The Iron Heel

More lecture than story, yet still engrossing. The stand-in for London is an idealized superman version of himself that is actually kind of annoying at times, but again it's not much of a detriment. This is a relentlessly dark and dystopian story that despite its flaws I adored.

Starts well, but becomes tedious about half way through once the "action" starts.

The Iron Heal is an early 20th century book and it feels that way.
Most of the book is made up of a series of lectures given by the socialist revolutionary leader to various people. Laying out his political ideology and plan of action.

The rest of the book consists of the horrific results of the revolution.

The reason I'm giving the Librivox version of The Iron Heal 4 stars is the excellent narration and my love for history.

The tale is told from the perspective of a historian presenting an ancient manuscript written by the wife of a famous revolutionary.

As a former history student this kind of presentation really appealed to me and helped me get over the constant harping on the virtues of socialism.

Despite being a social democrat myself, I find it ironic that as it turned out, socialist revolutions of the kind described here tended to raise the kind of murderous totalitarian regimes attributed to capitalism here.