The Revolution of Year One

Preparing for my lectures, and reading about the Bolsheviks, has given me an interesting idea for a novel.

Imagine a typical High Fantasy kingdom. A High King reigns from his castle. Elves rule over their forest realms, their mages working high magic from their towers. Dwarves toil in the darkness below the mountains. Orders of heroic paladins ride forth against dragons and the undead. Thieves’ guilds carry out daring raids in the cities. Tribes of orcs nip at the frontiers and raid when they can. The nobles are often corrupt and avaricious, but life could be worse.

And then some mishap of magic opens a portal. A man arrives from Earth, a dedicated Communist, a Marxist like Vladimir Lenin, armed with both a vision and the ruthlessness to make that vision come true at any cost.

The book starts a hundred years later, in one of the work camps run by the secret police of the People’s Republic.

I’m sure I’ve read a book like that somewhere, but for the life of me I can’t remember what it was.

-JM