Bookworm Speaks!- Metro 2033
Bookworm Speaks!
Metro 2033
By Dmitry Glukhovsky
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Acquired: Half-Price Books
Series: METRO (Book 1)
Paperback: 460 pages
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform (January 17, 2013)
Language: English
Subject: Post-Apocalyptic Fiction
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The Story: It’s 2033 and the human race has obliterated itself. A few thousand survivors
managed to get underground into the Moscow metro to escape the radiation and there is noway
for them to know if anybody else on the planet had survived. Decades later the metro is
their entire life - stations are city states where ideologies take hold and cartridges for
guns are currency.
Artyom, a young man who can barely remember what is was like to be on the surface, lives in one of the northernmost stations of the metro. VDNKh is a bulwark against the mutant threat that creeps down the tunnel from above - a station that is home to Artyom until one day a man called Hunter appears who sees something within him, something which makes him task Artyom with an incredible journey through the various stations and populations of the Moscow metro. (Fantasy Book Review)
(Note: Bookworm has yet to play the video game based off this book. So there will be little to no references to it)
The Review: At the time of this writing, Bookworm has read several works of post-apocalyptic literature but the majority took place in America, which is known for wide open spaces. This has been stated about American post-apocalyptic before, that we virtually have an entire continent. If our tin shack wasteland is not working out, we can just head west. In the Moscow Metro, they don’t have that option. The surface world is saturated with lethal radiation. For them, the entire world is no confined to the tunnels, stations, and passages of albeit, one of the largest metro in the world, is their entire reality. Their claustrophobic reality is palpable upon the pages.
In spite of the somewhat fantastical elements that crop up every now and then, this book is probably one of the realistic depictions of the post-apocalyptic lifestyle that has ever been written. The majority of post-apocalyptic fiction is not-realistic to a significant degree.
Not so in the Metro. People live short, violent lives. Disease and filth are common worries. The water is polluted. They eat bad food and the surface is an irradiated wasteland that can kill you very quickly. Either by radiation exposure or by mutated wildlife. Finally, there are the self-destructive fallacies of the human race itself. There is also the rather profound thought that humanity is continuing all of these trappings of civilization (sending children to school, using money, religion) more out of habit rather than any real need for them.
This a very cerebral book. It is much more than just an adventure through a subterranean wasteland. The majority of the story seems to consist of people talking to Artyom. Readers may not-unjustly, consider this rather boring and it took Bookworm a little time to get used to it. However, as the book went on, Bookworm found himself warming up to this format. Finding it a refreshing change from the running and gunning that seems to make up the majority of video gaming fiction. This book is intelligent and quite thoughtful. Bookworm would go as far to say it could be called a meditation on the human condition.
If anything, makes the story unique. It harkens back to a more primal age. Humanity has already
reverted to a more primitive state within the tunnels but the structure of the narrative goes even further than that. Back into primordial times. Storytellers around the campfire. The darkened tunnels between the station-states have supplanted the darkened forests surrounding the village. Mysterious places where strange beasts dwell.
Not to mention, what the characters have to say is actually pretty interesting. The wide variety of philosophies and factions that dwell in the tunnels are richly imagined
The impression of mystery and dread is barely told in any direct manner, rather, it is felt. One of the facts about this book that stands out the most is its atmosphere. The reader can almost feel the weight of the tunnels pressing down on them along with Artyom.
Artyom himself is something of a blank slate, which probably help transition the story to a video game with a silent protagonist. Perhaps this makes it work in the same manner. The reader/player is able to imprint themselves upon Artyom and draw their own conclusions about the sequence of events.
Be warned all you english readers, this book is extremely Russian. The names, terms, and some would say character mannerisms are all based on Russian culture, which may be a bit jarring
It is difficult to pin down exactly what time period this book actually take’s place in. The World War III that destroyed the world supposedly took place in the year 2013 but there are no references to any sort of advanced technology. It is most likely that most computers and cell phones would cease functioning after twenty years, especially in an environment such as the metro. One would think though that the older survivors would remember iPods and wealthier denizens of the Metro would keep laptop handy as a source of media, organization, or simply a status symbol.
The argument could be made that this lends the story a timeless quality. Inquisitive readers however, may wonder at this fact of the narrative and narrative at times, sounds like it could take place in the Soviet Union.
Final Verdict: Metro 2033 is a very unique book and deserves a rightful place among the canon of Post-Apocalyptic and Science Fiction literature. Its unique format may turn off a large quantity of readers but the rest will find a deep and fascinating world between its pages.
Four Gas Masks out of Five
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