I’ve been reading a lot of Brandon Sanderson lately. Love Mistborn and the Stormlight Archive series. I just finished Elantris and am working my way through Warbreaker. My only issue is I’m getting real tired of the protagonists either already being part of the rich and powerful, or eventually joining them to essentially keep the status quo of government. Mistborn has a lot to say about this, which I appreciated, but at the end of the day you’re still left with kings and courts and balls – and still never really hear about the peasantry.
I guess what I’m looking for is a novel filled with classic Fantasy tropes: world-altering evil, complex systems of magic, different races of intelligent life, Ren-faire like atmosphere; all mixed with a twinge of Marxism. I’d like to read a story where you think the hero is the noble princess or the rogue who doesn’t realize he has royal blood – right up to the point where they are all beheaded in the people’s revolution.
by batesftw
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*The Poppy War* (grimdark fantasy) by RF Kuang – our peasant-girl heroine overthrows not just the court by foreign invaders too! I’m not really into fantasy, but I loved this trilogy. (It’s also a fantasy re-imagining – as opposed to re-telling – of China’s 20thC history, with the heroine’s life trajectory based on that of Mao.)