Metro 2033

Author: Dmitry Glukhovsky

Narrator: Rupert Degas

Dive into the world of the post apocalypse with this dense, moody novel. Set in the Moscow Metro twenty years after a nuclear attack, humanity is scraping by and repeating the same old patterns of war and survival in a microcosm when an outside existential threat appears that shakes everything up. Artyom is a young man who was born on the outside before the bombs dropped, and he has survived with his stepfather in a relatively prosperous station harvesting mushrooms and raising pigs. One day when he was on guard in the tunnels against the Dark Ones, a seemingly mutated type of human from the surface with psychic abilities, he was conscripted to get help for his station and others by Hunter, an incredibly enigmatic man who handles security for the entire metro. Artyom leaves the only home he has ever known and sets out into a world of supernatural and psychological horrors. Along the way he meets Nazis, communists, and capitalists, all of whom use or abuse him to their own ends, but he also meets people who are kind and helpful. He visits stations where everyone lives in abject poverty and ones which astound the eye with their glitter and overflowing abundance, and all the while the Dark Ones encroach upon the metro little by little. 

This novel and its subsequent series inspired a best selling game franchise and it’s obvious why when you dive into its pages. The universe which Glukhovsky has created is rich and multi-layered and the trials Artyom endures takes you through a little mini Russian history lesson while keeping you entertained and on the edge of your seat the whole time. I loved the supernatural aspects of this novel, the fact that somehow the metro tunnels themselves were alive and either hostile or not depending on their whims is actually terrifying if it were applied to real life. 

The narrator for this novel is Rupert Degas and he did a great job with his accent work. His tone and flow were appropriate for the novel and his pronunciation of the Russian words was incredibly on-point. No production issues were identified while listening to this audiobook.