Metro 2034 by Dmitry Glukhovsky (book review).
Does the name ‘Metro 2033’ sound familiar? I mean, it was a book and a computer game based in Russia and a few people seeking sanctuary in the centre from the monsters roaming around using the Russian underground network. Now, a year later, author Dmitry Glukhovsky returns to this world only this time in ‘Metro 2034’. Colonel Hunter recruits Nikolai Ivanovitch Nikolaev aka Kolya aka Homer, the latter nickname being given for his love of books, and Ahmed for a secret mission. Finding one of their ways through the metro blocked off and barely surviving an attack, Hunter needs more forces to get through. Instead, a young girl, Sasha, joins his team as they travel the underground on some disclosed mission.
Although this book is translated from Russian, its densely written prose misses a little in the pacing that when an event happens you’re left wondering when did that happen because it’s lost in the text and lacks emotional impact on the characters.
Unlike ‘2033’, ‘Metro 2034’ is more akin to a standard adventure with little of the SF elements that made the first book so much better and I’m still no less better off from reading it. There’s no denying that Glukhovsky can write and it comes out of the translation, but he does need to remind himself or his publishers what Science Fiction is all about and do something better in his next book.
GF Willmetts
February 2014
(pub: Gollancz. 311 page hardback. Price: £16.99 (UK). ISBN: 978-1-473-20428-7)
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