A review by christianholub
October: The Story of the Russian Revolution by China Miéville

4.0

China Mieville is one of my favorite authors, but up until now I've only read his fiction - his weird, dark, urban Lovecraftian fantasy that your brain just feasts on in books like "Perdido Street Station." Left-wing ideas are present in his fiction (the scene of a state militia storming and breaking a dock strike is one of the most vivid sequences in "Perdido," and that book has spiders that eat dreams) and he seems preternaturally obsessed with the idea of the city, from the sprawling metropolis of New Crubozon to the floating pirate city of "The Scar" to the intertwined and independent shadow cities of "The City & the City." Those elements come together in this nonfiction account of the Russian Revolution. I've gotten really interested in reading about the revolution on its 100th anniversary this year, and Mieville's narrative (told in real time, from February to October 1917) makes that brief shining moment come alive.