Maybe the key to writing a great history book, is to be a successful novelist first? Mieville's talent is on full display in this brilliantly written account of the Russian Revolution. John Banks's performance on the audiobook is tense and riveting. The story is action packed, but unlike the plot of a thriller novel, real life is stranger than fiction... and much more detailed. The number of people and parties involved, the decisions that are made and unmade, the chaos... the revolution barrels on like a train in the night, seemingly unstoppable but undeniably dangerous.

I do not have any background in studying the Revolution, so I got lost in the details. I could only see the outline of the train in the moonlight, and held on for dear life. But still, I learned a lot — mostly about the confusion of the time and the outsized personality of Lenin. The story of the Revolution is certainly not what I thought it was based on my mere "common knowledge".

Multiple times I thought this narrative could be turned into a screenplay. It is really engaging. Now I need to go read one of China Mieville's other books!