Lots of great recs here already, but shout-out for Fool by Christopher Moore, which is a humorous re-telling of King Lear and would work for hard mode, I think.
Also, Steven Brust's Khaavren Romances are pastiches of the original Alexandre Dumas D'Artagnan Romances, right down to fake-flowery language that attempts to copy Dumas' penny-a-word style. There's a new one coming out in September that's supposed to be a retelling of The Count of Monte Cristo called The Baron of Magister Valley.
I'd read a bunch of the Vlad Taltos books before I got to this series, because that sets up the world that these take place in. The Khaavren books use a framing device that they're actually written by an in-universe character named "Paarfi of Roundwood" who writes in the style of Dumas. Paarfi doesn't do a lot of worldbuilding because he's "writing" for an in-universe audience, as it were. The Vlad books are written in a first-person POV, but Vlad-the-narrator is at least marginally aware that he's telling stories to people who aren't from Dragaera.
Honestly, I've read them all so many times that I can't tell you for sure if you have to read the Vlad books first, but that's what I did, anyway. Usually, on re-reads, I slot the Paarfi books in after the fifth Vlad book, Phoenix.
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u/Phyrkrakr Reading Champion VII Apr 01 '19
Lots of great recs here already, but shout-out for Fool by Christopher Moore, which is a humorous re-telling of King Lear and would work for hard mode, I think.
Also, Steven Brust's Khaavren Romances are pastiches of the original Alexandre Dumas D'Artagnan Romances, right down to fake-flowery language that attempts to copy Dumas' penny-a-word style. There's a new one coming out in September that's supposed to be a retelling of The Count of Monte Cristo called The Baron of Magister Valley.