Political drama, anonymised.

Take current politics, any current politics, remove it to a fictional country in a fictional world, and turn it into a parable, and you have basic plot of [b:A Game of Thrones|13496|A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, #1)|George R.R. Martin|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1562726234l/13496.SY75.jpg|1466917].

It's all there: ambition, power seeking, spying, back-stabbing, manipulation, greed and all other staples of practical politics, ancient and modern.

It's symbolism, not allegory.

If it were allegory it would apply to one particular set of politicians in one particular period, but it doesn't do that. You can see whatever you want here.

The land of Westeros has seven kingdoms that were unified some four centuries earlier by a conqueror whose dynasty has now been overthrown. You can read that in many ways -- seven kingdoms could stand for seven SOEs. Or seven independent homelands. Or seven successor states of the USSR.

The heir apparent to the current reigning monarch, Robert Baratheon, is 12-year-old Joffrey. In the film version he looks like Draco Malfoy in the Harry Potter series, and in both the book and film versions of A Game of Thrones his character matches. And some might say that he similarly resembles Donald Trump, both physically and in character,

I suppose that the genre of this book is best described as "sword and sorcery", though in this first book of the series there seems to be more sword than sorcery, at least in the beginning. And I would say it is one of the better examples of the genre. I've tried reading others, like [b:The Sword of Shannara|15575|The Sword of Shannara (The Original Shannara Trilogy, #1)|Terry Brooks|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1470063017l/15575.SY75.jpg|877015], and was not tempted to read any further in that series. Likewise with [b:A Pawn of Prophecy|44659|Pawn of Prophecy (The Belgariad, #1)|David Eddings|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1391346857l/44659.SX50.jpg|2558293] by [a:David Eddings|8732|David Eddings|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1223870462p2/8732.jpg].

But in this case I have started reading the second volume of the series [b:A Clash of Kings|10572|A Clash of Kings (A Song of Ice and Fire, #2)|George R.R. Martin|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1558408195l/10572.SY75.jpg|3272005], mainly to find out what happened to some of the more sympathetically-drawn characters, of whom my favourite was Arya Stark, the nine-year-old daughter of one of the more honest and honourable men in the cauldron of political intrigue, Lord Eddard Stark.

I'm not particularly fond of "sword and sorcery", but I do think this is one of the better examples. I doubt if I'll read the whole series, though. The first volume is over 700 pages, and there are still another six to go.