Metro 2033 – Glukhovsky Dmitry (2025)

Now including a new translation, this chilling work of Russian dystopian fiction forms the basis of the three computer games Metro 2033, Metro: Last Light and Metro: Exodus. The year is 2033, and the world has been reduced to rubble. Humanity is nearly extinct, the half-destroyed cities are uninhabitable because of radiation, and beyond them lie endless burned-out deserts and the remains of splintered forests. The last remnants of civilization have become a distant memory, the stuff of myth and legend. More than 20 years have passed since the last plane took off from Earth. Rusted railways lead into emptiness, while the airwaves echo with soulless howling where once there was news from Tokyo, New York and Buenos Aires. Radiation has mutated new life-forms that are better adapted to the changed world, and humankind’s time seems to be over. A few tens of thousands of survivors live in the Moscow Metro, the largest air-raid shelter ever built and humanity’s last refuge. Its stations have become small states, united around ideas, religions, water filters or the simple need to repel enemy incursions. There is no tomorrow, and no room for dreams, plans or hopes; instinct and survival at any price have taken their place. VDNKh is the northernmost inhabited station on its line. Once one of the Metro’s best stations, it remains secure, but a new and terrible threat has appeared. Artyom, a young man living in VDNKh, must travel to the heart of the Metro, the legendary Polis, to warn its people of the danger and seek help. The future of his station, the entire Metro and perhaps all of humanity rests in his hands.