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crofteereader 's review for:
Metro 2033
by Dmitry Glukhovsky
I played the second game in the Metro franchise (which, based on the ending of the book, picks up nicely where this story left off) so I came into this at least mildly familiar with the universe and Artyom. However, the game felt like it had way more direction. Artyom has no agency, instead seeming to wander from one ridiculous and dangerous situation to another - often being rescued or escaping through no direct action of his own. He is passive in his own story! Maybe after this great adventure, he'll have more agency and the second book (which I have queued) will provide more in terms of a concrete plot and character arc.
That being said, there were some really awesome moments during the story when Artyom is alone (because almost every single person he interacts with on his journey dies) that Glukhovsky shows us the real psychological trauma caused by the darkness and the alienness of the metro. We see the dregs of humanity, scraping life from mushrooms and filth, creating their own elaborate religions to explain away the horror that is their lives. But because there are so many such groups of people, it makes the story feel very disjointed - almost like a violent, Russian Alice in Wonderland.
That being said, there were some really awesome moments during the story when Artyom is alone (because almost every single person he interacts with on his journey dies) that Glukhovsky shows us the real psychological trauma caused by the darkness and the alienness of the metro. We see the dregs of humanity, scraping life from mushrooms and filth, creating their own elaborate religions to explain away the horror that is their lives. But because there are so many such groups of people, it makes the story feel very disjointed - almost like a violent, Russian Alice in Wonderland.