Metro 2034 & 2035

There are many years between the publications of Dmitry Glukhovsky's Metro novels. Metro 2033 was first released in 2002 (online -- printed in 2005), Metro 2034 in 2009, and finally Metro 2035 came out in 2015. With over a decade between the first and last, it's not terribly surprising there was a shift in direction -- especially with the final book -- Glukhovsky finding different things more important.

Metro 2034

Because Artyom hadn't made an appearance for a good many pages into the book, I figured the video game series went its own way after the first, Metro: Last Light not being an adaptation of this second novel. Instead of Artyom, the protagonist of Metro 2034 is an old man who goes by the name of Homer after the Greek poet. (In Finnish, his name is Homeros, closer to the Greek name.) Homer figures the history of the Metro should be recorded, composed into an epic like his namesake's the Iliad and the Odyssey.

Homer's story needs a hero and he thinks he has found one in Hunter, the stalker who sent Artyom on his adventure in the first book. Hunter was considered to be missing in action but, as it turned out, he's still alive even though traumatized by his encounter(?) with the dark ones. (In Finnish, the word used for them is 'mustat' in plural, literally blacks, and I reckon in the original Russian text too, based on how one discussion in the first novel goes. I guess a literal translation was considered problematic in English and they went with the 'dark ones' instead.)

Hunter has ended up as a border guard in Sevastopolskaya, a station almost at the exact opposite side of the Metro from VDNKh where Artyom started. Sevastopolskaya is another fringe station: its export electricity.

The novel's events begin when Sevastopolskaya's connection to the rest of the Metro gets cut off: no one is getting through or returning from Tulskaya station. Hunter volunteers to be in the next scouting party and Homer is volunteered along with him.

Glukvhosky tried something new in Metro 2034; there's a second viewpoint character. Sasha (spelled Saša in the Finnish translation by Anna Suhonen) is a teenage girl whose story starts separately but then joins with Hunter and Homer in a quite well-paced and clever manner.

Artyom too makes an appearance eventually as a briefly visited viewpoint. However, especially after reading the third novel, I feel his presence was fan service, added later due to publisher's request or something. He never meets the other characters. And in the third novel, Artyom doesn't seem to recall the events of this novel he was a part of when he talks to Homer.

The third novel also reveals Homer as an unreliable narrator, which I thought was pretty interesting. For instance, Sasha makes Artyom confront Homer about how he never in his scribbles mentions Hunter's constant drinking.

Metro 2035

In Metro 2035, Glukhovsky abandoned all supernatural elements of the series. The radiation is still there and the mutations it has caused but apart from dogs and humans, the Metro is clear from dangers, even the surface. All the mysterious monsters are just gone. That is a shame because it was an interesting setting with a lot of cool and weird stuff. Now it's merely mundane.

I wonder if the lack of the Metro's map in this book was because of that: no need to mark psychic dangers and whatnots because there are none. However, this wouldn't be the first time a translated print lacks some illustration or map the original work has.

Maybe Glukhovsky felt the fantasy was not important, maybe even childish a thing from his youth, and made this novel just about the politics. I suppose one could argue that there's an analogue about the whole of humanity in the novel: a hydra biting its own heads and new ones sprouting to replace any killed. However, I feel Glukhovsky likes keeping things straightforward. I think the criticism is aimed specifically towards Russian society. It is also noteworthy that Metro 2035 was published a year after the 2014 Crimea Annexation.

Artyom returned to the protagonist's role. During the time not covered in the books, he joined and kind of faded out of the Spartan* rangers whose purpose is to protect the Metro from inside and outside threats. Artyom had also married Anna, who's the daughter of Miller**, the Order's leader. Anna doesn't get much depth -- which is usual for women in the series.

(*The Spartan Order, which it is evidently called in English and Russian too, has been translated to Veljeskunta, 'brotherhood', in Finnish without the Spartan part.
**In Finnish, Miller is Melnik like in Russian. The English translation originally had him as Melnik too but later he became Miller, maybe after the English localization of the video games.)

Artyom has become obsessed about there being other survivors in the world, even in Russia, because at the end of the first novel he thought he had heard something on the radio before the missile strike. Artyom's been freed from work duties in VDNKh due to his heroics and so he has time to make trips to the surface, hauling a bulky radio with him. But there's no one talking and the only thing Artyom accomplishes is soaking up radiation -- not that it discourages him.

Homeros comes to visit Artyom to interview him and slips out that he knows someone who has also heard of other survivors over radio. That sends Artyom (and Homeros with him) on another zigzag journey through the Metro and above -- having that map would have been really nice. The novel goes through much of the very same stuff as the first one. This time it's just all politics without the supernatural.

At one point, Artyom gets to see behind the curtain, so to speak. That reminded me of George Orwell's 1984. However, Artyom's not forced to accept and conform to the status quo -- and so he doesn't. He continues believing people should leave the Metro and preaches his gospel to ears that aren't listening. In the end Artyom, disappointed, rides into the sunset with Anna -- much like Dmitry Glukhovsky left Russia. I don't know if that's an intended parable, though. Also, in August Glukhovsky's previous order of arrest turned into an 8-year prison sentence (in absentia).

Metro 2035 was an all right read but the first novel is clearly the best of the three. It introduces the intriguing setting and does the most with it. The sequels barely built anything upon it. I found Glukhovsky's occasional heavy use of ellipses very annoying to read, people -- especially Artyom -- not finishing their sentences one after the other. A highlight in the prose was when Artyom decided to get blackout drunk. That stream of consciousness was simply brilliant (and without ellipses).

I guess next for me is to play the games (at some point). Glukvhosky has been involved in their development and probably due to that the books and games after the first ones have some connections even though they're separate things: Metro 2035 was apparently partially inspired by Metro: Last Light and Metro Exodus in turn loosely based on Metro 2035.