“Speculative fiction” refers to a range of different genres, from horror to fantasy to sci-fi. It’s a respectful and precise way to talk about traditionally scorned stories, one that contrasts with “realism” rather than “literature.” Unfortunately the phrase “speculative fiction” sounds nerdy and pedantic, like a term created to correct people who don’t know already about it. Isn’t all fiction speculative?

THE LAST DAYS OF NEW PARIS by China Miéville Del Rey, 224 pp., $25.00

The British writer China Miéville doesn’t embrace the label “speculative” in particular—he prefers “weird”—but his politicized fantasy stories fit the bill. What if a cult resurrected a giant squid from the Natural History Museum? (Kraken) What if there were a giant iceberg floating in the sky above London? (“Polynia”) What if two cities existed in the same place but refused to acknowledge each other? (The City and The City) For his new novella The Last Days of New Paris, Miéville poses a question that’s just as strange: What if, during World War II, the surrealists had joined the fight?

The book’s hero is Thibaut, a young urban guerrilla fighting for the Resistance in occupied Paris. If you know Miéville’s work, you might guess that Thibaut is a committed Trotskyist (rather than part of the liberal Free French forces), but his affiliation is more specific. Our protagonist is a member of the Main à Plume—an armed cadre of surrealists who fight the Nazis with art. The group takes its name from a real surrealist journal published under the occupation, some of whose contributors, including Gérard de Sède and Noel Arnaud did help the Resistance. But in New Paris, art is not a metaphorical weapon.

The city emerges from an explosion. In 1941 (nine years before we’re introduced to Thibaut), an acolyte of occultist Aleister Crowley has captured in a spirit battery the energy from a surrealist bull session led by Andre Breton himself. The power contained therein explodes (the “S-bomb”) at the famous cafe Les Deux Magots, manifesting art images into reality and opening a rupture with Hell at the same time. Now (1950), these art “manifs” wander the streets like large dangerous beasts. The members of Main à Plume feel an affinity with the manifs, and they use their surrealist magic (and guns) to resist the occupation government. And, via their new diabolic Christian church, the Nazis have enlisted giant demons, who are ferocious but mostly just want to go home. All these forces collide in the what-if capital.

The Last Days of New Paris is a short book at under 200 pages. Whereas the conventions of literary fiction might have compelled Miéville to make the story about the Thibaut’s personal growth, in speculative fiction characters are often asked to take extraordinary action in order to keep their messed-up world the same. The Resistance isn’t the only group trying to harness the manifs; Nazi attempts to summon futurist artwork to its intended fascist ends have failed, but the devil church is working on something. Fighting off Nazi table-wolves (literal tables crossed with wolves), Thibaut runs into Sam, who is a reporter, or an American spy, or something else entirely. Regardless, she doesn’t like Nazis and seems to have some idea of what’s really going on, so she and Thibaut team up (along with an unwieldy Nazi-killing surrealist manif) to keep Hitler from shifting the balance of power once and for all.