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3.72 AVERAGE
3.72 AVERAGE
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This book gets a lot of points for the depth and richness of the world it has created over the series. Returning to the metro is always a very exciting and immersive experience as a reader.
Stylistically, there are some really clunky and lengthy sections of this book which are almost exclusively dialogue driven. It struck me that it read in places more like a script for a game where you are an observer, rather than reading a book. It was honestly jarring and frustrating. That said, there are some extremely vivid sections where a very clear picture is painted.
The plot I found a bit bloated and wandering. The effect it achieves as a metaphor is very effective. Unfortunately as a narrative it is a little frustrating.
Stylistically, there are some really clunky and lengthy sections of this book which are almost exclusively dialogue driven. It struck me that it read in places more like a script for a game where you are an observer, rather than reading a book. It was honestly jarring and frustrating. That said, there are some extremely vivid sections where a very clear picture is painted.
The plot I found a bit bloated and wandering. The effect it achieves as a metaphor is very effective. Unfortunately as a narrative it is a little frustrating.
adventurous
dark
emotional
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Читао сам је скоро 3 месеца, није ми било занимљиво. Прва књига имам станице полисе, а у трећој једна велика завера, где постоје ти невидљиви посматрача. Нмп, није ми се свидео заплет треће књиге
dark
sad
En stark avslutning på en helt okej romantrilogi. Jag hade turen att träffa författaren när jag köpte boken och har sade att det var mer politisk än de andra, och även om åtminstone första boken är en tydlig allegori över samhället, så tar han ett slags ställning här som han inte gjort i de tidigare. Det är befriande, men bitvis rörigt. Artiom - den lilla, enskilda människan (jaget) som börjat lyfta blicken och se världen - får se så mycket på samma gång att intrycken hotar att dränka både honom och läsaren. Sista tredjedelen eller så är en enda lång avslutning och Gluchovsky lyckas få mig att nästan jäkta igenom uppslag efter uppslag för att se hur allt ligger till och om det ska sluta som jag tror att det ska göra (det gör det - mer eller mindre). Litterärt sett (vad betyder det ens?) finns det kanske lite att önska och efter att ha klämt alla tre böckerna är jag lite mätt på metron, men hoppet lyser hela tiden mellan all cynism och nihilism som genomsyrar den värld vi rör oss igenom. I metron utspelar sig 1900-talet på nytt, komplett med nazismens, kommunismens och kapitalismens olika former av terror och förtryck och en terrorbalans som trycker ner såväl vän som fiende i lera och skit. Men solen - förutsatt att man kan och vågar lyfta blicken - går ändå upp över en vacker värld när natten äntligen är över.
This guy doesn't know how to write female characters as anything else but whores and bitchy wives, but he sure as hell knows how to world-build so I both liked and disliked this book lmao. Also the long, long pages with nothing but dialogue were incredibly confusing and felt like nothing but pointless info-dump, even when the information given was necessary. There are better ways to tell your readers what's going on than fucking pages filled with dialogue. Especially at the point when it abruptly changed speakers. Like... come on. I nearly skipped all of that.
The Finnish translation was super clunky at points though.
The Finnish translation was super clunky at points though.
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
dark
mysterious
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
5 / 10 ✪
https://arefugefromlife.wordpress.com/2024/02/10/metro-2035-by-dmitry-glukhovsky-review/
Following the events of the previous two years, Metro 2035 begins with a trip out of the metro. Artyom, risking mutation and worse, ascends daily to check the radio waves, and locate other survivors. After all, Moscow cannot be all that survived.
But instead of people, he hears rumors, rumors that will take him all across the metro—up onto the surface and then back again—through the well-maintained tunnels of the Reich, to the cramped and dimly-lit hovels of the Red Line, to Hazna where people are just people, and everywhere in between. Artyom is no stranger to the metro, having walked it all before, but the tunnels are darker than he remembers. War is looming just over the horizon—an all-out war that may just consume the remainder of humanity.
Yet this is not what drives Artyom. Instead it is the rumor of visitors, from outside of Moscow, that fuels him. He will go to hell to meet these new people, and back if it means the salvation of all those still stuck in the tunnels.
For humanity wasn’t meant to squat in tunnels like rats, eating mushrooms and nibbling upon their own dead, but in the open air of the surface, where a man can see the sun and feel the rain and taste the undoctored breeze.
Artyom is the savior of the Metro—and this time he won’t fuck it up.
—
When he went first, dashing up the abandoned steps of the escalator—how could he explain it? It was because he wanted to see his mother. The mother from that day, with the ducks and the ice cream. He was on his way to meet her because he had missed her so badly. The others had trudged up, following Artyom’s lead, simply because it was frightening to be alone. And the Dark One; the Dark Ones didn’t see him from the outside. They saw him immediately from the inside—a solitary orphan who had gotten lost in their world. They saw him… and adopted him.
—
After the train-wreck that was Metro 2034, 2035 aims to send the series off on a high note by taking inspiration from the popular video-game franchise (originally based on the books). Unfortunately, due to a completely fucking bleak tone and the decided lack of any horrors beyond that of humanity itself, this one falls a bit short of what the author was probably going for.
Now, let’s get off on the right foot first. I actually really enjoyed my time with Metro 2035—to a point. In the beginning, it’s a welcome return to the universe: the tunnels that made the series what it is. The cramped, claustrophobic feel to everything, of humanity huddling in the dark, hoping the radiation-ravaged world ignores them. The opening reminds much of the beginning to Exodus (the 3rd game), with Artyom making trip after trip to the surface in search of other humans.
From here, however, it takes on a decidedly darker tone, with tensions in the metro reaching a breaking point, and fissures between the Reich, the Order, the Reds, and Hanza all stretching wide enough to be filled with lead and bodies. A war is coming, and Artyom’s chasing a rumor through it all; a rumor hinting at a massive cover-up surrounding the extinction of humanity. It was even a compelling story—part-mystery part-mission, tag-line conspiracy theory worthy of Mel Gibson. A shame that it was only one thread in the grander scheme.
It wasn’t til Chapter 14 (“Strangers”)—which was told completely in unasigned dialogue for some unfathomable reason—that I lost immersion enough to realize something was missing. Something that wouldn’t appear in the book at all. That being, the horribly mutated monsters that, in addition to the whole premise of humanity surviving only in the metro tunnels, made Metro what it was. There are none in the tunnels. Fully eradicated, it seems. There are none on the surface either, with humans running around like they own the place (which, if you’ve played the games, you know they very much DO NOT). They haven’t been written out of the lore altogether, being routinely brought up by Artyom or Sasha in reference to previous books. They just… it’s like the author just... forgot them.
Along with the author’s mind-boggling choice to leave out the monsters, he makes an equally bad decision to reintroduce Sasha, MC from 2034. Sasha… is just a terrible character, and no less pathetic than in her previous appearance. The sexism isn’t quite so strong in this—with the addition of Anya (from the games), and the inclusion of women fighting alongside men to keep the metro safe—but it’s still there, especially in the Reich and Red chapters, where I guess we’re just asked to expect it, because that’s what communism and fascism are for?
Keeping all of that in mind, the ending… really could’ve been worse. It all ties together very nicely—although we went on quite the killing spree to rid ourselves of loose ends—and ends in a way hinted at throughout the entire story. If you’ve come this far in the series and want more—this is a no-brainer. If you’re literally anyone else—go and play the games. That’s all I want to do now, to erase this ending from my mind and replace it with the (canonical) video-game one.
https://arefugefromlife.wordpress.com/2024/02/10/metro-2035-by-dmitry-glukhovsky-review/
Following the events of the previous two years, Metro 2035 begins with a trip out of the metro. Artyom, risking mutation and worse, ascends daily to check the radio waves, and locate other survivors. After all, Moscow cannot be all that survived.
But instead of people, he hears rumors, rumors that will take him all across the metro—up onto the surface and then back again—through the well-maintained tunnels of the Reich, to the cramped and dimly-lit hovels of the Red Line, to Hazna where people are just people, and everywhere in between. Artyom is no stranger to the metro, having walked it all before, but the tunnels are darker than he remembers. War is looming just over the horizon—an all-out war that may just consume the remainder of humanity.
Yet this is not what drives Artyom. Instead it is the rumor of visitors, from outside of Moscow, that fuels him. He will go to hell to meet these new people, and back if it means the salvation of all those still stuck in the tunnels.
For humanity wasn’t meant to squat in tunnels like rats, eating mushrooms and nibbling upon their own dead, but in the open air of the surface, where a man can see the sun and feel the rain and taste the undoctored breeze.
Artyom is the savior of the Metro—and this time he won’t fuck it up.
—
When he went first, dashing up the abandoned steps of the escalator—how could he explain it? It was because he wanted to see his mother. The mother from that day, with the ducks and the ice cream. He was on his way to meet her because he had missed her so badly. The others had trudged up, following Artyom’s lead, simply because it was frightening to be alone. And the Dark One; the Dark Ones didn’t see him from the outside. They saw him immediately from the inside—a solitary orphan who had gotten lost in their world. They saw him… and adopted him.
—
After the train-wreck that was Metro 2034, 2035 aims to send the series off on a high note by taking inspiration from the popular video-game franchise (originally based on the books). Unfortunately, due to a completely fucking bleak tone and the decided lack of any horrors beyond that of humanity itself, this one falls a bit short of what the author was probably going for.
Now, let’s get off on the right foot first. I actually really enjoyed my time with Metro 2035—to a point. In the beginning, it’s a welcome return to the universe: the tunnels that made the series what it is. The cramped, claustrophobic feel to everything, of humanity huddling in the dark, hoping the radiation-ravaged world ignores them. The opening reminds much of the beginning to Exodus (the 3rd game), with Artyom making trip after trip to the surface in search of other humans.
From here, however, it takes on a decidedly darker tone, with tensions in the metro reaching a breaking point, and fissures between the Reich, the Order, the Reds, and Hanza all stretching wide enough to be filled with lead and bodies. A war is coming, and Artyom’s chasing a rumor through it all; a rumor hinting at a massive cover-up surrounding the extinction of humanity. It was even a compelling story—part-mystery part-mission, tag-line conspiracy theory worthy of Mel Gibson. A shame that it was only one thread in the grander scheme.
It wasn’t til Chapter 14 (“Strangers”)—which was told completely in unasigned dialogue for some unfathomable reason—that I lost immersion enough to realize something was missing. Something that wouldn’t appear in the book at all. That being, the horribly mutated monsters that, in addition to the whole premise of humanity surviving only in the metro tunnels, made Metro what it was. There are none in the tunnels. Fully eradicated, it seems. There are none on the surface either, with humans running around like they own the place (which, if you’ve played the games, you know they very much DO NOT). They haven’t been written out of the lore altogether, being routinely brought up by Artyom or Sasha in reference to previous books. They just… it’s like the author just... forgot them.
Along with the author’s mind-boggling choice to leave out the monsters, he makes an equally bad decision to reintroduce Sasha, MC from 2034. Sasha… is just a terrible character, and no less pathetic than in her previous appearance. The sexism isn’t quite so strong in this—with the addition of Anya (from the games), and the inclusion of women fighting alongside men to keep the metro safe—but it’s still there, especially in the Reich and Red chapters, where I guess we’re just asked to expect it, because that’s what communism and fascism are for?
Keeping all of that in mind, the ending… really could’ve been worse. It all ties together very nicely—although we went on quite the killing spree to rid ourselves of loose ends—and ends in a way hinted at throughout the entire story. If you’ve come this far in the series and want more—this is a no-brainer. If you’re literally anyone else—go and play the games. That’s all I want to do now, to erase this ending from my mind and replace it with the (canonical) video-game one.
Hmmm... Nie chce się rozdrabniać, po prostu totalnie nie moje klimaty ani trochę. World-building oczywiście świetny ale jeśli chodzi o postacie (SZCZEGÓLNIE kobiece) no to niezbyt. Artem w tym tomie był bardzo niezdecydowany, wiał jak chorągiewka na silnym wietrze.