C
Brighter past, darker future. Turns out that epigraph was describing the quality of the Metro book series. Metro 2033 was a flawed, but ultimately worthwhile post-apocalyptic novel that created a compelling hellscape out of Moscow and its Metro system, complete with elements of Russian culture and movements that survived the missiles and cosmic horrors beyond human comprehension. Metro 2034 was an awful followup that was more of a side story, which sidelined the supernatural and introduced new characters and stakes that were utterly uninteresting to follow. Metro 2035 returns to Artyom’s story and has a lot to say about current Russian society. I just wish it didn’t completely destroy its own universe in the process.
From a technical standpoint, the book is better written than 2034. My editions for 2034 and 2035 were by the same translator, but the text was properly formatted this time. There were still some strange punctuation issues, with most words ending in “i” having that letter capitalized for no reason. And the prose itself was still very clunky. I don’t know how much of that is on the translation or just Dimitry’s skills as a writer. I doubt that reading a comparison of the burnt out Moscow with its remaining citizens stuck in the metro to a dead woman’s vagina holding in a baby is going to read any better in the original Russian version though. Yes, that is an actual passage in the book. It’s the worst that the book ever gets, but this sort of juvenile mean-spirited edge is pervasive throughout the new depiction of the world.
The theme of this book is that humanity are the true monsters of the Metro. Gone are the cosmic horrors and dangerous mutants of Metro 2033 and 2034, leaving just radiation on the surface to worry about. Multiple times in the book, characters will go above ground completely unprotected and return just fine with the exception of Artyom, who is irradiated or fine depending on what’s demanded by the plot. This used to be an excursion so dangerous, that the ones who made their living scavenging the destroyed city were regarded as heroes. Artyom apparently trained his eyes so that he was able to go up to the surface without blinding himself, something mentioned in this very book, but then others who had lived their entire lives underground had no problems on the surface during the day. The Kremlin, a building that would lure in and consume stalkers if they just glanced at it in 2033, no longer has its power. This is never really explained, other than the implication that Metro 2033 and Metro 2034 are “fairytales” written by Homer about Artyom and Hunter’s journey. As amusing as the literal Nazi criticising the grammar of Homer’s draft of Metro 2034 is, I hate this recontextualization.
Demystification of the previous books is a running theme throughout Metro 2035. The legendary Hunter is revealed to have been a bloodthirsty drunk, who could barely stand throughout his travels with Homer. Miller, hero and leader of the Order, beat his wife and abused his daughter. Sasha returns, and is still one of the worst written characters I’ve had the displeasure of knowing. No longer is she the female version of Artyom who wants to save the metro, she has literally become a whore who falls in love with anyone who spends more than an hour with her. Both Sasha and Anya, Artyom’s wife that he picked up in 2034, are so awfully written that I think this is one case where a lack of inclusivity would’ve actually benefited the story. Dimitry has failed twice now to write a compelling woman character, or at the very least one who’s mere existence is to be more than just a McGuffin to a man.
I’m fine with what happened to the characters (except for the women’s roles in the story), but removing the cosmic horror of the world removes a major element that set this world apart from other post-apocalyptic stories. It begs the question, what even were the dark ones in the first book if mutants and ghosts were just tall tales of Homer’s? They are the only supernatural entity left unexplained, and it feels off when they were supposed to be humanity’s last chance at salvation despite a later reveal that contradicts this belief. Yet they can't be chalked up as another myth because of how they are discussed by the characters in this book.
Artyom’s main drive in this story is to find a way to return to the surface and make contact with any survivors outside of Moscow. Meanwhile, famine and war between all of the metro’s factions are on the verge of breaking out. On his journey, he crosses paths multiple times with the major factions of the series; the Hansa merchants who represent the Russian oligarchs that control the majority of Russia’s wealth, the Reds who represent the desire to return to the empire of the USSR, the Reich who represent the various fascist movements present in Russian society, and the Order who are now mostly made up of Hansa personnel and represent the military force used to safeguard the nation from threats both foreign and domestic. Nearly every chapter follows a formula of meeting a faction, witnessing a horrific atrocity committed by said faction, and a miraculous escape from death that feels more and more like a total ass-pull each time it happens.
The big twist is that the old Russian government is still alive and has been exerting its influence over the metro ever since the apocalypse. The invisible watchers as they call themselves, literally say that they would step in and interfere to maintain the status quo including stopping the dark ones back in 2033 had Artyom not beat them to it, and preventing the current mushroom blight that is causing the famine. They set up signal jammers to prevent Moscow from communicating with the rest of the world so they could contain the civilians and continue their suffering. It not only nullifies everything that happened in the series up to that point, but flies in the face of the representation of each faction as a facet of Russian society and offers a single secret elite enemy as an easy target for society’s outrage when there is no such parallel to our reality.
When Artyom goes to his friends with this information and formulates a plan to break the systemic oppression of the metro, every single one of them either dies or betrays him with the exception of Anya. The book ends with Artyom and Anya driving off into the sunset, leaving the metro behind presumably for good and the survivors who remain stay blind to their salvation or actively work to suppress it.
The plot, particularly its final chapters, are without a doubt a parallel to the current status quo of Russia and Dimitry’s view of its citizens’ tolerance to oppression. It makes much more sense when discovering that Dimitry was involved in anti-Putin protests over Russia’s involvement in the Ukraine war back when it started in early 2014, and has since fled Russia on the account of being branded a criminal and foreign agent for these criticisms. The protests utterly failed and I’m sure Dimitry felt the same sort of betrayal Artyom felt from his fellow countrymen after failing to rouse them against their oppressors. I understand the sentiment behind the story. It’s one I especially felt with the USA’s continued support of Israel and their genocidal occupation of Palestine. Was this story worth destroying the rich universe that Metro 2033 had created? Absolutely not!
Brighter past, darker future. Turns out that epigraph was describing the quality of the Metro book series. Metro 2033 was a flawed, but ultimately worthwhile post-apocalyptic novel that created a compelling hellscape out of Moscow and its Metro system, complete with elements of Russian culture and movements that survived the missiles and cosmic horrors beyond human comprehension. Metro 2034 was an awful followup that was more of a side story, which sidelined the supernatural and introduced new characters and stakes that were utterly uninteresting to follow. Metro 2035 returns to Artyom’s story and has a lot to say about current Russian society. I just wish it didn’t completely destroy its own universe in the process.
From a technical standpoint, the book is better written than 2034. My editions for 2034 and 2035 were by the same translator, but the text was properly formatted this time. There were still some strange punctuation issues, with most words ending in “i” having that letter capitalized for no reason. And the prose itself was still very clunky. I don’t know how much of that is on the translation or just Dimitry’s skills as a writer. I doubt that reading a comparison of the burnt out Moscow with its remaining citizens stuck in the metro to a dead woman’s vagina holding in a baby is going to read any better in the original Russian version though. Yes, that is an actual passage in the book. It’s the worst that the book ever gets, but this sort of juvenile mean-spirited edge is pervasive throughout the new depiction of the world.
The theme of this book is that humanity are the true monsters of the Metro. Gone are the cosmic horrors and dangerous mutants of Metro 2033 and 2034, leaving just radiation on the surface to worry about. Multiple times in the book, characters will go above ground completely unprotected and return just fine with the exception of Artyom, who is irradiated or fine depending on what’s demanded by the plot. This used to be an excursion so dangerous, that the ones who made their living scavenging the destroyed city were regarded as heroes. Artyom apparently trained his eyes so that he was able to go up to the surface without blinding himself, something mentioned in this very book, but then others who had lived their entire lives underground had no problems on the surface during the day. The Kremlin, a building that would lure in and consume stalkers if they just glanced at it in 2033, no longer has its power. This is never really explained, other than the implication that Metro 2033 and Metro 2034 are “fairytales” written by Homer about Artyom and Hunter’s journey. As amusing as the literal Nazi criticising the grammar of Homer’s draft of Metro 2034 is, I hate this recontextualization.
Demystification of the previous books is a running theme throughout Metro 2035. The legendary Hunter is revealed to have been a bloodthirsty drunk, who could barely stand throughout his travels with Homer. Miller, hero and leader of the Order, beat his wife and abused his daughter. Sasha returns, and is still one of the worst written characters I’ve had the displeasure of knowing. No longer is she the female version of Artyom who wants to save the metro, she has literally become a whore who falls in love with anyone who spends more than an hour with her. Both Sasha and Anya, Artyom’s wife that he picked up in 2034, are so awfully written that I think this is one case where a lack of inclusivity would’ve actually benefited the story. Dimitry has failed twice now to write a compelling woman character, or at the very least one who’s mere existence is to be more than just a McGuffin to a man.
I’m fine with what happened to the characters (except for the women’s roles in the story), but removing the cosmic horror of the world removes a major element that set this world apart from other post-apocalyptic stories. It begs the question, what even were the dark ones in the first book if mutants and ghosts were just tall tales of Homer’s? They are the only supernatural entity left unexplained, and it feels off when they were supposed to be humanity’s last chance at salvation despite a later reveal that contradicts this belief. Yet they can't be chalked up as another myth because of how they are discussed by the characters in this book.
Artyom’s main drive in this story is to find a way to return to the surface and make contact with any survivors outside of Moscow. Meanwhile, famine and war between all of the metro’s factions are on the verge of breaking out. On his journey, he crosses paths multiple times with the major factions of the series; the Hansa merchants who represent the Russian oligarchs that control the majority of Russia’s wealth, the Reds who represent the desire to return to the empire of the USSR, the Reich who represent the various fascist movements present in Russian society, and the Order who are now mostly made up of Hansa personnel and represent the military force used to safeguard the nation from threats both foreign and domestic. Nearly every chapter follows a formula of meeting a faction, witnessing a horrific atrocity committed by said faction, and a miraculous escape from death that feels more and more like a total ass-pull each time it happens.
The big twist is that the old Russian government is still alive and has been exerting its influence over the metro ever since the apocalypse. The invisible watchers as they call themselves, literally say that they would step in and interfere to maintain the status quo including stopping the dark ones back in 2033 had Artyom not beat them to it, and preventing the current mushroom blight that is causing the famine. They set up signal jammers to prevent Moscow from communicating with the rest of the world so they could contain the civilians and continue their suffering. It not only nullifies everything that happened in the series up to that point, but flies in the face of the representation of each faction as a facet of Russian society and offers a single secret elite enemy as an easy target for society’s outrage when there is no such parallel to our reality.
When Artyom goes to his friends with this information and formulates a plan to break the systemic oppression of the metro, every single one of them either dies or betrays him with the exception of Anya. The book ends with Artyom and Anya driving off into the sunset, leaving the metro behind presumably for good and the survivors who remain stay blind to their salvation or actively work to suppress it.
The plot, particularly its final chapters, are without a doubt a parallel to the current status quo of Russia and Dimitry’s view of its citizens’ tolerance to oppression. It makes much more sense when discovering that Dimitry was involved in anti-Putin protests over Russia’s involvement in the Ukraine war back when it started in early 2014, and has since fled Russia on the account of being branded a criminal and foreign agent for these criticisms. The protests utterly failed and I’m sure Dimitry felt the same sort of betrayal Artyom felt from his fellow countrymen after failing to rouse them against their oppressors. I understand the sentiment behind the story. It’s one I especially felt with the USA’s continued support of Israel and their genocidal occupation of Palestine. Was this story worth destroying the rich universe that Metro 2033 had created? Absolutely not!