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Is Jacqueline Carey's "Kushiel's Legacy" series in scope?

  1. Is there consensus that it is "Fantasy"? Wiki says "historical fantasy or alternate history" in the series page, and "Fantasy" in the first book of the series.

    I would personally easily classify it as "Fantasy":

    • leaving aside literary analysis, it's published by Tor books :)

    • Heck, the first novel in the series won a Locus Award in Fantasy category.

    But would like a second opinion, preferably from someone familiar with the works if possible, since I have seen people classify the books as more of a soft-core BDSM porn than fantasy.

  2. Is there a concern about allowing questions about a work that is, in large part, "adult themed" (heavy BDSM references+erotica)? [ assume that the questions themselves are PG13 or whatever the official cutoff is for SFF.SE ]

    The reason for the concern is that, AFAIR, Stack has canceled Area 51 proposal of exuality due to concerns about brand damage (don't recall exact details). If any work will raise the concerns, Carey's would be it.

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    I am pretty sure the consensus on #2 will be "yes" based on Meta1 and Meta2.
    – DVK-on-Ahch-To
    Sep 6, 2012 at 18:31
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    Unless you add explicit pictures/descriptions to your posts, I'm pretty sure nobody sane would complain.
    – bitmask
    Sep 6, 2012 at 18:49
  • @bitmask - there are plenty of things prohibited on SE network that I would classify as "nobody sane would complain" :)
    – DVK-on-Ahch-To
    Sep 6, 2012 at 20:05
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    Ahem. If it is BDSM then suffice it to say, it is probably someone's fantasy. I am inclined to disallow it though, so that another book with varying levels of a particular monotone chromatic tint doesn't make it on this site.
    – NominSim
    Sep 6, 2012 at 21:03

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Based on Are works that aren't SF per se, but have occasional SFnal elements on-topic? (e.g. spy movies) (and other discussions with a similar outcome), if it's borderline SF, it's in. I haven't read any of the Kushiel series, but based on the Wikipedia description, it's firmly on-topic, not even borderline, since it is based on a fantastical premise (and even if the premise was mundane, it would be on-topic as alternate history).

I don't see any concern with “adult themes” (or as adults call it, sexuality). The main constraint in this respect is to keep images PG-13, which is a concern for comics but not for written works. The problem with the cancelled sexuality site was a lack of quality, not the theme (the proposal was allowed to go through, the site failed in private beta).

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  • "based on a fantastical premise" - the premise is... I'd call it "theological". Forgot to add that to the Q as one of my points of concern. +1 for the meta lik
    – DVK-on-Ahch-To
    Sep 6, 2012 at 19:07
  • As far as sexuality site, I though someone (one of the mods) mentioned that there were some meta-concerns not related to site quality. I'm a bit hazy on which site the comment was on, I think History or Skeptics, so I may be mis-remembering
    – DVK-on-Ahch-To
    Sep 6, 2012 at 19:09
  • @DVK I didn't participate on the Sexuality site, so you may be better-informed. In the previous threads that you cited in a comment, there were links to an official answer stating that sex is not a taboo topic, and (as you well know) adult movies can be discussed on Movies.SE. As for the theological part… that's not a reason to exclude a work: it's a fictional religion, so what?
    – user56
    Sep 6, 2012 at 19:20
  • IIRC we have had a couple of disputed questions touching on theology. So I figured it's better to check.
    – DVK-on-Ahch-To
    Sep 6, 2012 at 20:03
  • @DVK: there were a lot of concerns over the subject matter and how it reflects on the network, looks to automated web filters, causes problems for users who want associated accounts, etc. However, we tried to launch it anyway. After a week in private beta, it was in a sorry state - only 58 questions posted, 8 of them closed, and the general feeling of a not-very-active discussion board rather than a Q&A site. That being said, sexually explicit material is explicitly disallowed by our content policy - so keep it as clean as possible.
    – Shog9
    Sep 11, 2012 at 16:52
  • @Shog9 - Thank you. As note in the Q, the concern was with the themes of the work, not the questions (since the explicit material in it has no SFF value or angle)
    – DVK-on-Ahch-To
    Sep 11, 2012 at 18:18

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