Any era. Love medieval though. I’d like the characters to be smarter than I am. I don’t want characters exploring a political idea (like… say game of thrones) I want the political idea being explored through characters. Or in other words, I don’t want the politics to be shoehorned in as a device to add conflict for characters. I want the characters to be placed as a device to enhance the readers perception and knowledge of it. I hope that makes sense and is not too specific. Thank you for your time!
by writer712
4 Comments
* I’ve heard The Witcher novels described in this way, but I haven’t read enough of them to say for sure. If you really look you can see the story showing how politics work, such as why would these people agree to do what these other people say, and stuff like that, but I’m not sure it’s a major enough part of the story compared to what you describe here.
* I’m currently reading Infomocracy by Malka Older, which is a sci fi novel. I’d say it does a good job of showing politics through the characters, but so far we don’t see a whole lot of the characters themselves, just them going places and doing things that show how the world works politically. I’m not done the book yet so I couldn’t say if the ideas are explored through the characters or if the characters are just a means to an end of showing the politics. This book does a *great* Job of showing how politics and PR works.
* Ursula K. Le Guin writes good characters and shows politics through them, mainly in her later books. My personal favourites are The Left Hand of Darkness and The Dispossessed.
Why not just learn about politics?
{{The Folding Knife by K. J. Parker}} is a personal story of a power player in the medieval-ish republic city. It’s set in a secondary world, but has no magic, unusual races, fantastic animals and the like, just different geography and history.
I will reiterate Ursula LeGuin. Her Hainish novels, like *The Dispossessed*, *The Left Hand of Darkness*, and *The Lathe of Heaven* are all excellent expositions of various socio-political ideas, all very worthwhile and excellent reading.
*Dune* is a superlative read on late-stage feudalism and marginalization of a critical population.
Isaac Asimov’s *Foundation Trilogy* (*Foundation*, *Foundation* *and Empire*, and *Second Foundation*) are basically a recapitulation of the fall of Rome and the rebuilding of empire over a massive time period through various socio-political structures.
If you have a more libertarian bent, then the works of Robert Heinlein might be for you. I personally liked *The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress,* a sci-fi novel about the formation of a splinter nation during and after a revolt on the moon.