Universe of Metro 2033

From the get-go, it is worth mentioning that Пикник на обочине [Roadside Picnic] (a 1972 sci-fi novel by the Стругацкий [Strugatsky] brothers) as well as Сталкер [Stalker] (Roadside Picnic's 1979 film adaptation by Андрей Тарковский [Andrei Tarkovsky]) both inspired much of Soviet, Russian and Eastern European fiction in general - including the entire Metro 2033 franchise and even more so when speaking of the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. video games and the various stories published as part of that universe.

I made this thread so that it can serve as an easy reference for fans of Metro seeking more English-language information about books of the Metro 2033 franchise, not only regarding Glukhovsky's novels but also the Universe of Metro 2033 series that he launched as a side project involving authors from all over the world. So far Glukhovsky has written 3 novels set in the world of Metro, whilst his hugely successful project has already seen the publication of over 90 books in Russia alone (with some translations and unique stories available in countries like Poland, Hungary, Germany, Italy and Spain).

Most of these have never seen an official release in an English-speaking country and probably never will, so I seem to be one of the few English-language sources for them on the forum and the wiki. I don't know Russian well enough to read books and understand more than half of what is written, so I rely on Polish translations of these novels (most of which are also fantastic). As I read each Polish translation or Polish book from the series, I will create a new page for it on the Metro Wiki as I have in the past and create a new entry for it here in this thread.

They will be listed here with basic information like authors, dates of first publication and setting. The title of each book will serve as a link to its corresponding page on the Metro Wiki, where you can find much more info about it (covers, descriptions, plot synopses, names of translators, more dates, etc.). Without further ado, here are the 2 lists:


Трилогия Глуховского [Glukhovsky's Trilogy]

Метро 2033 [Metro 2033]
Author: Дмитрий Глуховский [Dmitry Glukhovsky]
First published in: October 2005 (Russia)
Set in: Moscow (Russia)

Метро 2034 [Metro 2034]
Author: Дмитрий Глуховский [Dmitry Glukhovsky]
First published in: March 2009 (Russia)
Set in: Moscow (Russia)

Метро 2035 [Metro 2035]
Author: Дмитрий Глуховский [Dmitry Glukhovsky]
First published in: June 2015 (Russia)
Set in: Moscow (Russia)

Some time after Metro 2033 was published, Glukhovsky wrote an epilogue for it. At first it was not available in English and could only be acquired in Russia or some of the countries participating in the Universe of Metro 2033 project, but prior to the release of the video game Metro: Last Light it was made accessible for English-speaking audiences and shortened/converted into comic form (you may find it here).


Вселенная Метро 2033 [Universe of Metro 2033]

Тёмные туннели [Dark Tunnels]
Author: Сергей Антонов [Sergei Antonov]
First published in: January 2010 (Russia)
Set in: Moscow (Russia)

Питер [Piter]
Author: Шимун Врочек [Shimun Vrochek]
First published in: February 2010 (Russia)
Set in: St. Petersburg (Russia)

К свету [Towards the Light]
Author: Андрей Дьяков [Andrey Dyakov]
First published in: June 2010 (Russia)
Set in: St. Petersburg (Russia)

Во мрак [Into the Darkness]
Author: Андрей Дьяков [Andrey Dyakov]
First published in: July 2011 (Russia)
Set in: St. Petersburg (Russia)

За горизонт [Beyond the Horizon]
Author: Андрей Дьяков [Andrey Dyakov]
First published in: February 2013 (Russia)
Set in: St. Petersburg, Yaroslavl, Kaspiysk, Vladivostok (Russia), Kazakhstan and the coasts of Southern Asia

Наследие предков [Heritage of the Ancestors]
Author: Сурен Цормудян [Suren Tsormudian]
First published in: July 2012 (Russia)
Set in: Kaliningrad Oblast (Russian exclave)

Dzielnica obiecana [The Promised District]
Author: Paweł Majka
First published in: August 2014 (Poland)
Set in: Kraków (Poland)

Otchłań [The Abyss]
Author: Robert J. Szmidt
First published in: August 2015 (Poland)
Set in: Wrocław (Poland)

Wieża [The Tower]
Author: Robert J. Szmidt
First published in: May 2016 (Poland)
Set in: Wrocław (Poland)

W blasku ognia [In the Firelight]
Author: 12 Polish writers
First published in: January 2014 (Poland)
Set in: Moscow (Russia), Łódź (Poland)

Szepty zgładzonych [Whispers of the Fallen]
Author: 8 Polish writers
First published in: April 2015 (Poland)
Set in: Kiev (Ukraine), Moscow (Russia), Warsaw, Zwonowice, Radom, Szczecin, Częstochowa (Poland), parts of Slovakia and Hungary

Echo zgasłego świata [Echo of an Extinguished World]
Author: 14 Polish writers
First published in: March 2016 (Poland)
Set in: Gdynia, Gdańsk, Warsaw, Zabrze, Kraków, Giewont (Poland), Moscow (Russia), Stockholm (Sweden), Dunmore Cave (Ireland)

Le radici del cielo [The Roots of Heaven]
Author: Tullio Avoledo
First published in: November 2011 (Italy)
Set in: Rome, Urbino, Rimini, Santarcangelo di Romagna, Ravenna, Venice (Italy)

Право на силу [The Right to Use Force]
Author: Денис Шабалов [Denis Shabalov]
First published in: August 2012 (Russia)
Set in: Serdobsk (Russia)

Муранча [Murancha]
Author: Руслан Мельников [Ruslan Melnikov]
First published in: January 2011 (Russia)
Set in: Rostov-on-Don (Russia)

NOTE: I will post in this thread notifying you of any updates to the list. The topic will remain locked so that all the information contained within remains easy to access. If you would like to discuss one or more of these books, please create a new thread for it in this section of the forum.

 

Added another book - this time it's a collection of short stories as opposed to other novels. It was actually the first native Polish entry to the series, but I was hesitant about reading it since it's only available as an e-book and I prefer print. However, I don't regret motivating myself to get it as it was a pretty good read, even if not quite as great as some of the other books. In any case, it's up there now on the wikia, so remember to click on its title here if you want to learn more about it.

 

Added the second collection of Polish short stories; this one has some really varied settings. Overall it was a very good read, though in one of the stories a writer cast some characters from Last Light, which put me off a bit... he actually portrayed them very well in a way that suits them, so I'm not surprised it met the official criteria for the series as canon, but the plot itself and the situation they are placed in is a bit too far-fetched for me.

 

Added the fourth published book set in this world and the first one I read that was set in Moscow but not written by Glukhovsky. I'm surprised it was translated to Polish so late in comparison to some of the other ones.

 

Finally got round to reading Metro 2035, even though it was on my shelf for months now. :lol: On the Metro Wiki page I added a fairly spoiler-free synopsis for it and clarified its relation to Last Light in another section (that one is marked for spoilers, but again those are just minor spoilers for Metro 2035 and heavy spoilers for the end of Last Light - which pretty much everyone here has played). Figured I should update this thread telling you this, in case anyone is interested.

 

Updated the list with Otchłań, a novel by Polish science fiction writer Szmidt. I think this one may be one of the best I've read so far.

 

Just added the sequel to Szmidt's previous book. I know I said Otchłań might be one of the best, but I honestly think Wieża is even better and may actually be my favourite thus far. I guess it's similar to Dyakov's trilogy in that the novels complement each other well and would not be as good without one another, but Szmidt's work may actually be even better as Remer's journey is epic too yet feels more like Metro than Taran's adventures.

It would be ironic if the next book I read from the Universe will leave me even more impressed, as my friend really enjoyed that one. I might start reading it tomorrow.

 

The Right to Use Force is the newest addition to this thread. It was pretty cool and I can see why my friend liked it so much, but in my opinion it was not as good of a read as Wieża (The Tower). It took me longer to get through it even though it was shorter. I want to say it's the translation, but that's unlikely considering all of Podmiotko's other work is stellar and easy to read, so it's most likely something to do with Shabalov's style. And there was a bit too much Russian jingoism is parts.

You might've noticed that the order of the books in the list has changed too. I did this to reflect the layout at the Wiki page that I updated a few days ago. The previous order was fairly random, now they go in a kind of geographical pattern (north to south, east to west, and then back - but not precisely). This does mean that the next entry may no longer appear at the bottom as previously, depending on where the story is set, but I will continue to notify of any changes made so it should still be easy to find new books.

 

Added Echo of an Extinguished World, which is the third collection of short stories by Polish fans. Some of these were really good, especially the one set in Ireland - it was quite eerie, others were ok. Overall a decent mix.

 

This isn't news for any single book in particular, but I have created an article for Poland on the Metro Wiki - using info collected from all of the works that have been set there thus far. Feel free to check that out if you're interested.