Y’all ready for more happy-go-lucky adventures in the Metro? Boy, I sure do love Russian literature! It’s always so upbeat and uplifting!
Ha ha ha… Fuck me, here we go again.
Though I struggled to get through it my first time through, by the time I finally finished it, Metro 2033 became one of my favorite books. Dark, creative, and unlike anything I’d ever read before, it took the confined Russian metro and turned it into a fully fleshed out and intriguing world! It’s an incredible piece of post-apocalyptic literature, and I’d highly encourage you to read it if you haven’t! Especially if you’re a fan of the video games!
Which I still need to play. But one thing at a time.
Problem was: the first book’s ending left me more than satisfied. So much so that I didn’t really want to read the sequels. How do you follow up a gut-punching finale like that?
Still, I was curious. What had Dmitry Glukhovsky cooked up for the sequel? Does it live up to the standard of its predecessor? Or is it an unnecessary continuation?
Grab your respirators and whatever cartridges you can salvage. Today, we’re diving into the radiated depths of Metro 2034.
In the year since the first book, things have taken an even darker turn for the Metro. Mutated monsters wander in the tunnels, preying on the unprepared denizens and attacking their Stations. Worse, a deadly plague has erupted that threatens to wipe out all the survivors dwelling in the tunnels.
This story focuses on Hunter, a returning character from the first book. But he’s a very different man than he was a year ago. Not only is he physically disfigured, but his grip on his humanity is beginning to slip. He leans dangerously close to the edge of madness. Should he fall, he would become a more terrible monster than any of the beasts he’s been hunting.
But he isn’t our perspective character. Although he is the glue that binds our two primary protagonists together.
Homer is our first protagonist. An old man that spent his days wandering the tunnels, he’s a chronicler at heart. His ultimate goal is not to kill monsters or save this forsaken world. Rather, he wants to write a book out of the events he bears witness to. He knows that history is important, and that stories give hope, so he aims to combine the two to bring just a little more light to the Metro’s future.
Our second hero is Sasha. After her father was exiled from their home station, she grew up alone with him, scrounging through the muck and the radiated surface to survive. Her sole treasure: an old tea package with an art piece depicting a beautiful landscape. When Homer and Hunter stumble into her life, her dreams of escape begin to come true, albeit in a different form than she was hoping for.
I love both of these characters. Their dynamic is really interesting and wholesome. Like a grandfather and his adopted granddaughter having philosophical discussions about beauty and purpose. As the angels on Hunter’s shoulders, they do a great job. Their struggle to do so, as well as to find any sort of beauty and hope in this desolate, deadly world, is honestly really touching.
That said, I’m not super attached to Sasha’s crush on Hunter. It just doesn’t make any sense to me. As far as she’s concerned, the dude is a murderous lunatic and a cold-hearted asshole. Yet she falls head over heels for him and becomes determined to save his soul because… he killed a few guys and not her? It just doesn’t work for me.
One thing that I do appreciate is that this book doesn’t recap anything from the first. All the worldbuilding that previous entry did still stands, but Metro 2034 doesn’t waste your time recapping it. It knows it is a sequel and it fully expects you to have read the first one beforehand. Instead, it gets right into the narrative.
As a result, this book is significantly shorter than the first. Which isn’t a bad thing. Makes for easier reading.
But there is one thing that threw me for a loop. Near the end of the book, we’re introduced to a new minor perspective character: Artyom. Yes. The protagonist of the first book. The one who took off his gas mask on the surface and stepped into nuclear fire. How is he here? Why? How did he survive?
The answer is, and I shit you not: “He got better.”
I wish I was joking.
I honestly have no idea why he’s even here. Why not just keep Artyom dead and write a different character? It should be easy; he doesn’t even do anything!
As a whole, I enjoyed Metro 2034. It isn’t as amazing as 2033, but it’s still a great book. Dark yet hopeful, grim yet beautiful, it’s a great tale of monsters and redemption. If you loved the first book, it is worth reading the second.
Hang on… I just realized. I reviewed 2033 in 2022. Then 2034 in 2023. Maybe I should wait a year and review 2035 in 2025.
Or I could stop being a lunatic and just read the damn book. I’ll probably just do that.
Jonah's Books & Rants 
Leave a comment