Metro 2033, by Dmitry Glukhovsky

1448 Words3 Pages

Machines are everywhere. They take up every aspect of our lives: our waking up, our getting to school/work, and even at school/work. But when mankind’s machines are used for ill, the results could mean the death of us. Nuclear ICBMs pose a constant threat; just one of their 250 warheads can level cities with a single, grand explosion, and one warhead can contaminate 250 miles of air and land, making it inhospitable for thousands of years. In Metro: 2033, the worst scenario has been realized: the 2013 nuclear war has annihilated most of humanity, and the few thousand people living in the Moscow Metro (Московское метро) are struggling to survive mutant attacks, believing again in ancient superstitions and fears, warring over such things as religion, ideology, and race, and all the time facing hopelessness and depression as they recall an Earth from twenty years prior, a world of skyscrapers and travel and sunny, carefree days. Dmitry Glukhovsky’s adult post-apocalyptic novel, first published in Russia in 2005 by Orionbooks, is very similar to Ann Aguirre’s Enclave, which also takes humanity underground after a nuclear/biological war. Metro: 2033 is the sad but accurate epitome of humanity after the nuclear holocaust, a world of superstition and rumor and hopelessness and death.

Metro: 2033 is alarming in its detailed and realistic portrayal of human life after civilization’s death. The main character, Artyom, is living in the Moscow Metro beneath the ruined city. Thanks to Soviet planning, most stations have blast doors as well as air and water filters, meaning that the real life stations could actually survive a near-by nuclear attack, which happens in Metro: 2033. Artyom was a baby when the nuclear missiles struc...

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...nd these two fight the entire time. Glukhovsky’s book is full of grey areas, of vague details that may or may not ever become clear. There are many types of mutated threats, with only one goal: “Survive. Survive at any cost.” (Glukhovsky 9). His novel managed to enthrall readers in a complex universe full of ideas and monstrosities.

This book is very detailed and accurate, and as a result is highly popular and successful. Artyom’s odyssey through both a future and backward people is very intriguing, and the time Glukhovsky put into detailing every aspect of life was well spent. Many different theological and political ideas are brought up and discussed, as well as superstitions and rumors, and the concepts as a whole were very thought-provoking and really got the reader involved.

Works Cited

Glukhovsky, Dmitry. Metro 2033. Moscow: Orion, 2005. Print. Metro.

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