Reddit mentions of The Goblin Emperor

The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison. A gentle young man exiled from birth for his mixed blood finds himself through misfortune placed in a position at the center of power, where he is forced to deal with prejudice, strange protocols, and adults who would like to influence, usurp or depose him. Throughout all, he remains steadfast to his personal code of conduct, and slowly comes to win the admiration and loyalty of those around him.

Like /u/eferoth said, some books by Gregory Maguire might work for you. Elphaba in Wicked is quite concerned with logic and education, and Iris in Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister might fit to a certain extent, though she lacks the education.

A faster read with an intelligent, rational main character would be the Artemis Fowl books about a 12-year old evil genius who hatches a plan to ransom a fairy. The first four hold up for me as an adult.

Maia, in The Goblin Emperor, has a slow, deliberate approach to figuring out his new situation, which could count as rational and intelligent.

Reminds me of The Goblin Emporer. Great book. https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00FO6NPIO/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1498338338&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=goblin+emperor

https://www.amazon.com/Goblin-Emperor-Katherine-Addison-ebook/dp/B00FO6NPIO

Tuf Voyaging by George RR Martin.

To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis.

The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison.

Into the Storm by Taylor Anderson.

Read the "Look Inside" previews to see if any of these is right for you.

It’s on sale for Amazon Kindles right now for $1.99


The Goblin Emperor

That's one reason why it's important to have more than just one character any given race--you have less issues of stereotyping if you commit to a world with multiple black characters, for example, because then any given character type doesn't fall back on the worst stereotypes. (Thankfully, in terms of the NPCs, Carey already has a very diverse cast.)

For example, if you made Magnus black instead of Merle, you fall into the trap of the "fighters are black, because black dudes are tough and not smart." So now you've just swapped one black stereotype for another.

(aside: I don't really think of Merle as being a stoner or a druggie. I'm not sure where you're getting that from? He has an affinity for plants but not really drug related plants? o.O?)

I think someone else mentioned the Taako example but yeah, if you made him Hispanic, definitely I would expect more commitment to his being hispanic than "because Tacos." Like, that's the thing about swapping someone's ethnicity--I feel like you have to actually do research and fucking care and not just be lazy about it, which is what palette swapping is. Ultimately, I feel like palette swapping functions as a kind of colorblind racism in a way--"everyone's experiences can just be leveled and applied in the same way." You're just doing it in a fictionalized space instead of being "colorblind" in the real world.

of course, if you were really worried about someone's culture reflecting a stereotype by reflecting their real world cultures in some way (and to be clear, I don't mean stereotypes, I mean actually researching real world cultures, not just slapping stereotypes on characters' personalities), you could also make fantasy races have made-up ethnic and cultural characters and assign them racial features that have nothing to do with what we consider "relevant" racial features. The Goblin Emperor is a great example of this--Goblins and Elves have racial characteristics and distinct cultures, but those racial characteristics and cultures have nothing to do with actual real life cultures and racial characteristics. (They aren't all white-skinned, though, either, and the main character has dark skin and curly hair, so it's also not whitewashing. It breaks outside of our concepts of culture and avoids making everyone white.)

Or you can "take a third option" and use real human racial characteristics but layered on completely made up fantasy cultures. So for example, maybe black people in your world have a set of made-up cultural characteristics that you've created. That's also not stereotyping, but it's committing to the idea that people of different backgrounds have different cultures.

I just think it's lazy to take a completely westernized fantasy world and just palette swap it. That isn't really cultural representation either, it's taking a very americanized/western view of racialization and what "cures" it and slapping it onto your (still completely normatively western european) fantasy world. People in your imaginary world might not even have the concept of race. Maybe that's a reason to palette swap, but it's a reason you have to grapple with in your fictional world, not just layer on your concepts of what a progressive society look like. (And there are other ways where your fantasy world might be totally backwards from others, but in a different way that you're used to thinking about--like the hyena people in Digger, for example.)

Haxan by Kenneth Mark Hoover is a pretty good Weird Western that needs more love/reviews. Also give these a try:

The Goblin Emperor

The Library on Mount Char

Academic Exercises - ($2,99 right now!)

Uprooted

The Golem & The Jinni

The Incorruptibles

The Goblin Emperor has some fighting in it, but it's certainly not the main thrust of the book, nor is the main character good at it.