Jul 26, 2008: 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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Dec 5, 2008: Note: This review originally appeared, three years ago, in Novelr. It is outdated.

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 [more . . .]

Aug 10, 2008: 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 [more . . .]

Jun 24, 2009: As with a lot of the other recent reviews, I’ve found myself quickly losing interest. The pacing of the story is just too slow, and there’s too much interesting information not being covered in favor of extending coverage of sexual exploits. The character development is hyper-focused on the sexuality of the characters. While that’s obviously an important component of maturing, I find it somewhat distracting and overdone in this serial.

As in real life, there are things to like and dislike [more . . .]

Aug 29, 2008: 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 [more . . .]

Mar 21, 2010: Alas, Tales of MU. It had such a great concept. The story started out very well, and the writing was superb. I charged through several hundred odd chapters in a few days.

Tales of MU is about Mackenzie Blaise, fresher undergraduate student and half demon, who attends a university for beings with magical powers. It tracks her various misadventures, romantic and otherwise, during her time studying at Magesterius University.

However, as the [more . . .]