Fantasy Aficionados discussion

So it seems in most fantasy that except for the 'bad species' all the species/races have pretty similar cultures. Usually kind of European, and with a lot of the same morals, unspoken social codes, etc. And what differences there are usually don't cause any real problems.

I'd really like to see some Fantasy that has stuff like blue and orange morality and values dissonance And the compromises that characters have to make when they interact with other species/races and their struggles understand where characters from different cultures are coming from.

I think you're on the right path with reading The Way of Kings, and the Stormlight Archive. Not so much in the first book, but the second book, Words of Radiance, really has a lot of (I think) what you're looking for.
There is also Acacia: The War with the Mein, which has a lot of interesting cultures/races but trends more towards black/white morality.

When someone mentions East vs. West, or close to it, I put up these:

Greg wrote: "When someone mentions East vs. West, or close to it, I put up these:

[bookcove"

Hi Greg.

Just a friendly reminder that all self-promotion belong in the self promotion section.

I will discuss with Carol whether this post can stay.

Oh, good catch, MrsJ. Sigh. I'm disappointed.

Hi claire is an intelligently written epic with a global culture feel to it. Almost like a world war (multiple nations united) campaign. Throughout their is political infighting.The author offers up many pov's of different races/nationalities. So we get to see all sides of the coin. Although this is handled well by baker this trilogy has many other strengths as well.

The Empire Trilogy, by Feist and Wurts, is set in an asian-inspired society. The second book deals intensively with culture clash between the heroine, Mara, and one of her slaves, who originates in a standard european fantasy world (a convenient amalgamation of mediaeval drapery with modern american values). It gets a bit irritating with just how little the authors are willing to challenge either real european culture or the cliche wonderful mediaeval kingdom with just rulers where nothing bad ever happens, so there's an element of white-guy-lectures-world-about-why-they're-wrong-about-everything but there's certainly a culture clash. [And while the morals are one-sided, that's balanced out by Mara being the stronger and more interesting character, and her world being much more interesting, and the fact we've had an entire book of just them before Kevin turns up.]

The third book also has culture-clashes (including human-nonhuman), which are rather less cliché.

The A trial of Blood & Steel tetralogy by Joel Shepherd. Clashing of cultures is basically the main theme of the series. It's about a young woman, an exiled princess and her mentor, an ex-general and how they navigate the minefield that is a continent spanning war and all the politics and battles that go in it. Friends and family end up on different sides (there are a lot more than just 2) of the political and cultural divides. It has a lot in common with A song of Ice and fire, but with even less magical elements* , not so much "grimdark" and a lot less sprawling. You can see that the author has traveled extensively.

*The only fantastical element (except the made up world, of course) is one humanoid race and their "lite" version of a mind-link/hive-mind.

Martha Wells series does a great job of clashing cultures in a completely different fantasy world. Its a great trilogy.