I'm the kind of guy who reads Wikipedia articles on the history of administrative district delineation in the Kingdom of Bavaria, top to bottom. The kind of guy who has triple-digit hours of playtime in Paradox Interactive map games which use fancy-coloured maps to hide the fact that they are just spreadsheet simulators where the game's progression is driven by raising the income tax rate by 0.2%, and events such as "Burgundy and Sylveria have extended their grain trade agreement by three more years!" are incredibly exciting.
Are there any fiction books that dial this kind of experience up to eleven? I don't necessarily reject all romance and character-driven plots, but intricate geopolitical descriptions should be in the centre of the focus. I love alternate history scenarios and counterfactuals, and I guess most of what I'm looking for can be found in scifi, so I'd be willing to accept that genre too. Even fictional non-fiction. My favourite installment in the Harry Potter series was Quidditch Through the Ages.
Basically, the books I breezed through the fastest by far were Metro 2033 and its spinoffs (especially Piter and the first novel in the original series). I wonder, is there anything that keeps this vibe with even less "they're fighting mutants and gathering resources and shit" and even more "the communist faction on the Red Line is attacking the Hanseatic League for control of Komsomolskaya Station"?
by 27-99-23