Good V. Evil?

I was thinking about what we were saying in class today about The Mushroom Duchess and how no one could really get behind any of the characters. The Duchess was mad-scientist creepy, the son was a complete idiot, and the daughter-n-law seemed pretty dim and generally annoying. This sort of strange treatment of the antagonist/protagonist portrayal reminded me a lot of two Jaqcueline Carey novels that I particularly liked. If anyone else was interested in this whole "What-if-Good-isn't-really-that-good-and-Bad-isn't-really-that-bad" idea, you might try checking out Banewreaker and Godslayer (it's a two-parter). Also good, but more one-sided (as in, apparently-evil protagonist whose actions aren't really so bad when you get the explanation) are the Bio of a Space Tyrant novels by Peirs Anthony (a personal fantasy/sci-fi favorite).

Personally, this sort of manipulation of antagonist/protagonist good/bad angles is one of my favorite themes to play with, so I thought I'd share.