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3.8 AVERAGE
3.8 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
This was a supremely Russian novel. The multitude of philosophical interludes, grim sharpness to reality, and utter lack of women doing anything other than cleaning all create a pretty striking world. Completely unsurprised they made a video game out of it, the world is quite apt for it. I appreciated the way it doesn't tie up nicely, you certainly leave with more curiosity then you enter with. I give it 3.5 stars, rounded up to 4 for the intrigue it's left me with.
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
jaka ta książka była dziwna, sam zamysł i to jak szła historia mi się bardzo podobał ale język był bardzo dziwny przez co ciężko mi się ją czytało
The first half was so awful and boring I wanted to put it down. But it's been recommended so I persevered. The second half wasn't entirely redeeming, but it made it a bit less of an ordeal. Highly discouraged experience nonetheless.
Honestly, the game blew this book away for narrative genius.
I have mixed feelings about this.
When I started reading Metro 2033 I was drawn in quickly. The lives in the underground metro were gritty, interesting, and unique to me for post apocalyptic fiction. The plot moved fast and each new question presented to me made me press on for the answer.
Yet after a while I felt these questions were forgotten about. I understand that this is probably intended but, being as knowledge thirsty as I am, it left me dissatisfied and wanting to know more. I have my theories, but I still want to know!
In regards to the writing style, I didn't find it as terrible as some. This being a translation I didn't expect intricate literacy - it is what it is.
Towards the end of the book things did start to speed up for me again, but I still have the feeling that some earlier parts did drag out or weren't totally necessary. Although the twist at the ending was satisfying, it wasn't as satisfying as it could have been. In short, I personally feel that this novel had a strong beginning and end, but a weak middle.
All this being said, if you are a lover of post apocalyptic fiction and find this appealing I'd still give it a go.
When I started reading Metro 2033 I was drawn in quickly. The lives in the underground metro were gritty, interesting, and unique to me for post apocalyptic fiction. The plot moved fast and each new question presented to me made me press on for the answer.
Yet after a while I felt these questions were forgotten about. I understand that this is probably intended but, being as knowledge thirsty as I am, it left me dissatisfied and wanting to know more. I have my theories, but I still want to know!
In regards to the writing style, I didn't find it as terrible as some. This being a translation I didn't expect intricate literacy - it is what it is.
Towards the end of the book things did start to speed up for me again, but I still have the feeling that some earlier parts did drag out or weren't totally necessary. Although the twist at the ending was satisfying, it wasn't as satisfying as it could have been. In short, I personally feel that this novel had a strong beginning and end, but a weak middle.
All this being said, if you are a lover of post apocalyptic fiction and find this appealing I'd still give it a go.
This book is an apocalyptic tale translated from Russian to English. I wish I could give 1/2 stars, since I would give this 4&1/2 instead of just 4. It's also a video game, which is why I decided read it before I actually played the game.
I couldn't give this a full 5 stars only for the reason that the translation was a little rough at times. I didn't think there was a huge amount of translation errors, but there was definitely enough to take notice and think that it really should have been re-read & revised before publishing. Now, I read the UK edition, so I'm not sure how the official US release turned out, so it may be better. Some of the smaller errors I ran into often were things like; missing punctuation, words repeated (ex: He went into THE THE tunnel..) & sentences structured incorrectly. A few times I had to re-read parts because it made no sense at all & I would have to correct the sentence & figure out what was meant.
Overall though, it was a great book. I agree with the other review that Russian's really know how to write a great apocalyptic book. This book didn't have as much "action" that I thought it would, but I found myself thinking about it often and even now, day's later after finishing it, I still find myself thinking back to things that happened.
While reading this, I was surprised with how "deep" this book went; I would find myself questioning things like religion, questioning how humans think we "rule the world" and how the overall premise of the book is actually scarily believable. It doesn't go into too much detail of what fully happened before everyone moved into the Metro, but it touches on how humans pretty much destroyed themselves & the planet with wars. While some other things weren't as believable, I really enjoyed reading this book. Now I just have to wait for the translation of Metro 2034 to be released.
I couldn't give this a full 5 stars only for the reason that the translation was a little rough at times. I didn't think there was a huge amount of translation errors, but there was definitely enough to take notice and think that it really should have been re-read & revised before publishing. Now, I read the UK edition, so I'm not sure how the official US release turned out, so it may be better. Some of the smaller errors I ran into often were things like; missing punctuation, words repeated (ex: He went into THE THE tunnel..) & sentences structured incorrectly. A few times I had to re-read parts because it made no sense at all & I would have to correct the sentence & figure out what was meant.
Overall though, it was a great book. I agree with the other review that Russian's really know how to write a great apocalyptic book. This book didn't have as much "action" that I thought it would, but I found myself thinking about it often and even now, day's later after finishing it, I still find myself thinking back to things that happened.
While reading this, I was surprised with how "deep" this book went; I would find myself questioning things like religion, questioning how humans think we "rule the world" and how the overall premise of the book is actually scarily believable. It doesn't go into too much detail of what fully happened before everyone moved into the Metro, but it touches on how humans pretty much destroyed themselves & the planet with wars. While some other things weren't as believable, I really enjoyed reading this book. Now I just have to wait for the translation of Metro 2034 to be released.
I'm waffling on whether this should be 4 or 5 stars. It creeped me out so much it took me a while to read it. I'm mildly claustrophobic, so YMMV.
Metro 2033 is a dystopia that was turned into a video game, so I didn't have that high expectations about the book before I started. It is a far cry from a video game-y, plot driven book. We follow the protagonist (Artiom) through the central parts of the Moscow metro system, the world's largest bomb shelter, where the remains of humanity shelters after massive nuclear strikes on the planet's surface. There are mutants, cannibals, Jehova's Witnesses, neo-stalinists, neo-communists, neo-fascists, satanists, philosophers, gangs, a new Hansa and normal people, just trying to get by. Artiom is driven on a search after a way to help his station, which is being over run by "The Dark Ones", black skinned, black eyed mutants. During his travels he ponders the meaning of life, the evil of mankind and war, and is torn between hope and despair in regards to the possibility of human kind ever getting back to the surface.
Metro 2033 is a dystopia that was turned into a video game, so I didn't have that high expectations about the book before I started. It is a far cry from a video game-y, plot driven book. We follow the protagonist (Artiom) through the central parts of the Moscow metro system, the world's largest bomb shelter, where the remains of humanity shelters after massive nuclear strikes on the planet's surface. There are mutants, cannibals, Jehova's Witnesses, neo-stalinists, neo-communists, neo-fascists, satanists, philosophers, gangs, a new Hansa and normal people, just trying to get by. Artiom is driven on a search after a way to help his station, which is being over run by "The Dark Ones", black skinned, black eyed mutants. During his travels he ponders the meaning of life, the evil of mankind and war, and is torn between hope and despair in regards to the possibility of human kind ever getting back to the surface.