Fiction Reviews
2035
(2015 / 2016 / 2026) Dmitry Glukovsky, Gollancz, £25, hrdbk, 467pp, ISBN 978-1-399-63950-7
This is the final book in the Metro trilogy that has been a mega-hit in Russia and Eastern Europe (mainly in Hungary and Poland) as well as fans of the 2010 Metro computer game developed by the Ukrainian studio 4A Games… The first book, Metro 2033, sold over 500,000 copies by 2010 in Russia alone, and that does not count the over two million who read the previous online version!
Metro 2035 came out in Russian in 2015 and was translated into English for the N. American market in 2016. This 2026 English translation coming via Gollancz, is the novel's first outing in the British Isles.
Fans of the computer games will lap this up as apparently this, and the immediate sequel to Metro 2033, saw the novel feed off the sequel computer games as much as the computer games were based on the original: though here the author has added much more detail to the follow-up computer game Metro: Last Light (2013), the second of three computer games (the last being Metro Exodus released in 2019 that was part inspired by this novel). So there is something of a creative dance going on here.
As I mentioned in my review of Metro 2033, had that novel been simply a post-apocalyptic tale then it would be a fairly standard read and, equally, just a fantastical horror, it would be unremarkable. However, being both, and with the substantive computer game following, elevates that novel to something more. Which brings us to this final novel, Metro 2035, in the trilogy.
It is set two years after Metro 2033 and, with the threat of the 'The Dark Ones' gone, the nuclear war survivors in Moscow's metro (underground/tube) network in the various stations have become more factional. Artyom, the protagonist of the previous two books, is still drawn to explore the surface of Moscow. Only now the mutants have largely gone in no small part due to even higher radiation. Moscow had survived destruction due to it being the only Russian city to have a missile interceptor shield but the fragments of the blown-up incoming missiles were still radioactive. The subsequent nuclear winter had frozen much of the radioactive fallout, but the intervening two years saw the ice melt releasing the dust and radiation: the radiation was even worse.
Part of Artyom's desire to go to the surface is to listen for radio signals from other parts of Russia, or even other parts of the world, to see if there were other survivors elsewhere.
An eccentric academic, Homer, wants to write a book about Artyom's fight with the Dark Ones, to document it for future generations. Homer is aware of someone who reportedly had picked up radio signals from the outside and so Homer and Artyom go off to find him.
Long story short, Artyom and Homer encounter a number of factions in their quest that range from the communist red line to the neo-Nazi Fourth Reich. Eventually, over half way through the book, they go on an exploratory mission outside to the outskirts of the city where they find…
Now, Metro 2033 is likely to have reasonable sales here in Britain – much here though depends on how much of a following the computer game has in western Europe and this is something about which I am unequipped to comment: computer games are not my thing, life being too short.
Having said that, I am not sure that it will be picked up by your average SF reader. Unlike the first book, the surface is not as alien with weird creatures (they have all died out due to the higher radiation) and so much of the story focuses on the interplay between the various factions of the metro: the fantastical element is largely gone.
The book will though, be of interest to genre 'academics' especially those looking at the interplay of science fiction and society. Here, it has to be remembered both that this was written before Putin's invasion of Ukraine and that – apart from a brief post-Soviet and pre-Putin period – Russia has been a totalitarian state. Even in its brief quasi-democratic period there was much corruption and even a kleptocracy with state assets going to a handful of oligarchs who 'party like a Russian'. The average member of the population was simply swept along with it all. Here the author, Dmitry Glukovsky, lived through this period and transition into the beginnings of what Russia would eventually become today. In short, there is a fair bit of what amounts to political comment in the story and it is clear that Dmitry has a critical view of Russia's leader. Indeed, Dmitry is now living outside of Russia in effective exile and as a writer of some prominence does not have Putin's favour. This last is something of a badge of honour for the author though it has impeded aspect of his career: there is now no chance that the film Metro 2033 will be made and the author will not allow a westernised version as the book only works if set in Russia as western cities, with their African-Europeans and African-Americans, would have the western audience see a wholly inappropriate, but unavoidable, connection between certain ethnic minorities and the first novel's 'Dark Ones'.
At the risk of it being something of a spoiler, I should also say that Metro 2035 suffers from one technical, but critical, plot flaw: any signal jamming is itself detectable….! (Whoops.)
The other issue is the translation. Here I do not believe it is as good as it might be: some of the translation seems too literal and in places can be a little confusing resulting in the reader having to do a double take. (This was an issue I also noted with the first book.)
As said, Metro 20235 will speak to the followers of the game and is of 'academic' interest to those studying genre matters. This makes it commercially viable and of interest to some. However I am not sure that it will gain any more traction than that. Irrespective, general SF readers may well find the original Metro 2033 of interest so do not let this novel put you off getting that.
Jonathan Cowie
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