Simmon’s Hyperion Cantos (Hyperion, The Fall of Hyperion, Endymion, The Rise of Endymion),series is a wonderful work that weaves a wonderfully complex future world. The Canterbury Tales style telling of a large part of it, the wonderful references to 19th century poets and poetry and all the other strangeness are an intriguing example of how all sorts or real world history can be woven into a captivating science fiction story. The use of real world history, particularly military history is woven in throughout the the Total War setting.
This series is one I enjoyed reading immensely, so if you haven’t read it, I’d strongly recommend giving it a go.