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3.86 AVERAGE
3.86 AVERAGE
adventurous
challenging
funny
informative
reflective
medium-paced
challenging
informative
slow-paced
dark
informative
reflective
slow-paced
Miéville focuses a lot on the back and forth of Mensheviks and Bolsheviks, and provides glimpses of popular outrage and very little on the motivations of the masses throughout 1917. I would have liked more of the latter, especially since the ongoing teetering of Bolshevik-Menshevik power struggle gets pretty repetitive. That said, it was a helpful intro for someone like me who knew very little about the revolution beforehand.
adventurous
hopeful
informative
inspiring
tense
fast-paced
A fun novel-like introduction to the October revolution. Mieville is clearly opinionated, so I'm not sure how nuanced or historical it really is, but the basic facts are there and it's an enjoyable, inspiring adventure.
challenging
informative
fast-paced
October is a very enjoyable narrative of the twin Revolutions of Russia in 1917. The author's skills as a fiction writer are clear. This achievement is in turn completely spoiled by the poverty of Miéville's analysis of what came after in the epilogue. Attributing no agency or effect to the destruction wrought by the White forces in the Civil War and belittling of Socialism in One Country, Miéville is obviously a Trot who needs to brush up on his Marx. A great primer with some great nods to other texts but simply not as enjoyable as John Reed's work on the same.
Es muy emocionante y se aprende mucho. No sé cómo de fiel a los hechos porque no estaba ahí, ¿vale? Pero como estoy más o menos en el mismo sitio ideológico que el autor me lo creo todo y me parece estupendo.
With enormous props to the author who has managed a task of phenomenal complexity this is not an easy, engaging or enjoyable read. The sheer number and variety of factional groups, leaders and splinter groups and their shifting alliances and motivations boggles the mind. What Mieville has achieved is astonishing and my understanding of the events and lives it documents is certainly improved, but I cannot for the life of me recommend that you should submit yourself to the reading of it.