radiofreekitmo 's review for:

October: The Story of the Russian Revolution by China Miéville

1.0

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I thought I would be upset at this book because of the author's bias or because the author isn't a historian, but honestly I was just bored. The author promises to tell the Russian Revolution as a story, and I figured that even if the facts weren't presented well or accurately, it would at least be interesting. Instead, it was so boring I couldn't even finish the book. I am pretty interested in the Russian Revolution, but not quite interested enough to spend hours contemplating the infighting of various leftist factions and their various meetings. Also, although this promises to be an introduction for those who don't know much about the revolution, I wouldn't count on it as one. Large numbers of people are perfunctorily introduced and the reader is then expected to remember them. Since the focus is on the factions of the left, and particularly the Bolsheviks, many events are described briefly (or not at all) and without the context that would make them fully comprehensible.

There are plenty of excellent books about the Russian Revolution for all levels of interest. This isn't one of them.