I’m looking for fiction books (of any genre, really) that focus on politics and government. Some of my favorite books are nonfiction ones that focus on blow-by-blow descriptions of political events (recounting cabinet meetings, elections, parliamentary debates, backroom dealings, etc). The books of A Song of Ice and Fire are some of the only fiction novels that have scratched that same itch for me, although the focus goes far beyond day-to-day politics depending on the POV character. The Expanse series was also pretty good.
I’m not as interested in fictional portrayals of contemporary politics, like post-Cold War spy/espionage/terrorist-focused plots.
Thoughts?
by Ghostfire25
10 Comments
2034: A Novel of the Next World War, by Elliot Ackerman and James G. Stavridis
Any of Harry Turtledove’s alternative History Novels
A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine.
I, Claudius is the benchmark for political historical fiction. A lot of people loved Wolf Hall, I liked the television adaptation but the “immediate third-person present tense” style of writing I found too annoying to read.
In SF, LeGuins The Dispossessed and Banks’ The Player of Games are 2 political novels with quite a lot of similarity.
Imperium, by Robert Harris
Wolf Hall and sequels!
The Goblin Emperor?
The Chanur Saga by CJ Cherryh has less blow-by-blow details but the main focus is like interstellar politics, so potentially it might interest you for that reason.
*All the King’s Men* by Robert Penn Warren.
The Vorkosigan series by Lois McMaster Bujold (SF), though your request doesn’t apply to every book in the series. Even so, you get a thorough grounding in the first 2 books, Shards of Honor and Barrayar.
You want Gore Vidal’s series of historical novels about American politics, alternatively called “American Chronicles” or “Narratives of Empire”.
BURR and especially LINCOLN are near masterpieces, but I have a soft spot for his nasty little novel 1876 as well.