Thread: Online author - Tales of MU

I recently found an online author who has an ongoing serial in a magical fantasy world, yet writes mature themes extremely well. It's very provocative but I think it's well done. Here's a link:

Tales of MU - High Fantasy, Higher Education

Looks interesting I'll probably check it out

I was interested in it at first, but then the "mature themes" (please read: BDSM/Gay preaching) became so heavy handed that they overshadowed the story. I don't mind erotica, or BDSM, or anything else, but this was touted as a story not as a smut fest. It started out as the former and became the latter.

Oh true you know sex in stories is not always a bad thing, it is however, when their is more sex than a plot

That's the thing. The main character was engaging, and interesting and everything, and then... she stopped thinking about everything but sex. She was only worried about her own sexual orientation/about having sex/whatever, and kinda forgot she was university and that there were tonnes of things that were way more important.

Oh jeez that seems quite pointless, I'm definitely not getting it. I hate when characters loose total focus of the plot.

I really think you should take another look at the story. The relationships of the characters is what makes up the major part of the plot. Also, about half of what's up is set in the initial week, so not much has happened yet (involving the uni).

Incidentally, the author has mentioned many times that people who go to MU looking for smut are sorely disappointed. Sexuality is an important part of the story, but there are many other issues going on (ie. Two). Plus, can you really say that sex couldn't be an important issue for someone in the protagonist's position?

Again, the story is nowhere near full of sex. Look again, and don't have your initial reaction to seeing development of a relationship between characters be "The story is all about sex!"

EDIT: And another thing, who are you to decide what the plot is? The author has been known to ream people out before for assuming that a certain aspect of the story fits their idea, then complaining when someone acts 'out of character'. She has said many times that she doesn't want her story to be put into particular groups, that she'll do whatever the hell she wants with the story and anyone who complains can just stop reading.

For me, while the sexuality of some chapters is provocative, I find an analysis of the chapters as a whole indicate that they are in character and necessary to the plot, which thus far focuses on a historically repressed and isolated teen girl with a lot of issues, suddenly having total freedom at university, where she's surrounded by good and bad influences.

I think her struggles with identity are consistent -- she worries about how assertive she is, how to make friends, how to get involved at school, and also worries about her sexuality and how active she wants to be. There are a lot of ongoing themes to the serial story, and one of them is the growth of characters through diverse experiences, and another is tolerance, both for race, species, gender, and sexual identity.

I have found few authors who can handle such provocative themes as this author, and I think that's more important than uncomfortable sex scenes, which aren't smut. She walks that line very carefully. The author certainly isn't writing "vanilla" but it's not dark chocolate either, it's a careful line.