Metro 2033 cover art

Metro 2033

The novels that inspired the bestselling games

 Preview

Get 30 days of Premium Plus free

£8.99/month after 30-day free trial. Cancel monthly.
Try for £0.00
More purchase options
Buy Now for £16.99

Buy Now for £16.99

About this listen

 Now including a new translation, this is a chilling piece of Russian dystopian fiction and the basis of three bestselling computer games Metro 2033 and Metro Last Light, and Metro: Exodus

The year is 2033. The world has been reduced to rubble. Humanity is nearly extinct. The half-destroyed cities have become uninhabitable through radiation. Beyond their boundaries, they say, lie endless burned-out deserts and the remains of splintered forests. Survivors still remember the past greatness of humankind. But the last remains of civilisation have already become a distant memory, the stuff of myth and legend.

More than 20 years have passed since the last plane took off from the earth. Rusted railways lead into emptiness. The ether is void and the airwaves echo to a soulless howling where previously the frequencies were full of news from Tokyo, New York, Buenos Aires. Man has handed over stewardship of the earth to new life-forms. Mutated by radiation, they are better adapted to the new world. Man's time is over.

A few score thousand survivors live on, not knowing whether they are the only ones left on earth. They live in the Moscow Metro - the biggest air-raid shelter ever built. It is humanity's last refuge. Stations have become mini-statelets, their people uniting around ideas, religions, water-filters - or the simple need to repulse an enemy incursion. It is a world without a tomorrow, with no room for dreams, plans, hopes. Feelings have given way to instinct - the most important of which is survival. Survival at any price.

VDNKh is the northernmost inhabited station on its line. It was one of the Metro's best stations and still remains secure. But now a new and terrible threat has appeared. Artyom, a young man living in VDNKh, is given the task of penetrating to the heart of the Metro, to the legendary Polis, to alert everyone to the awful danger and to get help. He holds the future of his native station in his hands, the whole Metro - and maybe the whole of humanity.

Readers are hooked on Metro 2033:

'The Russians have a skill in writing apocalyptic, nightmarish stories' Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

'It is the best post-apocalyptic sci-fi I have ever read' Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

'Those Russians know how to write dystopian, post-apocalyptic, creepy horror . . . a fantastic, immersive read' Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐©2007 Dmitry Glukhovsky Adventure Dystopian Epic Fantasy Fantasy Fiction Post-Apocalyptic Science Fiction Scary Funny Survival

Critic reviews

If you're looking for thoughtful, meandering, and thrilling exploration of a world after the end of the everything, check out Dmitry Glukhovsky's Metro 2033
The world of Metro 2033 is fascinating
A fascinating and claustrophobic exploration of a terrible future and how human nature adapts
All stars
Most relevant
Tricky to begin with, the Russian names for stations and characters give it a bit of a learning curve, but once it hooked me I was gripped right until the end. I had the pc game years ago and never realised it was a book, such a rich universe and tense story. Sequences from this book will stay with me for a long time, it was outstanding in many ways.

amazing!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Artyoms journey through the Moscow subway, post apocalypse, makes the lord of the rings look like a walk in the park. Great stuff. Brilliantly imagined and performed.

Excellent post apocalypse tale !

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
An excellent performance by Rupert Degas. Easy to use one Russian accent, but to do a whole cast takes real talent.

I thought this book would be miserable post apocalyptic, living in brutal holes. But there is real, if dark, magic at work. The survivors of some unexplained catastrophe not only exist but have formed a civilisation in the miles of tunnels beneath Moscow.

The tale is your typical journey fantasy. But brought to life by the writing and realistic characters. I am sorry I avoided this book previously. It is clear why there are fans who blog about this world and create detailed maps of the Metro.

Much more interesting than I thought

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
loved every moment of the book, the characters the monsters just everything about the book was great.

Heartbreaking story.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
very good, nice accent's, easy to know which character is talking and good sound effects

great

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews