!!

this blog is my main blog for all sorts of random stuff that i love, so welcome <3 i also have side blogs for two of my fandoms: @seeyouinthestars (the Aurora Cycle) and @onceuponaneverafter (OUABH).

you can call me crenna, like my blog name, or larissa, which is an online alias i've used for yeeeears and which most of my online friends know me by, or lili, which is a nickname i've vibed with recently. i'm 21 years old and i use she/her pronouns!

i looove books and writing, all sorts of arts and crafts, music and dance... and yes, i barely have time for all of my hobbies lol. usually, when i have free time, i just sit in my room, wrapped in a fluffy blanket and spend time on my laptop or by reading a good book. i'm particularly fond of aesthetics, fantasy, taylor swift's music, peppermint tea, fairy lights, cozy vibes, stars, my friends, and my countless fictional crushes. i'm a little dramatic, a little hopeless, but i'm also funny sometimes?

i already know my activity levels are not going to be consistent from now on either bc i'm in college, but i'd love to meet cool people and join the fun in my fandoms! lastly, my blog is a safe space for all lgbtq+ people, people of color, and other marginalized groups. no discrimination will be tolerated. if you disagree, don't interact.

welcome, nice to meet you!!

(i will definitely get a better introduction one of these days but take this for now <3)

if you get this, answer with three random facts about yourself and send it to the last seven blogs in your notifs! anon or not, doesn't matter, let's get to know the person behind the blog <3

i almost always wear a hat outside. a fitted cap mostly, a beanie when it's too cold.

i got my hands on book 3 of a series called Aurora Cycle two weeks before its international release

i used to collect (code for "buy a lot of") nerf guns when i was younger. i still have just about all of them

Thank you for the ask :D

So, it doesn't look like he's declaring his love to princess rubs-a-lot anywhere that I can see.

Our possible key word of the new spring "高” tall or high, comes up when talking about Alpine Cloud Tea which is, yup 800 meters high (remember those 800 paracetters). So, I looked up the phrase and it's not terribly common (probably a rounded number), but it's part of an ad so hard candy again.

As for the NSS laboratory shirt, the N looks a bit like an 8 in Chinese characters according to wb bird Pekomi: 八. The other side likes the two SS's, but honestly isn't is SongSanChuan his new character which he happens to be doing double advertising duty for in this commercial with it's tennis theme?

My non-CPF guess: This year 30 is going to do lots of cycling, release his travel vlogs for Dali and hopefully Finland, and most likely will be sharing his life with us that way or through a variety program (the rumor is an all-male variety show or one with Ba - we will see - there has been no formal acceptance of any show as of yet that we know).

My CP heart, which I'm trying to squash because if they are be then they obviously are taking their sweet time and if they are not it is best to just observe casually, is this is the year we will know if something is going on with them (or other partners): 88 started off with a wedding dress (from the 2019 Feel the World show and the Milk Tea tour during Glory). It was a paid advertisement but then said in a recent AnMuxi commercial something about all lovers getting to marry. Now we have 30 saying he will "bring more of the original and authentic me" so my guess is a vlog still, but who knows - maybe he will have a friend with him. For real though, IF they really are single we need a second drama stat, something with no focus on age like a fantasy time travel!

As a 30 fan, I also would love for WL to release exercise videos. He is the perfect fitness instructor. Vitality is the keyword too - just so you know 88 said it was one of her favorite words. It does repeat quite often, so there is that hard candy. Let's break our teeth together.

I'm working on a series for Finland, but still eyeing the "candy." I believe this year the color for 88 is cherry red. 30 will have to wear red because he is a rabbit and superstition says he needs to wear the color to bring good luck (usually it's red underwear or socks; remember he got all those socks in the Spring Festival? Of course someone, not our 88, has been seen in red socks. The other side also had a Christmas theme in their little red book (Chinese social media) today. 30 snuck away to the home of Santa Claus yesterday; I hope he got to capture the aurora in Lapland. We missed it when we went to Finland. Honestly if that dead end couple is real, then they should let their fan fans know because 30's square is getting bloody with lots of old stuff being brought up today. Pretty much every weifan I talk to says it is impossible, but who knows?

Everyone knows how polite 30 is, so trying to attack him for being mean is just the dumbest plan ever.

All of this is speculatory. CPF is a form of entertainment and we never dance in front of the master. This is the first rule of CPF etiquette!

ok final cdth thoughts:

ronan: again it is so funny that stief truly seems to have seen people being like "um ronan's endgame in the raven cycle fucking sucked?" and like used those complaints as a prompt. that said if i had been expecting better i think i would have been disappointed that the clearly set up conflict in the beginning (can ronan be a real boy in the real world, does he even want to) sort of vanishes into the plot by halfway through the book. if i squint i can see what stief might want me to see which is that ronan chases after bryde because of his feelings of failure and his desire to distract himself but also to see himself as something than a loser trapped by his own mind. but i just think it would have been a better book if that thread had been threaded a little more strongly. we don't have to hammer it home but a couple moments tying into it - things like, maybe sometime after ronan rescues hennessey he thinks something about how maybe he can't live in cambridge but at least he saved the life of this other dreamer when no one could have - really could have gone a long way to making this feel like a plotty but still character-driven story, instead of something that started out as a character piece and then just devolves into Stuff Happening by the end, at least for our ostensible primary protagonist.

declan & matthew: awesome content no notes. sincerely i enjoyed all of their chapters and the developments therein. again it's so funny that in the raven cycle it really seems the text is not aware of the inherent creepiness of the lynch family's dream situation (the lynch family dreams situation?) and now she's like, i guess i should address the obvious existential crisis of it all. but i found it both entertaining and emotionally compelling up to the point where i forcibly reminded myself that there is such a high chance of something about this turning out stupid. but for now honestly i love declan lynch wandering around hating his dad and loving his brothers even the shithead one and being the most eldest daughter coded of all time and being pathologically repressed and gradually losing his own ability to not be an alive human person. and i love matthew being angry and having real feelings about not being a real person and wanting to stop pretending. and the reveal that niall maybe dreamed aurora based on a real woman is so like extra damning i'm pro that too.

jordan & hennessey: a cool idea with execution that was... fine. it's a neat concept to have two characters on opposite side of the dreamer/dreamt relationship to explore the, again, inherent fucked up reality-warping psychological nightmare of that. but their chapters were kinda boring for me except when jordan was interacting with declan, the hero and star of this book (we stan).. stief almost got there (there = saying something interesting) with hennessey (i refuse to figure out which way her name is spelled) as like, the doomed daugher of a destructive dead dreamer who was so broken by her mother's suicide that she started slowly killing herself of loneliness. but only almost! stief sometimes reminds me of how i say that the force awakens is a movie built for gifsets. like it's not enough to have a cool idea and sort of gesture towards it and then let people reading or watching do all the actual work of making something compelling of it. i love to fill in blanks and draw connections but the thing that makes it compelling has to be to SOME degree successfully executed in the text (it does not have to be major or take up a lot of space or even be explicit!) for you to have, like, done your job (wrote a book right).

adam parrish: continues to deserve to be written by literally anyone else on earth. i want his dumb college friends to sent to mars. but i did like how lived-in the pynch of it all felt, and also that they're HUGE DWEEBS who have a two-person catchphrase in latin. extremely cute if i compartmentalize Good Pynch Content Cumulatively from the rage stroke the raven king gave me.

bryde: i don't know what to say about this one because this is the plot thread that most obviously feels like it's in the danger zone re: being Incredibly Stupid. i will say i have no idea how the text wants me to feel about bryde and i can't tell if that's a reaction i would have coming in cold or if it's specifically that bryde seems to be doing a particular thing (offering ronan the path of the dreamer, not the person, which is tempting, and has benefits, but Goes Too Far) but knowing stief's history with the simple architecture of set-up/payoff i automatically distrust any reactions of mine that seem to point to where the story might be going because of how amazingly the story did not go any of those places the last time around.

farooq-lane/parsifal/moderators/zeds/visionaries: the less said the better. apparently after the last one came out she said on twitter that her first pitch for these books had them take place more years in the future and didn't include the apocalypse plot and seemed to kind of imply a lot of reshaping happened at the behest of her publisher. the failings of TRC are so evil and egregious i'm not willing to say that maybe she could be good if the demands of the publishing let her be, because like, there is still something wrong with a brain that came up with some of the stuff she came up with, even if it wasn't her first choice. but like i guess maybe i can say that perhaps she was forced to include a plotline that doesn't matter because obviously the endgame of these books is not going to be "the apocalypse" and absolutely if you took this shit out it would be like a 150% improvement instantly. it is INSAAAANE how boring these are. insane! bafflingly, hideously, heinously boring. someone at the company should have looked on goodreads where the boringness of the villain chapters is a frequent complaint and they receive very few compliments and realized that truly No One Asked For This let's keep the focus on things anyone might conceivably care about. especially since this book is so goddamn long

it's SO long like oh my god. it seems like the next two are shorter so that's something. also idk how i feel about the hard cliffhanger ending. i feel like one of the things TRC had going for it was that other than BLLB kinda each book was like actually its own book. (but BLLB still was sort of my favorite at the time? idk) i also feel like if i had jumped into the next one without rereading i would have been TOTALLY lost but i guess that's not inherently a flaw. how long it is, that's a problem tho.

it's still stupid that the reason ronan is so awesome at dreaming stuff is because a magical forest loves him for no reason at all. like that was stupid in TRC but it's still stupid and it annoys me. in general one reason i don't read a ton of fantasy is because the idea of magic by itself is not inherently cool or appealing to me (if there's going to be magic Just Because in something i would prefer the something to be, like, creepy and weird or whatever) and i feel like if it's gonna be interesting it has to be somehow connected to some kind of grounded emotional human thing. and one thing that makes me insane about these dumb books is that a power literally based in dreaming feels like it should be sooooooo easy to build that bridge & connect those dots! and there are aspects where this works like the night terrors as a manifestation of self-loathing or whatever. but somehow it just... never quite gels for me. ronan dreaming experiments back in BLLB was about the best it got, and i enjoyed it, but, again - the second we're back in his POV, i'm like, well this is stupid again. a fucking magic forest! who gives a shit!

overall it's 8000000 better than the raven king. i feel like i can't think about the other TRC books separate from how angry TRK made me to assess it compared to those. i feel like maybe it worked better as a book (the plotting in TRC was... i mean it was real bad. this one the plot was dumb and overly convoluted and it had a ton of shit i didn't care about but it was, like, there, and more or less kept moving along, so, points for that i guess) but it didn't have the atmosphere or charm that TRC built over time. but also when i read TRC for the first time i didn't already hate her so much for writing the worst book in my life so maybe i'd have been more into this one if i'd encountered it without a giant grudge already built. anyway. on to part two!

8, 20 and 24 for the book asks plz 🥰😘🖤

Thank-you sweetheart!

8. Did you meet any of your reading goals? Which ones?

My Goodreads reading challenge was to read 25 books this year but sadly I only managed 18. I'm going to try again for it next year though!

20. What was your most anticipated release? Did it meet your expectations?

Answered here but I actually had two anticipated releases that disappointed me this year. The second was Misrule by Heather Walter. It's not that I didn't enjoy the sequel but it really didn't go the way I wanted it to. After getting so invested in Aurora and Alice's relationship they spent nearly the entirety of this book fighting. (I mean I get why considering how the first book ended but come on!) Also why did everyone eat pastries for every meal?? Not exactly a balanced diet.

24. Did you DNF anything? Why?

A few actually!

The Book of Accidents by Chuck Wendig - It was TOO LONG! I was listening to the audiobook and got quite close to the end when I realised I just didn't care anymore.

Girl A by Abigail Dean - too depressing

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid - read the first few chapters and hated every minute!

I've also been trying to slog through There's No Such Thing as an Easy Job by Kikuko Tsumura all year. It was a gift from a good friend so I feel like I have to finish it but I'm only halfway through. I really want to like it but it just feels like nothing is happening. The protagonist gets a job, we go into excruciating detail about the place, something mildly weird but totally explainable happens, she quits and we begin the cycle again! I will persevere with it next year though.

3, 27, 37 for the ask game ☺️

Oh!!! Thank you!!!

3. What was the last song you listened to? 

As the least musical person on tumblr this is probably harder to answer than it should be,,, um... I think the "Playing Beltik" theme from the Queen's Gambit soundtrack in its extended version. The kind of music I listen to while I clean :D

27. What’s your favorite book? Or just one you’ve read a few times? 

Truly the hard hitting questions :D The Raven Cycle is probably up there as the book series that I've re-read the most, the books formative to my teenage years in ways beyond comprehension. I remember finishing The Starless Sea recently and thinking "fuck... this might just be the most book of all time" and I have an eternal soft spot for both Animorphs and a lot of the Terry Pratchett books I read over the years.

(and a fond PS to The Lies of Locke Lamora - teenage Aurora couldn't appreciate you, but adult Aurora loves you)

37. Do you prefer dogs or cats? 

Cats all the way :D I have two, and one of them is sleeping on me as we speak.

Thank you SO MUCH for asking! <3<3<3

[ ask game ]

Rating: 3/5

Book Blurb: Magic, romance, and slumbering gods clash in the start of a riveting fantasy series that spans gangsters' dens, forgotten temples, and the high seas from the New York Times bestselling author of the Aurora Cycle and the Illuminae Files. Selly has salt water in her veins. So when her father leaves her high and dry in the port of Kirkpool, she has no intention of riding out the winter at home while he sails off to adventure. But any plans to follow him are dashed when a handsome stranger with tell-tale magician's marks on his arm commandeers her ship. He is Prince Leander of Alinor  and he needs to cross the Crescent Sea without detection so he can complete a ritual on the sacred Isles of the Gods. Selly has no desire to escort a spoiled prince anywhere, and no time for his entitled demands or his good looks. But what starts as a leisure cruise will lead to acts of treason and sheer terror on the high seas, bringing two countries to the brink of war, two strangers closer than they ever thought possible and stirring two dangerous gods from centuries of slumber...

Review:

A girl who wants nothing more than to sail away, a prince who is trapped in his duties, and a scholar who wants to escape his life all find themselves thrown together trying to survive a deadly girl who wants to awaken dangerous gods and kill the prince. Selly has salt water in her veins, she was made to captain a ship, but after her father left she is nothing more than the errand girl for the current captain and she yearns for his return to make her leader of her own ship. When she runs into a handsome stranger with magician marks on his arms she soon discovers that he is going to commandeer her ship and that he is Prince Leander of Alinor, the playboy prince who only knows how to party and cares little for anything else... and now he needs to cross the Crescent Sea so he can complete a ritual on the sacred Isles of the Gods. Selly wants nothing to do with the prince or his mission, despite how much he very much wants her to notice him and like him. What was suppose to be a leisurely voyage soon takes a turn for the worst when everyone on the ship is killed save for Selly, Prince Leandor, and the scholar Keegan. Three very different people, now must find a way to trust one another and help each other survive the murderous person hunting them and to find a way to get Leandor to the Isle to make the sacrifice before they’re all doomed. Not to mention that there is a growing romance between Leandor and Selly, despite the fact that they’re romance isn’t meant to work it does, but can they survive long enough or will they die? This one was an interesting one, it started off really slow and the there are 5 different character POVS. The character povs started off as very blended and it was so hard to differentiate the characters form each other but it did pick up around the 40% mark of the book and the ending was interesting.I think if you are a fan of sea quest, gods, magic, and unlikely romances, then give it a go! I do look forward to seeing where the next book goes.

*Spoiler:*

Selly, Keegan and Leandor make it to the isle but the shrine is destroyed, Selly awakens her magic and Leandor turns out to be a messenger for the gods. laska * main villain* also dies but is awakened by another god similar to leandor. Selly, Keegan and Leandor all escape and now have to figure out what to do next. Leandor isn’t really himself but he still remembers Selly. Selly and Leandor do have a romance.

*Thanks Netgalley and Random House Children's, Knopf Books for Young Readers for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*

meet campbell!

Welcome to Aurora Bay, [CAMPBELL BENOWITZ]! I couldn’t help but notice you look an awful lot like [ANDREW GARFIELD]. You must be the [THIRTY-FIVE] year old [PEDIATRICIAN]. Word is you’re [KIND] but can also be a bit [AVOIDANT] and your favorite song is [DO YOU REALIZE?? BY THE FLAMING LIPS]. I also heard you’ll be staying in [SEABROOK QUARTER]. I’m sure you’ll love it! 

Full name: Benjamin Campbell Benowitz

Age/DOB: 35 / October 14th, 1987

Hometown: London, England

Gender/pronouns: cismale, he/him

Positive traits: kind, patient, gregarious

Negative traits: avoidant, flippant, private

Hobbies/interests: hiking, guitar, reading, poetry

Family: Maya Benowitz (mother, alive), Joseph Benowitz (father, alive)

abandonment tw

Yes, his real name is Ben Benowitz. Whether his parents just didn't realize what they were doing or simply didn't care, we'll never know. But as soon as he was old enough to realize how silly he sounded when he introduced himself, he was insistent upon using his middle name instead - little Campbell Benowitz.

From the get-go, Camp was a smart kid. He would read every book that passed in front of him, and usually talk anyone's ear off about them whenever he got the chance. His grades excelled in school, always at the very top of his class, despite his track record. He was also known as a bit of a class clown. Never fully disruptive to the point of getting in serious trouble, but enough to where he was labelled as a distraction and would be sent to sit in the hallway until he could calm down. But that was fine with him; he'd be just as entertained counting the tiles on the floor as he would've been in class.

While extremely close with his mother, Joseph Benowitz was a bit of a different story. He worked a lot, rarely being home for dinner and even more rarely being around for any of Campbell's school meetings. Camp didn't understand it as a kid, of course, but things weren't so great between Mr. and Mrs. Benowitz. They'd fight in hushed voices after he'd gone to sleep. A lot of Joseph's "work trips" were really just days of being gone without Maya knowing what was going on. It was textbook toxic until it came to a head. Without saying a word to his then-seven-year-old son, Joseph packed up and left.

Heartbroken and likely in denial, Maya never said a bad word about her newly estranged husband. She always told Campbell that he was working, that he wanted to come home but couldn't, that he'd be back as soon as he possibly could. She even went to the lengths of writing Camp "letters from Dad" to hold him over, something her son desperately held onto. Two years later though, Joseph reappeared in their lives, like nothing happened... until something happened again, and he was gone once more in less than six months.

This turned into an ugly pattern. Joseph leaving, Maya covering for him, Campbell idolizing the "hard work" he believed his father was out doing, and then Joseph returning just for the cycle to repeat. It took Campbell years, well into his teenage years, to accept what was really going on, and to realize the handwriting on his "Dad's letters" was strikingly similar to the handwriting on his birthday cards from his mother. When Joseph inevitably showed up again in his life, when he'd run out of money and needed to come back into their lives, Camp was disgusted by him. Their relationship, as superficial as it was, was over from then on out.

Despite all this, Camp's performance in school never faltered, and he went on to study medicine in university. Again, he excelled, graduating from pre-med and eventually with his MD in pediatrics. He found work at a small practice, not far from his childhood home in London, but as he'd grown older, his patience with his father wore thinner and thinner. He still showed up periodically, into Maya's waiting arms, like a knight in shining armor that was so brave just for coming back around. Campbell wanted to be there for his mother, but she wouldn't listen to him, or to common sense for that matter. It became too much, and eventually, Campbell had to leave.

He accepted a job offer at a hospital in California and made the move at the beginning of 2022. It was a huge move and an even huger adjustment, but so far, Camp's been settling into Aurora Bay gladly. He likes the heat, the scenery, the lack of dreary rain, and the change of pace it's given him. He's still the same happy-go-lucky, goofy guy he always has been.

Some wanted connections I'd like for him are

Friends plssss, he has so many friends. Not many that he's SUPER close with, he tends to keep people at arm's length because of ~trust issues~ from his dad, but he has so many people he's homies with

Patients and whatnot!! If your muse has a kid, maybe Camp can have treated them and they stayed buddies?

Neighbors!! He has a lil house in Seabrook Quarter!

He isn't... wonderful at commitment, but I do think he likes dating, so maybe someone he's matched with on Bumble/Hinge/etc in the last year?

Anything else tbh, hit me up!! <3

Ancient races, telepaths, planet-killer starships, a warrior caste cabal that refuses to accept the war is over and a cliffhanger ending that leaves our heroes at their lowest point. ‘Aurora Burning’ has all this. But as I’ll discuss, so did some popular 1990s sci-fi.

‘Aurora Burning’ is the second part of the ‘Aurora Cycle’ trilogy. Before reading further, you should read my comments on book 1 (‘Aurora Rising’) as this review builds on my previous post.

Advancing the plot & multiple viewpoints

One of my criticisms of ‘Aurora Rising’ is it was largely a novel devoted to developing the key characters, while only doing the mot basic set up for the major plot arc of the trilogy. ‘Aurora Burning’ continues to develop the characters, but the story arc is moved forward much more in book two. The big picture plot finally begins to unfold, as Squad 312 race across the galaxy seeking to acquire the ultimate weapon they need for the battle with the ancient enemy.

The ‘multiple viewpoints’ issue I complained of in my review of book one isn’t as much of a big deal here. In part this is because we’re more familiar with the characters. But it’s also made easier because for much of the book the characters are in different locations or solving problems that are unique to them.

My enjoyment of the story has definitely increased as a result of these two things being addressed. As such, the final book of the series is now next on my reading list. I’d also give the trilogy a higher recommendation than I did based on ‘Aurora Rising’ alone. Though that comes with the caveat that one probably has to read the entire trilogy for maximum enjoyment.

But there’s an elephant in the room that we need to address. One I hinted at in my previous post where I raised the issue of how many familiar sci-fi tropes the novel drew on.

Caution: Spoilers past this point.

Acknowledging the past, but a little too familiar in parts

I’m going to hypothesise the authors of the Aurora series are fans of 90’s sci-fi.

There’s numerous references to Star Trek. For example, we have ‘Picard6’ (a location), ‘The Janeway’ (a ship), and a race called the Rikerites. There’s also a scene (part of a training simulation) where the dialogue sounds a lot like Morpheus’ “do you think that’s air you’re breathing” speech from ‘The Matrix’.

The plot also involves a god-like race called the Eshvaren seeding the galaxy with beings created in their likeness. While this isn’t a unique idea, it’s another that appears in Star Trek:TNG S6E20 ‘The Chase’.

The beings from Trek created life in order to leave behind a legacy, while the Eshvaren seeded life across the galaxy in order to give rise to telepathic beings who would become the trigger for their super weapon and win the ancient war against the Ra’haam. In this regard, the Eshvaren are perhaps more like the Vorlons from Babylon 5. The Vorlon’s manipulated the DNA of younger races to create telepaths for their future war with ‘The Shadows’ . They also altered the DNA of younger races to ensure those aces would see a god-like vision if they ever saw a Vorlon outside its encounter suit.

Another similarity: The Warbreed Cabal in the ‘Aurora’ series are a group of Syldrathi warriors who refused to accept the peace treaty with the Terrans and who start a civil war. In this regard they’re a lot like the warrior caste in Babylon 5, who similarly initiate a civil war, in part because of their dissatisfaction with the decision to make peace with Earth. (Another example: Ronan in ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’, yet another warrior who refuses to accept a peace treaty.)

There’s probably more, but these are the most obvious ones that stand at at the moment.

Signs and Portents

Based on these similarities, I predict:

The Eshvaren turn out to be a bit like the Vorlons. Ancient race who portray themselves as the light/good but who end up being problematic in their own way.

Aurora finds some sort of resolution that doesn’t involve fulfilling the Eshvaren’s desire for her to wipe up the Ra’haam. In Babylon 5, the protagonists force a confrontation between the Vorlons and Shadows then tell them to ‘get the hell’ out of the galaxy and leave it to the younger races.

Time travel shenanigans. This has already been teased in ‘Aurora Burning’. The question is, will we see something akin to Babylon 5 ? (1) In B5 the enemy is defeated in the past by sending a weapon and hero to the past. Most likely this will take the form of at least one of our heroes time travelling and influencing the formation of the Aurora Legion. (2) ‘Babylon 5’ has “a Minbari not of Minbar” as a result of Sinclair travelling to the past and adopting the identity of Valenn. would not be surprised to see something similar involving a human and Syldrathi.

Anyway, I’ll leave the predictions here so I can actually get on with reading the final book. Let’s see in a few weeks how I actually fared with the predictions.

top 5 worst books (or series) you’ve ever read

but i’ll take top 5 best if you don’t feel like being mean 😂

uhhh top worst... let's see

1 the Twilight series (or Toilet as I call them). I was a teenager when they came out and I was curious to know what all the fuss was about. Money and time I will never get back. what a waste of a good tree.

2. Acotar: I think I liked it for about two weeks, then I gave it a re read and thought about the series and well... I realised I did not like the characters, the plot and so much more and moved to TOG. (Now they live at the local charity shop. probably someone has adopted them already)

3. The Aurora cycle. I tried the first one because I was intrigued. then I started reading and it felt as a big rip off of Babylon 5 and it made me so mad that I abandoned it altogether. Even some of the jokes were similar.

4. Final Empire (Mistborn series). I love Skyward series by Brandon so then I tried the Mistoborn series. I gave up halfway the first book. I just could not get into the story.

5. Empire of the Vampire. Sounded great on the paper. I was bored to death. I swear, reading it was painful. I tried other stuff by Jay Kristoff and struggled. Definitely not my kind of author.

If I have mentioned books you love, I am sorry. These are my personal opinions. I am not saying the books are crap. I am saying that for me were a gigantic waste of time and money.

Thanks for the ask ❤️

Solar Spritzes and Fritzes ~ 28 Jun 2023

Solar Spritzes and Fritzes ~ 28 Jun 2023, Philip Sedgwick

Every eleven years or so - 11.08 years being the mean - our star ebbs and flows through a natural and organic cycle of solar activity. At the commencement of a solar cycle sunspot activity is minimum and as the cycle culminates, sunspots frequently appear to freckle the face of the Sun. Within a solar cycle the Sun most commonly reverses its magnetic polarity. “Most commonly” notes sometimes the solar poles do not reverse, a feature that remains beyond the scope of forecasting. Still, this has been happening since the beginning of time as near as we can figure. It’s the way the Sun rocks and rolls.

Comprehensive record keeping of solar activity began in 1755. The current cycle that commenced in 2019 is the 25th-recorded cycle. According to solar activity forecasts Cycle 25 was widely expected to be mild. At the peak in 2025 about 115 sunspots could be expected per month. However, this cycle, the silver anniversary for our yellow star, gained momentum in 2022 transforming its underwhelming status. Some revised projections place the unexpectedly active peak in 2024 while other projections suggest the maximum could arrive before 2023 is in the books.

As sunspot activity increases, so do solar outbursts. Back in 1949, atop a skyscraper in Manhattan, a researcher for RCA concluded that solar outbursts correlate to strong heliocentric angles between the planets in the solar system and the planets’ relationships to where any planet makes its closest contact to the Sun (aphelion), as well as the heliocentric planetary nodes. Most notably, when a planet engages the perihelion of Mars (5 Pisces 59), extreme volatility in solar activity can be expected. Unbeknownst to RCA, their researchers became patron saints for astrologers and astrological validity.

So, we have two planets in early Pisces now, Saturn and Gonggong. Saturn, as seen by the Sun, reaches the perihelion of Mars on 30 October of this year. Gonggong who enjoys a 551.9 year stroll around the Sun reaches Mars’ closest solar contact in late April 2026. With either or both of these transits, should increased solar activity be anticipated? Absolutely.

What does increased solar activity do? Well, the Coronal Mass Ejections (CME) that burst from the Sun direct heaps of multifrequency energy out into the solar system. When these blasts hit Earth, we see more atmospheric stimulation resulting in eerie auroras and spectacular glows. The energy increases the drag in our atmosphere making it hard for satellites to maintain their orbits. As well, the energy emanations often take satellites off line and tamper with the ability for short wave radio waves to skip. So is the key for people to recognize that when communication systems go off line, one should head outside to check out the sky for awe-inspiring visual displays? Only those in the most extreme latitudes, closer to the Earth’s poles, are likely to see effects. Although, recently over Colorado unusual “airglow” was photographically captured, the result of current solar stimulation of the atmosphere.

Due to the atmospheric stimulation of a CME impacting Earth, weather patterns shift anomalistically in the days following. Does this energy also impact a person and if so, how? Given that humans have energetic emanations created in their chakras and an electromagnetic energy field (the aura), absolutely humans are impacted... as is every energetic, living entity.

When CMEs blast through our atmosphere, the trickle down effect stimulates personal auric fields and excites the aura and chakras outside normalized quiescent conditions. This titillation inspires short circuits between mental processes, energetic reactions and resultantly impacts the emotional nature. With a CME in play, it is common for a person to feel overwhelmed and hyper stimulated. It is normal to be agitated by the higher energy state.

Consider that while this personal stimulation occurs, electronic communication may be upset. Any social media relying upon satellites (they all do) and internet providers are subject to unexpected and intermittent outages. That has to be dealt with and weather warnings issued must also be heeded. And there’s the matter of personal energy that has become metastable. It’s a lot of real world stress to add static to energetic filed anomalies.

If unaffected by comm outages and in a stable weather zone, there’s still the matter of increased sensitivity, knee jerk emotional reactions and the malaise of feeling that body and mind cannot synch up. The mind won’t shut off and the body is fatigued, or a body is so hyper energized that no mental (or emotional) condition can be properly processed. For the balance of this year at least, potentially leading to solar max, extreme sensitivity and a loss of the grounding anchor commonly results in irrational reactions to any and all real world events.

While there is nothing that can be done about the influx of energy, when life feels like an energetic blood sugar crash, realize there is a rational reason for irrationality. Take a few conscious moments to step aside from the strangeness of life to restore basic grounding and energetic balancing. Since these surges are likely to pop up here and there, might as well have a coping tool in the hip pocket.

Get outside as possible and plunk yourself down on the Earth. If outside is not an option, plop down on the floor. Imagine connecting the base of your spine with the molten, fluid core of the Earth. Imagine linkage between the crown of your head and the core of the Milky Way. Feel the essence of the galaxy pour through you, spreading insight and sensibility throughout your being. Conjure the sensation of inner cooling of your core to the perfect temperature in which calm and discernment prevail. Absorb the energy. Feel it everywhere. When done, open your eyes. Blink a few times, take a few breaths, rise and return to sorting out the chaos of the world with enhanced grounding and certainly of centeredness.

These brief time outs, once familiar as a process, may only need thirty seconds or so to settle out your energy. You could do these visualizations at your computer, with your phone face down. If driving, you can pull off the road at the next possible safe place and conduct a rapid reset. Then, with coping restored, get back on the road.

Every time your energy feels unsettled or disrupted, go for the centering. For the next year or so, give such time outs escalated priority. Next thing you know, the solar energy soothes and aids you in maxing up the possibilities on your horizons.

More soon.

As a postscript, you can always visit spaceweather.com for more information on sunspots and CME’s. I’m going to borrow from the spaceweather.com website to proclaim no AI was used in the creation of this e-zine. According to Space Weather, AI has proven itself to be “well-written, artificial, frequently inaccurate.” This e-zine and all future e-zines are an AI-free zone!

While not a postscript at all, if the transits, sunspots or CMEs add complexity to actions and decisions pending, an astrological consultation or series of consultations might be exactly what the cosmos prescribes. Sometimes asking a simple question or two for e-mail reply might do the trick. Or a Galactic Report is always good for grounding and expanding ones sense of personal attributes. And there’s the Galactic Trilogy for those seeking a deep navigation into the astrology of those things yet unknown. Click and click below!

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Hikari & Takeru headcannons:

Hikari and Takeru have been bestfriends for so long that they call eachother Be'shmai sometimes. The name is from a book trilogy that Kari gifted T.K for his birthday one year and he forced them to read it with him (they were 10).

T.K and Kari have code words the mean different things one being code sherbert (meaning- I'm in emotional distress and am about to eat a whole tube of ice cream, H E L P)

Hikari had a small crush on Takeru when they were 9-10 but then figured out he was gay

People often comment on them being a couple and the two of them start gagging

They have been shipping their brothers together since they were little

Hikari has walked in on T.K in his boxers multiple times (as well as Davis and Tai, and Matt once)

Hikari and T.K will cuddle on the couch

In adulthood T.K and Hikari make plans to hangout with eachother at least once every other week

T.K helps Hikari take about a thousand gender quizzes when they have their gender crisis

Hikari and Takeru will paint eachothers nails whenever they have sleepovers

(Be'shmai means soulmate and is from the book series Aurora Cycle, T.K and Kari consider eachother platonic soulmates and use the word even tho that's not the type of soulmate the word references)