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

3.0

I really enjoyed this book when I began, but I regret to say that I got way too bogged down in the details of the history of an event I was previously only dimly familiar with, and struggled to keep reading. Mieville is a very good author, and he presented this history of the Russian Revolution as entertainingly as you probably can with so much detail included. But I grew tired of it.

I also think I was expecting more energy in the story, and more emphasis on the individual characters like Lenin and Kerensky. More pressingly, I was hoping for some actual analysis of the revolution, where it went right, where it went wrong, and such musings by Mieville were largely absent. Instead, this was mostly a chronological accounting of the events leading up to the Bolshevik takeover, with little judgment or analysis interspersed.

I'm glad I read it, and I certainly know more about the Russian Revolution than I ever did before, but I'm also glad to be done.