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Cover of October

October

China Mieville

400 pages

A breathless, novelistic plunge into the chaotic, electric months of a world-altering revolution.

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What it feels like

Reading this book feels like being swept up in the intoxicating, chaotic rush of history as it happens. It is a propulsive, electric experience that strips away the dry dust of academic history, replacing it with the urgent, beating heart of a thriller. The mood is tumultuous and tense, capturing the dizzying highs of radical possibility and the crushing weight of political maneuvering. The prose is cinematic and fiercely intelligent, rendering sprawling empires, clandestine meetings, and street-level uprisings with the atmospheric flair of a master storyteller. It delights readers who crave narrative non-fiction that is as passionate as it is rigorous, offering a breathless journey through an epochal year where the world was turned upside down.

Mood
  • electric
  • tumultuous
  • tense
  • chaotic
  • hopeful
Tone
  • passionate
  • urgent
  • erudite
  • dramatic
  • sympathetic
Pace
propulsive
Themes
the intoxicating rush of revolution · collision of ideals and reality · the chaos of history unfolding · collective action and mass movement · political intrigue
The writing
Cinematic and fiercely intelligent, blending meticulous historical rigor with the dramatic, atmospheric flair of a master novelist.
The arc
Moves from the desperate, chaotic spark of rebellion to a breathless, fragile triumph shadowed by the weight of what is to come.
Who it's for
Readers who want history to feel alive, urgent, and narrative-driven, especially those fascinated by radical politics and epochal shifts.
Content notes
  • political violence
  • war
  • state oppression
  • execution
  • starvation

About the book

"Acclaimed fantasy author China Mieville plunges us into the year the world was turned upside down The renowned fantasy and science fiction writer China Mieville has long been inspired by the ideals of the Russian Revolution and here, on the centenary of the revolution, he provides his own distinctive take on its history. In February 1917, in the midst of bloody war, Russia was still an autocratic monarchy: nine months later, it became the first socialist state in world history. How did this unimaginable transformation take place? How was a ravaged and backward country, swept up in a desperately unpopular war, rocked by not one but two revolutions? This is the story of the extraordinary months between those upheavals, in February and October, of the forces and individuals who made 1917 so epochal a year, of their intrigues, negotiations, conflicts and catastrophes. From familiar names like Lenin and Trotsky to their opponents Kornilov and Kerensky; from the byzantine squabbles of urban activists to the remotest villages of a sprawling empire; from the revolutionary railroad Sublime to the ciphers and static of coup by telegram; from grand sweep to forgotten detail. Historians have debated the revolution for a hundred years, its portents and possibilities: the mass of literature can be daunting. But here is a book for those new to the events, told not only in their historical import but in all their passion and drama and strangeness. Because as well as a political event of profound and ongoing consequence, Mieville reveals the Russian Revolution as a breathtaking story"--

Description from Open Library.

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