Speaking of the Comyn

[james_davis_nicoll]

If you could overthrow one fictional set of aristocrats and nobles whose creator clearly thinks are the bee's knees, which lot would you pick?

I'm more inclined to be harshest towards the SFnal aristocracies, since they have actual history to have learned from.

Comments

[gareth-rees.livejournal.com]

Choosing just one is pretty hard.

The Vor in Bujold's Vorkosigan series remind me of the Prussian Junker aristocracy in 19th-century Germany. Left to themselves they'll happily sleepwalk their serfs into the interstellar equivalent of World War I, so here's hoping their 1848 turns out better than ours did.

The Numenoreans in Tolkien's Middle Earth run a feudal system not unlike that of the Normans in medieval England. They seem pretty secure though; I think the best we can hope for here (as in the case of England) is that eventually intermarriage and the passage of time will erase the racial distinctions on which the feudal hierarchy is built.

[womzilla.livejournal.com]

Yes, yes. Whack Tolkien's nobles with a BFG.