Book Review: Metro 2033 by Dmitry Glukhovsky

 

Title: Metro 2033

Author: Dmitry Glukhovsky

Genre: Post-apocalytic, Sci-Fi

Publication Date: April 1, 2002

The year is 2033. The world has been reduced to rubble. Humanity is nearly extinct. The half-destroyed cities have become uninhabitable through radiation. Beyond their boundaries, they say, lie endless burned-out deserts and the remains of splintered forests. Survivors still remember the past greatness of humankind. But the last remains of civilisation have already become a distant memory, the stuff of myth and legend.

More than 20 years have passed since the last plane took off from the earth. Rusted railways lead into emptiness. The ether is void and the airwaves echo to a soulless howling where previously the frequencies were full of news from Tokyo, New York, Buenos Aires. Man has handed over stewardship of the earth to new life-forms. Mutated by radiation, they are better adapted to the new world. Man's time is over.

A few score thousand survivors live on, not knowing whether they are the only ones left on earth. They live in the Moscow Metro - the biggest air-raid shelter ever built. It is humanity's last refuge. Stations have become mini-statelets, their people uniting around ideas, religions, water-filters - or the simple need to repulse an enemy incursion. It is a world without a tomorrow, with no room for dreams, plans, hopes. Feelings have given way to instinct - the most important of which is survival. Survival at any price. VDNKh is the northernmost inhabited station on its line. It was one of the Metro's best stations and still remains secure. But now a new and terrible threat has appeared.

Artyom, a young man living in VDNKh, is given the task of penetrating to the heart of the Metro, to the legendary Polis, to alert everyone to the awful danger and to get help. He holds the future of his native station in his hands, the whole Metro - and maybe the whole of humanity.

Review

This was a rather interesting book, to say the least. Post-apocalyptic sci-fi is not exactly my usual cup of tea, but a friend of mine said it was their favourite book, so I decided to give it a try. I really did not know what I was getting myself into and had little to no expectations for where this book would lead. However, this book was probably one of the most unique books I've read to date. When I say unique, I mean that it was really not what I would have thought it was about, or the way the story would unfold. It is a strange and also disturbing, nightmarish book that challenges the conventional way of storytelling in a manner that is both weird yet profound -- a book that really chills your bones in some parts, a book that feels like you're trapped in a grim and gloomy setting with no escape from the horrors of your imagination.

We are transported into a futuristic depiction of the Moscow Metro system where people live off of mushrooms in the dark, and humans are night creatures after the earth has become rendered inhabitable by radiation. (Initially, I didn't know how to picture this setting, being quite clueless about the train stations and imagining the simplistic stations in my city, Toronto. How wrong was I to make this assumption, but this book really takes setting to the next level, describing the metro system in detail from the arches to its vastness and complexity.) It is a combination of horror and sci-fi, with a unique twist of supernatural as well. The tunnels are terrifying, and the psychological horror of "tunnel terror", the fear that you're never alone in the tunnels, being haunted by something paranormal, whether it is your own imagination or something real, is omnipresent. Radiation has caused creatures above ground to roam freely, forcing the remains of humanity to relocate underground to the metro. It is a fascinating premise with its moments of awe and Glukhovsky has built a world that has been extremely well thought out.

The main strength of this book lies in its worldbuildling. The worldbuildling was intricate, unconventional and unlike anything I've read before. There is a whole political conflict between the stations, however, I will have to admit that I was getting lost with all the Russian names but long story short, there was factional divide between facists and anarchists. It is a fight for survival in this grim and terrifying novel. Cordons are everywhere guarding the stations with rifles in anticipation of both the paranormal and their own enemies. In addition to the spectacular world buildling it is filled with mythology and legends, cannibalism, religion, politics, and philosophy which adds another layer of dimension to this post-apocalyptic world Glukhovsky has created.

Our main character, Artyom is sent on a mission to deliver a message to a station called Polis, about a threat of the Dark Ones, that may destroy humanity. He wanders from station to station in the tunnels, meeting a lot of characters along the way. These side characters do not stay for long -- everyone is only a piece of his hero's journey. The exposition of this novel was a bit on the slow side, but staying for the rest of it is definitely worth the pay off. However, the one issue I had about this book was that we don't really connect with Artyom in a significant way, he has little character development and is moreso a stand in for the exposition of the worldbuildling which is the most striking thing about the novel. We don't know much about Artyom's feelings or thoughts, but the story is mostly centered on the events that occur. This is what made it a different book for me to get into, because I am used to sinking into a character's brain and understanding them, but in this book we are following his journey into the darkness, where hallucinations, visions, and paranoia plague.

A scene that really stuck with me was his almost-execution; it reminded me so much of Dostoevsky's personal story, and I feel like that could have been inspiration for that scene. That is only a taste of his story and he does go above ground in some scenes, which were probably my favourite parts of the novel, especially the library scene. The writing is just so descriptive and real, but it is definitely not an easy cruising read. It takes a lot of effort and patience to really sink into the world and enjoy what Glukhovsky imagines in a post-apocalyptic world.

From the novel we can see that Glukhovsky critiques and represents each microcosm of society from institutionalized religion (a chapter which I found the most fascinating), communism, and cult worship to name a few. It feels so hopeless at times, with never ending war between the political factions and no sense of camaraderie. Of course we have characters that work together towards a certain goal towards the end, but relationships are not the main focus on this book. It's moreso about living in this world through the adventures of Artyom, with the characters that come and go and never stay for long. There is a lot of travelling, and it literally feels endless at times, but Artyom meets so many people and groups along the way that it is never dull. It does demand a lot of attention to detail, and the descriptiveness of it made me feel as tired, dirty, and raw as Artyom. It is immersive and intense, but also touches upon deeply human themes and thoughts that spark a lot of profound thoughts. My favourite section was probably the one about fate, and how life might seem like it is a random series of events but eventually all this randomness forms a cohesive story we must believe that can't be anything but fate. This was the more hopeful parts of the book in contrast to all the grimness that it presents. It is a story about resilience, persistence, and fighting spirit, that the people in the metro have endured throughout the years which is deeply rooted in Russian literature and history. I really loved the philosophizing in the book, even though most of it is a plot-driven adventure story. The philosophizing was seamlessly integrated into this story and really made you think about what life actually means in a dark and hopeless post-apocalyptic world.

The ending was pretty depressing, but it fit perfectly with the theme of the novel. I won't say too much about it but it definitely represented the flaws of humanity and presented it in a way that perfectly integrated with the overall atmosphere of the book. It was sad and unfortunate, but very believeable and truthful. I finished this book with a gloomy mood, we don't get a satisfying ending but simply put it made this book so compelling and believable to the very end. Metro 2033 is a thought-provoking, unique, and different read from what I'm used to, and I'm glad I read out of my comfort zone because it really provided me with a different perspective on the human society as a whole. A great read if you're looking for an intense hero's journey and ready to be stunned by phenomenal worldbuildling! 

Olivia