Assessment:
Overall rating (20 votes)
Recommended by Drew Daniels, Gavin Williams, Jim Zoetewey, Sonja Nitschke, and 5 other members.
Tales of MU
An ongoing series, with new episodes weekdays.
Tales of MU is an open-ended serial detailing the college life of one Mackenzie Blaise, a university student in a world where our fantasy is reality and our science is fantasy. Moving from her sheltered existence as an outcast and self-professed geek into the wild, wide world of Magisterius University, Mackenzie narrates her own story for us in a style that is at both snarkily self-aware and naively oblivious. When the story begins, Mackenzie is nobody’s idea of a heroine, which makes it a very good thing that the world isn’t in any particular peril. This, folks, is high fantasy at its least epic: nothing more or less than the story of a life.
Tales of MU
High Fantasy, Higher Education
— contains pervasive graphic sex and graphic violence; also, some harsh language —
Tags: angst bi college demons fantasy first person lesbian modern supernatural past tense series sex urban fantasy
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Editorial Reviews
1 <3 2 and ToMU!
Tales of Magesterius University (frequently referred to as ToMU) is a coming-of-age story featuring the freshman Mackenzie Blaise as she attends college.
But MU is no ordinary school, and Mackenzie is no ordinary girl. MU’s classes are attended by skirmishers, necromancers, illusionists and clerics. Its hallways feature elves, golems, centaurs and nymphs. Its professors can teleport, evoke fire, read minds and contact other planes of existence.
And Mackenzie Blaise just happens to be a half-demon.
Debuting in June 2007, ToMU has captivated one of the largest online reader audiences, and its popularity is well-deserved. The author, Alexandra Erin, manages a diverse cast of characters, featuring multiple races, psychological profiles, histories and motivations. The serial touches on themes of racism, sexuality, religion and spirituality, morality and gender. Ms. Erin, often referred to as AE, is a brilliant writer, capable of action, comedy, horror and eroticism, all within the same chapter at times.
AE is a truly gifted writer, with nuances and details to spare in her rollicking tale. No one could question the imagination at work here, regardless of whether or not readers can agree with her viewpoints. And the debates in the comment section can be even more entertaining than the chapters themselves!
If I have any complaints about ToMU, they are on a personal, subjective level, and have nothing to do with the quality of writing. My favourite characters are side characters, like the golem Two and the subterranean elf Dee. They have unique voices and interesting character arcs. Things that seem important to me as plot developments, like Mackenzie’s demonic heritage and hellish potential for evil, seem to be less important than her love life, which is the least realistic thing about the story. At last count, she had three lovers of varying species, and at least four other people interested in her. Not bad for a self-proclaimed anti-social repressed "nerd."
(My personal theory is that Mackenzie’s demonic powers affect the people around her, but that is yet unproven — if that turns out to be the case, what seems unrealistic will suddenly make sense. I’m mercurial, I am.)
Mackenzie, Two and Dee are dynamic characters, changing over the course of the story. Amaranth, (a nymph) and Steff (a half-elf) are particularly static characters, spinning in circles within their own personalities and affecting Mackenzie and the plot as a result. Chapters featuring them tend to bore me. It’s not Amaranth’s fault: she’s semi-divine and unlikely to change unless she gives up her divinity to become human. And Steff is frozen in place by past trauma, a victim of abuse. It just gets boring to read about them for a year and know only a month has past in "story time."
ToMU is a work of art, and it inspires debate and conflict and admiration. If you read nothing else online, it’s worth your time.
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Not For Everyone
Note: This review originally appeared in Novelr.
There are worlds you can get lost in, and there are worlds you just want to get out of. It is testament to Alexandra Erin’s writing ability that Tales Of MU is set in the former: the characters may be flawed, unlovable and downright weird, but you can’t help but continue reading, no matter what she throws your way. Erin does a marvelous job of hooking and bringing you in, but it isn’t all a gentle ride: very often you’ll find yourself cursing the hook and trying to break the line. And failing.
Mack (our protagonist) is one tortured soul: she is weak, spineless, and uncomfortable with her ancestry. We are introduced to her on her first day of college, and Erin keeps you going with little revelations about the rich world she has created. You want to know more: why are humans repulsed by Mack? Why does everyone carry weapons? And - this is an interesting one, this - what exactly is Mack?
Mack’s character development is a sore point for me: she starts off as a person everyone can identify with, but I found myself despising her for her lack of strength as the blook progressed. She is stepped on, pushed around and manipulated by almost everyone, and Erin offers no respite in what seems to be a solely female cast. But by golly is it addictive: you root for Mack, cheer for Mack, and you pray fervently that she finally gets her day and stands strong against all those weird friends of hers. Erin has succeeded in creating a character with a strong emotional bond with the reader, and that is one of the best things MU has got going for it.
That it is addictive hardly hides the themes MU explores: the story handles racism well, making use of the varied species (humans being uncomfortable with orgres? Priceless!) as a parallel to real world problems. The college divides humans from non-humans, and the segregation is subtle - early on in the blook Amaranth says a remarkable line: “Intolerance doesn’t go away because you legislate against it, it just becomes more sophisticated.”
The character of Amaranth brings us to the second strong theme in the blook: sexuality.
Sex is where MU differs from most fantasies. Throughout the blook Mack questions her sexual disposition - she is surrounded by lesbians, bisexuals and nymphs, and they influence the way she thinks about love and relationships. This quickly becomes a major focus of the story: MU dedicates whole chunks of chapters to explicit gay sex, and the relationships between Mack and her (mostly female) lovers. I didn’t enjoy any of this - these chunks of sex read like interruptions to the more interesting world Erin had developed behind . . . and the S&M relationship Mack develops with Amaranth, while brave, hardly makes for comfortable bedtime reading.
Erin states early on that one of her main goals as an author is ‘to challenge the idea that sex can only be included at the expense of–or instead of–a story.’ I have to say that she has failed - at least in my case. I found myself speeding through the erotica, waiting for more development in aspects like the civil rights Mack is fighting for, Two’s growth as a person, and various other non-sex related subplots Erin had skillfully woven into MU.
I was at Book 3 and it was midnight when I finally stopped reading.
Tales of MU isn’t for everyone, certainly. It is brave storytelling in an untested medium, and Erin doesn’t hold back in the situations Mack and her friends find themselves in. The characters are complex and believable (even if the sex isn’t), the story nothing short of brilliant, the prose fluid. Will I continue reading it? Hell yes, I will.
Just . . . minus the sex bits.
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Magic. College. Pitchforks
Tales of Mu is the story about Mackenzie Blaise and her experiences as a freshman at Magesterius University.
The school is attended by a diversity of races: half-ogres, satyrs, fauns, humans, and elves just to name a few. The college is a layered tapestry of individuals, none of whom who are particularly two dimensional or cliche (which is rather refreshing).
The story is highly character driven, which is what first drew me to it. AE’s style of writing is good and engaging, often times leaving me wanting more.
So why don’t I give this five stars? Mostly personal reasons.
The pacing of the plot is slow — a year of writing has passed, but only a month of story time — which causes some "recycling" I think in both plot and character developement.
But other than those few caveats, I find that Tales of MU is an engaging novel, and well worth the read.
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In your face fantasy.
It certainly has some excellent writing and the characters are realistic and gripping. It makes me almost want to sympathize with the narrator right from the get-go. It’s written in such a way that the university she writes about could actually exist. The attention to detail of the school itself proves that the author lived it firsthand (college in general, I mean).
On top of that, the fantasy element brings an intriguing breath of fresh air to the mix. What’s going on with these people/things and magic is normal in this world and downright shocking to us. It’s like Harry Potter on acid, but a good acid trip. The magic makes it interesting and not just another coming-of-age-in-college story.
I also like all of the spins she put on the implied fraternal organizations and school clubs and such. They’re really inventive and fitting to the world. I was laughing at a few of them. The satire playing here is subtle but poignant.
A couple of the parts I read were a bit dragging. While it seems, in part, to be read like a diary (the first person past tense POV, to me, makes it read like that) and while the description can be fine in-head, on paper it can get a bit rambling. The descriptions of all the characters in the meeting room, while interesting and seemingly written to prove the diversity of the school, got to be a little much.
Also, the story as a whole is extremely slow-moving, the focus being more on the characters instead of advancing the plot. Readers should be aware of that going in. There are five books and hundreds of chapters total but, like the other reviews have pointed out, only a month has passed in story time. Personally, if I were considering reading on, it would make me wary of excessive overwriting simply because those are a lot of words to push through such a short amount of time in-story.
This is completely personal and has nothing to do with the writing; it kept reminding me of high school more so than college and the last thing I want to do is remember high school. I guess it’s due in part to the age of the MC since she’s only months out of high school but I just can’t and don’t want to relate to the angst she has. Bad memories.
This isn’t something I would read because of that high school connection. Yeah, it was that bad. Not that I haven’t read other high school/college aged stories but this one just struck a nerve. It’s one of those things that you can’t pinpoint but you know it’s there. The fantastical elements make it amazing but I just can’t relate to the MC for purely personal reasons. I tried it because one, I wanted to see what all the fuss was about (worth the fuss, let me tell you) and two, it just looked fun. It certainly followed through on both but again, it keeps hitting that nerve and it’s keeping me from reading more.
I’m not one to deny a person has writing talent even if I’m not going to actively read the work. From what I have read, it is a really well-written piece that deserves the attention it’s been getting. The girl’s got talent, that’s for sure. This is a miss for me but I think every serial reader should at least give this story a try. It holds standards for what serials should be (quality-wise) and I think it could be considered a major movement to the positive in the web serial world.
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Most Helpful Member Reviews
Given Up for the Most Part
I used to really love MU.
Not that I didn’t have problems with it in the past—the syntax is a bit clunky at times, pacing is slow, not enough magic—but I shrugged those things off because it updates five times a week (so syntax is forgiven) and I was entertained.
I’m simply not entertained anymore. I found myself trudging my way through chapters in hopes that it would be "a good one." It’s just that nothing happens anymore, it’s gotten repetitive, and the same issues come up again and again. Wink.
I’m not trying to bash AE here. I don’t think anyone in the webfiction community has anything less that the utmost respect for her and what she’s done. However, I think it may be time for her to refocus the story and make something happen.
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I still pop in every once and a while
The premise is good. I enjoy reading about Mackenzie’s life in college. I also like the fact that while there is a lot of sexual content, it is still readable and has a plot. I’m getting more comfortable with the sex. I like the dynamics between the characters and the world. The roles they play are interesting.
While I still enjoy this story, it’s starting to get irritating while the main character goes on and on about the mundane. The sex is interesting, but it happens too often that it’s not as fun as it was before. It’s really really dragging. It doesn’t feel like a diary as much anymore, but more like a detailed list of things that are happening. I find myself skipping over chapters waiting for something interesting to happen and sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn’t. It’s really hit and miss and I don’t really have the time to search for those chapters that do have the material I want.
I’m still invested in the characters and I’m interested to see what happens to them. However, there’s only so much that I can take of them. I used to be able to read this story daily, but some of the characters are starting to feel a little stereotypical and annoying. My favorite characters are the ones that aren’t mentioned very often and the type of characters that get bonus stories written about them every so often. I need to take a break from this story and check in a few weeks to see if anything has changed. It’s not a story I can read daily anymore. That has nothing to do with the actual writing, but more so the main character. I do like MOAR Tales of MU though.
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(No title)
I want to like Tales of MU. There’s a lot of promise here—the world Erin has created is compelling, and her abilities as a writer are not wanting.
The trouble with this story is that I can’t be convinced that the story is anything more than Laurell K. Hamilton at her worst—all sex and angst with no plot or back story.
The idea of a half-demon as a central character is gripping. And yet though the author gives lip service to her heritage, little aside from her abilities with fire illustrates her demonic nature. There is little to no back story that reveals who Mack is, and as a result, I find it very difficult to be interested in her. I want to know about Hell, her parents, what it means to be a demon. The last is most notably lacking, since Mack seems terribly ashamed of being a demon, yet we don’t really get any idea of what is precisely so awful about it. We’re left instead with what amounts to a very slow moving porno.
I went into this novel expecting some sex. I was not expecting to be beat over the head with erotica on nearly every page. I’m no prude, but on the other hand, I read fiction as an escapist way to engage my mind. When I find myself getting jolting out of the writer’s world because of unnecessary and explicit sexual reference over and over, then the story has failed to meet my basic requirements.
In sum: good premise, poor execution. Unless you have a particularly high tolerance for graphic sexual content, find something else.
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Still reading
There was a time I would have given this story five stars. I don’t anymore because I frequently want to hit Mackenzie and Amaranth, along with a few of the other characters, with a clue by four. Also the sex gets tiresome because there’s so MUCH of it.
I could argue that Mack has come a very long way in the couple of weeks that she’s been at MU, but the directions in which she’s expanding don’t seem very realistic to me. Sex is often one the hardest things to get over your stumbling blocks about, (anyone heard of ‘recovering catholics’?) and yet Mackenzie seems to do so almost effortlessly, but at the same time she has an extremely difficult time accepting religions that are not her own.
And what’s up with having so many people openly sexually interested in you? I gather she’s cute but not THAT special to look at and for a while she really didn’t take care of her appearance AT ALL, and apparently she smells. What she smells of we don’t know.
Anyway, the writing is amazing and I keep coming back despite my dislikes. If TOMU isn’t your cup of tea, I would recommend 3 seas or tribe or any of the many other tales AE tells.
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