Metro 2034

Gluchovskij’s Metro books are set in the Moscow underground after a nuclear war has made the surface uninhabitable. The stations and lines now form city states and alliances, where the remaining humans struggle against darkness, cold, radiation and mutants, trying to uphold civilization. As post-apocalyptic worlds go, it doesn’t get much bleaker than this. But it’s also a deeply fascinating place to visit, full of detail and atmosphere.

Metro 2034 follows right after the tragic mistake at the end of the first book, but is set on the other side of the metro grid. The Sevastopolskaja station is the southernmost outpost of civilization, protecting the tunnels from the hordes of mutants attacking from the south, as well as providing a show more lot of the metro with electricity thanks to access to running water. It’s an important place, but isolated. So when caravans sent north to trade don’t return, and telephone communications with the mighty Hansa go silent, it’s evident it must be investigated. The mysterious outsider Hunter is sent to find out what’s happened, and is followed by Homeros, an old soldier with the determination to write a new heroic tale – a story grand enough for the metro to gather round and unify over.

The main weakness of Metro 2033 was it’s complete lack of female characters. Now Gluchovskij’s mum must have slapped him over the head or something, for we are all of a sudden also treated to a complex and interesting female lead. Hunter and Homeros find the girl Sasja in a station where she has been exiled with her now dead father. She follows them along, eager to explore more of the metro, but also because she feels a strange bond to the cold and disfigured Hunter. Sasja is the book’s emotional centre, and even if she isn’t completely free from a virgin cliché, she is a great character in her mixture of toughness and naivity.

Really, this is a superior book to Metro 2033 in almost all aspects. I has a tighter plot with an interesting moral philosophy discussion at the core as well as more rounded characters. But to me, it still doesn’t quite live up to the overflow of wild world building in the first book – even if it comes close. I’m really looking forward to the third book of this trilogy, with it’s promised theme of grace and redemption. show less

This book has such a great setting, but the author does not seem to know what to do with it. The scope of the Metro universe is so vast, but the author seems to be afraid of any radical change to it. Despite all the discoveries and dramatic events, the state of the metro universe at the end of the second book is almost identical the beginning of the first book.

Instead, we get treated to more inexplicable "magic". More rebasing of how awful life in the Metro is. More big conflicts that miraculously brings us back to the status quo ante. Yawn.

The second book in this trilogy, and in my eyes better than the first.
The deeper Artyom goes into the subway the deeper the horror gets.
I love the plodding, creepy slow brooding style of plot, and the overall jab at politics and philosophy.
The involvement of religion, and sects is fantastic.
Great book.

O dezamăgire după Metro 2033, față de care e mult mai simplistă, mai puțin originală și mai lipsită de atmosferă.
Pe de altă parte e foarte alertă, plină de acțiune și se citește foarte rapid, fără a plictisi.
Nemulțumirea mea personală ține și de dozele de misticism, care pe mine mă scot din imersiune, dar asta e o chestie de gust la fiecare.
recenzie pe larg: https://bloguldesefe.ro/2021/10/16/lasati-orice-speranta-voi-care-intrati-in-met...

A bit of a disappointment after 2033. Much of what I enjoyed from 2033 is missing here, specifically the horror elements and the supernatural encounters in the dark tunnels and surface wasteland. With only one such encounter in the early chapters, 2034 deals almost entirely with humanity's condition living in the tunnels and a disease outbreak in one station. The translation has improved, but my edition had a lot of unnecessary hyphens and dialogue was not properly formatted. Multiple characters would speak in the same paragraph making it difficult to tell who was talking.

Hunter, who got the ball rolling in 2033, is the main focus here. He is torn between his desire to help the inhabitants of the Metro, while also convinced that show more exterminating an entire station is the only option to prevent a plague from spreading. Following him is Homer, an older man who was a Metro employee before the war who now wishes to chronicle the events in the Metro. Sasha, a recent orphan joins them, and feels a need to help Hunter retain his humanity. Artyom is absent, the character appearing around the middle of the book is a different person. Why the author gave him the same name, I'm not sure. Miller (Melnik) makes a brief appearance and explains why Hunter is the way he is. He also mentions Artyom from 2033 and the aftermath of the first novel.

It seemed like the author wanted a romance, but this fell flat. None of the characters were particularly interesting, and without the mystery or danger from 2033 it was far too easy to nod off while reading. show less

Druhý diel je ešte o niečo lepší ako prvý, vrátane prekladu. Hlavne úvodná časť je dramaticky dobre vybudovaná, dej graduje, no postupne stráca na spáde. Ale aj tak ide o dielo so skvelou atmosférou. Aj keď je druhý diel celkovo lepší, záver nie je tak vypointovaný a neočakávaný ako v Metre 2033.

Na het vorige boek had ik hoge verwachtingen voor dit deel. Helaas ben ik teleurgesteld in dit boek. Het enige dat het met het voorgaande verhaal overeen kwam, was dat het afspeelde in de Metro van Moskou, en Hunter. De personages waren wat mij betreft gewoon alledaags (misschien met uitzondering van Leonid). De personage van Sasha stond mij het meeste tegen.

Ach, misschien was het niet echt slecht, maar vergeleken met Metro 2033 viel het gewoon tegen. Ik miste bijvoorbeeld de manier van schrijven in de eerste persoons enkelvoud, vanuit het gezichtspunt van Artyom. Ik had gehoopt dat Hunter nu deze rol op zich zou nemen, maar we kwamen niet verder dan vanuit het perspectief van anderen.

Heb hele stukken tekst overgeslagen door de show more overvloed aan pseudo-filosofische en morele vragen die het tempo uit het verhaal haalden. show less