Hello, i recently started reading "Three Square Meals" from Tefler. But i noticed in the beginning that everything was going way to smooth and now after 12 chapters it feels like a power fantasy with Mary Sue characters in a soft sci-fi, wish-fulfillment setting. Is this gonna change deeper into the story or does it stay like that?
YES!!!, always a new girl after the other that got the same treatment. I liked the premise of the story a lot in the beginning, but its just so bland.
There are some significant challenges along the way, but yeah it leans heavily into Mary Sue wish-fulfillment. It is definitely a power fantasy. That being said, enough people have like this particular power fantasy to keep it going. It's still being written, albeit at a slow pace.
It's still being written, albeit at a slow pace.
It's way behind the author's Patreon, and the last time he updated SOL was after Lazeez hid the story on SOL for a while because Tefler was in violation of 17B.
The last update on SOL was 2 years ago.
The link to Tefler's Patreon has been removed from his SOL author profile. I don't know if this was done by Tefler or by Lazeez (for rule 17B violations).
This is a very harsh thread.
It feels almost passive aggressive - if at 12 chapters, you feel it's not for you, it's time to find something else to read.
You don't need anyone else to tell you otherwise.
7-12 chapters is usually enough to form an opinion and I commend you for doing that much.
I try to be tolerant of authors/stories that I do not find as my jam. A friend of mine writes some of the most boring stories I've ever read, often confusingly melodramatic.
He sometimes writes summary actions, instead of providing contextual dialogue and it drives me crazy. I try to help with things like that, but ultimately if he likes a slower paced story with a lot of "We spent the day together and everything was great" type of high level summary - and his readers do as well, then so be it.
Not everything can float my boat (or yours).
It's not for me and when he is open to listening to constructive feedback I offer it - but ultimately, he is writing for a different audience than me and I have to learn to respect that.
Part of what's gotten to me about the story, over time, is the power creep (not that 'creep' is perhaps the right word). I understand that it fits what Tefler is trying to do, but it's (relatively) quickly gone from 'we can fight off a few ships' to 'we can fight off a few fleets.'
That's maybe fun for wish fulfillment, but there are things I would have loved to have seen happen when the stakes were a bit lower. By now, there's little room for low-stakes things happening.
Gave up on it two or more years ago. Story telling had become monotonous and way too loooong! Dropped other series also because no end was in sight after years following some. Longer is NOT necessarily better.
Interestingly, that has not happened with stories by Lumpy, Jay Cantrell, Something Fishy and a dozen other longer story writers. Maybe that's because the break up the really long sagas into multiple volumes.
Gave up on it two or more years ago. Story telling had become monotonous and way too loooong
while I can somewhat understand the psychology of being overwhelmed by 100+ chapter story, and being more inclined to want it in bite sized segments..
I've never really understood this complaint. I have also heard it when people say that the chapter is too long. just compartmentalize it and read what you can.
if you want to click "next" 12 times to read a 12-page chapter, and we just call it chapters 1 through 12, it's the same amount of text. The equivalence of drinking 12 small sodas to avoid buying the super big gulp
if in the same time it takes me to read 150 short stories, can read 150 chapters about characters on a journey that I care about, I'll pick the 150 chapter story.
just when I get to know the characters and fall in love with them, if it ends it pisses me off.
I guess it's kind of like sex in a way. for some it's all about getting to the conclusion and having that big payoff in the form of the orgasm as quickly as possible so they can get to another one. I can respect that but I like the edge and not the finality because I'm only going to have the one.
in addition, for me it's all about the journey and the paths taken, not the destination.
as an author, I'm the worst at writing endings because I hate to say goodbye to the characters and I never feel I do a good enough job of saying goodbye. My final chapter is usually a love letter of loose end closures and I could probably keep going well past that point.
it can be very difficult to want to close it.
Three Square Meals not only has 145 chapter, those chapters vary in size with the largest one clocking in at ~93550 words.
The story itself as posted on SOL is close to 4 million words and incomplete.
I wuld have to say no, Tefler swore blind that the story would ALWAYS be free on LE and praised his loyal readers continually....the he quit his job and started posting less and less to the point he stopped because he was concentrating all his time to his Patreon. Now, don't get me wrong i begrudge no one a way to make a living but the way he did it was a pure scumbag move. Now...As for the story itself the action is decent, the technical stuff is understandable but ironically the sex itself was at best copy and paste with a few new things chucked in for variety and the MC comes across as a bit of a pussy at times
As long as you're fine knowing that it will never get an ending and you are ok post say chapter 100 with the story grinding to a halt and becoming repetitive slop, yea.
Yea admittedly this story goes off the rails into power fantasy for a good part of it imo. But i myself liked it for a time because imo there are things you can do right in a harem story and things you can do wrong in a harem story and this one has a higher percentage of right things in it.