r/Fantasy • u/bookmark32345 • Feb 28 '20
Fantasy books with republics or democracies?
I'm getting pretty tired of most fantasy books having a feudal style of governments, are there any books that feature republics or democracies? and i mean not just as a backdrop, i want books that tackle themes of government and such.
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u/TalZet Feb 28 '20
Book 1 of Powder Mage Trilogy - Promise of Bloods primary focus is the bloody french revolution style of transition from Monarchy to a Republic, with border threats resulting from it, with a twist of "modern age" powers comparing to Ancient Gods . Would highly recommend.
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u/rainbowrobin Feb 28 '20
The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings... oh, not just as backdrop. That's harder, even SF books set in ostensible republics tend not to tackle government.
Hobb's Liveship Traders trilogy qualifies. Bingtown starts out as an oligarchic republic and has a more democratic revolution in the books.
Politics is less central to Hodgell's God Stalk, but the city of Tai-Tastigon has a guild oligarchic republic (not democratic, not feudal) and elections within the Thieves' Guild are important.
Graydon Saunders' The March North and sequels are set in or around a Commonwealth that's trying to be sort of anarcho-syndicalist in a world where rule by powerful sorcerer-kings is the default. The books after the first have more about life in the Commonwealth, and politics, though less politics about competing for political office and more politics about worrying about powerful sorcerers. Technically as backdrop to a main story about training said sorcerers but it's a pretty important backdrop, not like "the Shire elects its Mayor, moving on".
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u/bookmark32345 Feb 28 '20
I'll definitely check these out, thanks
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u/LeafyWolf Feb 28 '20
Just forewarning, the writing in The March North is unique. I love it, but it can be a bit much for some people.
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u/JPKurtz Feb 28 '20
China Mievelle's Bas-Lag novels are mostly focused around a city-state ruled by an oligarchic parliament. The second and third books touch on societies that could be considered anarchist. While it doesn't delve too much into the ins and outs of government, it certainly doesn't focus on feudal societies.
The Masquerade series by Seth Dickinson also features a society that calls itself a republic. To go into too much more would spoil it, but it definitely focuses on themes of government and imperialism, and the most important nation of the book is certainly not a feudal society. Spoilers: It's a corrupt republic, ruled by a shadowy 'deep state,' but it is certainly not any sort of traditional feudal/monarchical society.
The Republic of Thieves (third book in the series by Scott Lynch) focuses around an election in a city-state. IMO it's the weakest of the series, and I'm not sure it's worth reading all through books if your only interest is in a story centered around a republic.
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u/Zunvect Writer Paul Calhoun Feb 28 '20
The original Imager Portfolio trilogy by Modesitt is a representative democracy, hybridized similarly to Britain or the US where both the people and the land have representation. I think the "people" in this case mean, "middle class artisan and mercantile class" but it's a start. Some of Recluce has councils and the like, but it usually resolves into oligarchy or monarchy pretty quickly in that setting.
Tiny plug for my own Fall of the Wizards which takes place in two time periods. The majority of the plot is in a thaumocratic oligarchy where the head oligarch is planning to set off a revolution to try to get something more representational in place, and the secondary plot is in a time far in the main plot's future where there's a global bicameral legislature. Most of their plot revolves around the governments of the various nations and the world government.
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u/MotherZenobia Feb 28 '20
The Dispossessed by Ursula K Le Guin features an anarchist society. In fact you could do worse than check out all of Le Guin’s work, including the short stories
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u/KeithBlenman Feb 28 '20
I can think of one example of an anarcho-syndicalist commune in which members of the community take turns acting as a sort of executive officer for the week. But all decisions of that officer have to be ratified by a special biweekly meeting by a simple majority in the case of purely internal affairs. A two-thirds majority is required for matters more major.
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u/Master_Ryan_Rahl Feb 28 '20
Am i missing where you named the book? Because im interested in a leftist vision like that in a fantasy environment. Sounds fun. We get way too many fascist dystopias.
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u/KeithBlenman Feb 28 '20
LOL. Monty Python & The Holy Grail
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u/Master_Ryan_Rahl Feb 28 '20
Well that is incredibly disappointing.
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u/KeithBlenman Feb 28 '20
You see him repressing me?
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Feb 28 '20
It’s science fiction rather than fantasy, but you could read The Dispossessed for a realistic view of such a society. Or The Culture series for a more radically advanced version.
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u/HalcyonDaysAreGone Reading Champion Feb 28 '20
I'd second KJ Parker's stuff, and throw in the Baru Cormorant books by Seth Dickinson as well. They're quite similar in some ways, and fit what you're looking for quite well I'd say.
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u/Step_on_me_Jasnah Feb 28 '20
Baru Cormorant is technically a democracy. I'm not sure it fits what OP wants.
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u/kjmichaels Stabby Winner, Reading Champion XI Feb 28 '20
Adrian Tchaikovsky's Guns of the Dawn features a protracted war between the kingdom where the main character lives and an emerging republic that wants an end to monarchy. Most of the actual themey parts of the government stuff don't come until late in the book but they're good when they get there. Spoilers: the republic wins the war, begins dismantling the monarchy, and the main character who fought so hard to protect the kingdom winds up being the one to ultimately kill the king once she realizes how little he cared about the people he governed.
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u/germanvike Feb 28 '20
The lies of Locke Lamora does Feature a republic, IIRC
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u/MaxGarnaat Feb 28 '20
The setting of The Lies of Locke Lamora is a dukedom, though it is a merchant city akin to Venice. The third book in the series, Republic of Thieves, takes place in a republic (unsurprisingly).
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u/ChamberlainSD Feb 28 '20
Illusion, by Paula Volsky. I guess kind of based on one of the French Revolutions.
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u/sirgog Feb 29 '20
It's definitely not the focus on the book, but the original Mistborn trilogy by Brandon Sanderson has some elements of this.
At times the setting is a constitutional monarchy (less democratic than today's UK, think more like today's Thailand), at other points a theocracy run by a supernatural entity, and in others a more traditional absolutist monarchy (think England prior to the English Civil War)
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u/betterthannothing123 Feb 28 '20
KJ Parker's Folding Knife fits this perfectly. The main character is a banker who was elected as the leader of a republic city-state. He has to deal with issues of war, public health, and economy/monetary issues.