Well I also just finished reading the Mistborn trilogy (by Brandon Sanderson), where it goes into that quite a bit, especially in the last two books. The system of magic they use is called allomancy, with burns up ingested metals to fuel different powers, such as granting extra strength, sensory perception, dampen or riot emotions, push or pull on metals (like 'pushing' on a coin is almost equivalent to shooting a bullet). The setting is a pretty shitty dystopian empire. The Lord Ruler has governed immortally with a very, very, very heavy fist for a thousand years, creating almost supernatural enforcers and what is basically a slave system controlling the vast majority of the populace. The world is constantly rained down upon with ash and there are few plants at all. And yet, not everything he has done is as obviously evil as it seems. The first book is about a crew of special thieves attempting to overthrow him. The other two books are about what actually happens when they do succeed and they try to piece together what happened 1000 years ago when he is said to have saved humanity from annihilation, gained his powers, and why the world changed, as well as the struggle of one main character who is an idealist and scholar between who he is and what he has to do and be willing to do to provide for the new kingdom under his rule.
It was really good, especially the last book, and seems right up your alley.