Metro 2033 by Dmitry Glukhovsky
Moscow in the year 2033, almost 20
years after a cataclysmic war that turned the world to rubble and
nearly wiped mankind of the face of the planet. The few remaining
inhabitants of the city have fled underground to the Moscow metro,
seeking shelter from radiation and the mutants who now roam the city.
Life on the surface before the war is a distant memory and no one
truly knows how much of mankind has survived beyond the boundaries of
Moscow.
Stations have turned into miniature
city-states, many with their own politic agenda but most just places
where people huddle together to survive and repel raiders and
bandits.
At VDNKh, the northernmost station in
the Metro, a new threat emerges, as something horrible seeks to enter
the tunnels and prey on its inhabitants. A young orphan living in
VDNKh, Artyom, must brave the tunnels and venture to the center of
the Metro, the legendary Polis, to find help and bring warning of the
encroaching darkness.
Along the way he is confronted by the
best and, more frequently, the worst of a struggling mankind – Neo
Nazis, religious fanatics, communist revolutionaries and depraved
people doing anything to survive. Beyond the light of the stations
lurks another kind of danger. Dark things snatching children in the
night, mutant creatures from the surface preying on the weak and
whispers in the dark that drive travelers insane. The odds are truly
stacked against the inexperienced Artyom, yet the fate of his station
and perhaps all of the Metro, rests heavily on his shoulders and at
the same time, the fate of Artyom himself seems to be linked somehow
to the mystery of the dark invaders.
In Metro 2033 Mr. Glukhovsky paints a
depressing and disturbing picture of a post-war society struggling to
hang on while beset by dangers, human and otherwise, on all sides.
Life in the tunnels is usually short, miserable and more often than
not ends in a violent death and the author does an excellent job of
conveying this mood of hopelessness and fear to the reader, as well
as maintaining a feeling of tension throughout most of the book.
The characters, especially Artyom
himself, are for the most part well-written and believable. The
author manages to communicate their motivations and feelings well,
making them feel less like two-dimensional stereotypes and more like
real people.
Story-wise the plot is a slow burner,
with plenty of sidetracks, many of which we never get to see
resolved. This is a daring but commendable move on the authors part,
as he's populating his world with a lot of interesting elements that
he's not afraid to leave unresolved to avoid bogging the story down
or drawing it out to much. This also serves to keep the reader
guessing until the very last page whats really going on and how it
will end, and ultimately left me wanting to know more.
If I had to find something negative to
say about Metro 2033, it would have to be the editing and language of
the UK edition I read. With all due respect to the translator, the
translation itself left something to be desired, especially in its
choice of words and grammars, making it a bit hard to read in places
and I found several typos and missing words. Overall this is a very
minor complaint on such a marvelous piece of fiction!
Summary:
If you like post-apocalyptic settings
and don't mind a bit of the supernatural mixed in, strap on your gas
mask, load your rifle and give Metro 2033 a go.
10 out of 10
