Book: Metro 2033 by Dmitry Glukhovsky

Metro 2033 is a novel written by Dmitry Glukhovsky, released (freely) near the year 2002 (On the web).

Non spoiled Summary

The novel is set in the city of Moscow on the year 2033, 20 years after a nuclear world war that devastated  all cities and countries around the world. The nuclear winter, the high levels of radiation, the emerging dangerous species and  the toxic gases on the surface, forced the survivors to get shelter under the soil. On a post-apocalyptic theme, the novel relates the adventures and thoughts of Artyom, the main character who tries to save his home the VDNKh station from a new hazardous species: the Dark Ones. With particular habilites and an lots of luck, Artyom seems to be destined to save the last refuge of humanity from this threat... or thats how it looks like.

Metro 2033 - Map of locations, factions and more

My opinion

I highly recommend this book. If I could summarize this book with one word, that word would be meaning. In a phrase: the search of meaning.

Along each metro tunels, we appreciate the transformations of a man and the way he sees the world, we see his search for a meaning to life in such a rude environment where life itself is a miracle.The autor explores different searches of meaning among sects and cults, sometimes of political nature, sometimes of spiritual nature, exposing many sorts of life style, showing how te people holds to beliefs in a search of hope, hope of a meaning. The meaning of things is a topic that the author addresses very well.

Interesting facts I've learned

• Moscow's metro has 188 stations along 12 metro lines, with a total lenght of about 313 km.
• The deepest metro station is about 85 m under the surface, Moscow's metro is one of the deepest metro systems on earth.
• The Ostankino tower is one of the tallest buildings on earth, having a height of about 540 m.

Favourite quotations

"Who has the courage and perseverance needed to spend his life searching the darkness, will also be the first to recognize the break of day."

At the begining of the book

"At that time, Artyom thought he understood the essence of the human being and the meaning of life: saw the human being as a complex machine for removing food and shit production. A machine that worked without hindrance for most of life, and whose existence no sense whatsoever, and is that 'sense' meant an end. His end was the process itself: eat as much food as he could, process and release stool, all that remained of the smoky pork ribs, mushroom stews and delicious cakes of flour. The men who passed by were transformed, in the eyes of Artyom, faceless machines, which only served to destroy the beautiful and the useful, engendered only fetid mass and useless. Was angry with them, and watched in disgust as they watched him in disgust."

Chapter 10

 "At all times he sounded in final complaint Dron. His despair, his disappointment, his inability to believe the man to be alone in this scary world full of darkness and had spread to Artyom. Oddly enough, it was the cry of the barbarian, helpless pregnant with nostalgia for a divinity ugly and invented what he did begin to understand the cosmic loneliness that fed the beliefs of men."

Chapter 17