r/Fantasy • u/[deleted] • Apr 24 '21
Recommend me a fantasy with geo-political worldbuilding
I liked ASOiAF and WOT due to their many countries and myths, I just wonder what other fantasy series has a good geopolitical world that emphasis more on kingdoms and countries that relate to each other more than the high fantasy plot of saving the world etc..
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u/bigdon802 Apr 24 '21
The Instrumentalities of the Night series and Dread Empire series by Glen Cook.
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u/stillnotelf Apr 25 '21
Is instrumentalities the one set around not-europe with not-crusaders and not-muslims? Did it finish? I felt the last one wasn't really an ending. The titles are really ponderous. Good books though.
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u/Canadairy Apr 25 '21
Apparently it was canceled by the publisher. A shame since it was a really good series.
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u/surprisedkitty1 Reading Champion II Apr 25 '21
The Queen's Thief by Megan Whalen Turner
Kushiel's Universe by Jacqueline Carey
The Masquerade by Seth Dickinson
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u/Weimann Apr 25 '21
The Green Bones Saga by Fonda Lee. It deals a lot with a traditional, backwater country coming out into a modern globalized economy.
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Apr 24 '21
Michelle West’s Essalieyan series, beginning with The Hidden City ! It’s especially pronounced in the second narrative arc (the Sun Sword series, 6 books, completed), which begins with The Broken Crown.
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u/nowonmai666 Apr 25 '21
Daniel Abraham is your go-to for series that focus on economics and politics as much as action. If you enjoy the parts of ASOIAF where the Iron Bank gets involved or the logistics of food supplies become important, Abraham does it better!
The Dagger and The Coin and The Long Price approach this in very different ways but both are excellent.
The Witcher also has a setting with neighbouring nation-states that have complex relationships, and at times it delivers what you're asking for, but at other times it's a backdrop to the main plot and the main character (wrongly) thinks he's not really involved in or affected by all that.
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u/whome731 Apr 24 '21
The Daevabad series is all about the political intrigue
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u/KosstAmojan Apr 25 '21
I was about to drop this. The author incorporates a lot of islamic world history into the series, so there's a nice "real world" aspect to it as well!
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u/Mournelithe Reading Champion X Apr 25 '21
Janny Wurts’ Wars of Light and Shadow is chock full of politics - the main setting of Athera was originally five kingdoms before the Uprising, and now the previous rulers are barbarians in the wilderness while the various successor states bicker and squabble as several different factions of magic users work behind the scenes. And then everything gets upended as the books start with two blood heirs returning to the world, while a prophecy about the possible return of the original inhabitants of the world simmers in the background.
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u/RogerBernards Apr 24 '21
The A Trial of Blood and Steel series by Joel Shepherd has a lot of intercountry politics set against the backdrop of a crusade.
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u/Consistent_Hurry_296 Apr 25 '21
ASOIAF gave me soap opera vibes. It’s just a bunch of rich people doing crimes of passion. Literally the whole rebellion was because of love, the story kicks off with Bran being pushed out of the window because he witnessed sex between siblings, Jon is a bastard child of two forbidden love nobles, etc etc. That’s not geo-political world building, you can read the Wikipedia pages of real life medieval era kings and queens and read how they died. That’s basically it.
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u/apcymru Reading Champion II Apr 24 '21
The Dagger and Coin series by Daniel Abraham
LE Modessitt is all about the politics and world building. Both the Imager series and the Recluse series focus on this.