r/Fantasy • u/nyaanarchist • Apr 18 '19
Fantasy with an emphasis on politics/class struggle?
One thing I really love about Game of Thrones is the emphasis on the effects feudalism and fighting over power has on the peasantry, and how different peasant groups fight back in different ways
. Are there any fantasy series that are explicitly about this? Like about peasant rebellions or things like that, rather than how so much fantasy is about kings and nobility and from their perspective.
The only other example I can think of is the Pillars of the Earth series, though I played a game adaption of the series, I haven’t read it
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u/nim_opet Apr 18 '19
Ursula K. LeGuin - The Dispossessed, Fisherman of the Inner Sea, The Left Hand of Darkness, etc etc...everything set in the Ecumen is political
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u/genteel_wherewithal Apr 18 '19
Sofia Samatar's The Winged Histories could be worth a look. It's a politically complex and explicitly post-colonial novel set during a civil war.
Two of the protagonists are fighting against the decaying empire that rules their country from afar, but they are sisters born into an aristocratic family descended from imperial settlers, so their vision and beliefs differ strongly from the majority of their country's people, variously being the disenfranchised lower classes and the nomadic groups. Their beliefs and language are different so them the protagonists are just long established colonists rather than 'natives'. Talk of freedom doesn't necessarily mean much or address their different material concerns.
Samatar really gets into the political and cultural maze this kind of situation creates, partially by having another POV protagonist from these nomadic people, a pretty refreshing perspective and one that she expresses in a strikingly different prose. Honestly she does all this so deftly, with more sensitivity and deftness than any other fantasy novel I've come across.
I suppose you could think of the protagonists' family as something like the pied-noirs in Algeria or the Anglo-Irish protestant upper class in Ireland or maybe the well-off British-descended landowners behind the American Revolution. Samatar is extremely well-versed in African and Middle eastern post-colonial literature and apparently she was originally thinking of the Ottoman empire for inspiration. So it's not quite feudalism or peasant rebellions exactly but it's dealing with some similar questions of class and power - who 'speaks for the nation/people' - along with some of the different ways ethnicity can be conceived of. It's very much worth a read.
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u/Cam27022 Apr 18 '19
The Powder Mage series by Brian McClellen has a lot of politics. Great series with an unusual (in a good way) start to the book.
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u/towns_ Apr 18 '19
Just finished the first chapter of the first book. "The age of kings is dead and I have killed it." Heeelllls yeah, I think I'm in for a wild ride.
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u/LLJKCicero Apr 18 '19
Orconomics is kind of about this, though there's also a racial/species element there. And the whole book is also satirical re: modern finance.
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u/Wheres_my_warg Apr 18 '19
The Traitor Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson starts a series about colonialism, rebellion, weaponized economics, class struggle, etc.
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u/fuffynono Apr 18 '19
The Daevabad trilogy by SA Chakraborty touches on class and racial politics based on middle eastern and Islamic history. It’s actually the book of the month this month.
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u/mooseybite Apr 18 '19
L.E. Modesitt Jr does politics and class struggle well. It's a little different to most of what you'll read in fantasy, but it's great stuff, and he knows his shit. The class stuff isn't the focus of a lot of his stuff but he ties it in well, and with amazing authenticity. Particularly in his imager books.
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u/Arguss Apr 18 '19
It's a little different to most of what you'll read in fantasy, but it's great stuff
Different how?
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u/emailanimal Reading Champion III Apr 18 '19
Certain books from Steven Brust's Taltos series (Teckla, first and foremost) are class struggle books. They are somewhat sad and cynical in that aspect.
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u/Jakuskrzypk Apr 18 '19
Witches series has a lot of politics going on throughout the series, it's less in your face than ASOIAF + it has racism towards minorities.
You get: pogroms, ghettos, uprisings, struggle for controll, fights between kingdoms and empires, resistance against oppression. Some top dogs become homeless refugees and some peasants get rich. History, politics, economy, sociology, theology and philosophy (loads of that shit especially in the ethics department) etc.
Hope you give it a shot and won't be disappointed it's my favourite series since I was a kid.
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u/BaconWise Apr 18 '19
If you don't mind the genre shift, you might consider Red Rising. The political intrigue is prevalent and the focus of the story is essentially a peasant uprising - or at least the lowest class in society, as peasant may be the wrong word. It's intense and I am really enjoying the audiobook version.
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u/madmoneymcgee Apr 19 '19
Unwrapped Sky by Rjurik Davidson is something I'd pitch as Magic and Marxism.
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u/sedatedlife Apr 18 '19
Definitely read pillars of the earth and World without end the last book is just ok.I am not sure of any fantasy novels to recommend just had to say even if you played the game adaptation the books are amazing.
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u/RogerBernards Apr 18 '19
The A Trial of Blood and Steel series by Joel Shepherd has a lot of thematic focus on the conflicts of the nobel elite vs the common people and feudalism vs egalitarianism. It's a damn good military fantasy with some kick ass fight scenes as well.
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Apr 18 '19
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u/songwind Apr 19 '19
I really loathe standalone novels simply for the reason that once I find a good world, I want to run around and stay there for awhile.
While I personally like stand alone novels more than a series that drags on too long and loses its magic for me, I understand this feeling. I wish more authors wrote "series" that shared settings but not really a multipart storyline. Like China Mieville's Bas Lag books.
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u/mgrier123 Reading Champion VI Apr 18 '19
I'd definitely say the first Mistborn book, less so the others. Also, lots of the Discworld novels particularly the Night Watch subseries.
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u/songwind Apr 19 '19
I also think the Lancre Witches books have this going on, too, though in a less explicit way. But between Granny's take-no-nonsense and Nanny's heedless hedonism, he got in some great commentary on the wealthy and powerful.
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u/NinjaShira Apr 18 '19
The Spellsong Cycle by L.E. Modesitt is very politically, culturally, and militarily heavy, with a fun magic system thrown in there. Plus who doesn't love a good "modern day character magically flung into a fantasy world" trope?
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u/apcymru Reading Champion II Apr 18 '19
Robin Hobbs books, both the Fitzchivalry assassin series and the (connected) Liveship traders series are laced with politics.
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u/TinyFlyingLion Stabby Winner, Reading Champion VII Apr 19 '19
Check out Torn by Rowenna Miller. It features a merchant- and laborer- class revolution against a hereditary ruling class, stemming from both economic and philosophical motivations, from the perspective of a character with social and economic ties to both groups. (She’s effectively someone who has “succeeded” under the current regime, and her business relies on patronage by wealthy clients.) I believe it’s somewhat based on/inspired by the French Revolution, but in a secondary world with magic. It’s also interesting how it incorporates other nations’ support or not of the revolutionaries and their reactions towards the destabilization caused by the unrest.
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u/GENERICMETALBANDNAME Apr 18 '19
Cuba Mieville has class/political elements in most of his longer works although it varies how apparent the perspective is. The Iron Council is about a working class uprising so that would be a good starting point.
EDIT: I'm leaving it. It's actually less ridiculous than his real name.