The Prologue to the Postnuclear Dystopia

Metro #0.5

by Dmitry Glukhovsky

The prologue to the fresh legend of European post-apocalyptic sci-fi, METRO 2033.

This book inspired a score of video games, including the upcoming METRO: LAST LIGHT, gave birth to a series of novels written by followers across the world and will soon be turned into a Hollywood movie!

Meet the legend for free. Welcome to the last refuge of the mankind after the end of the world. Enter the subway of Moscow...

* this piece is a free prologue to the novel.

Genres: Fiction, Science Fiction, Dystopia, Horror, Post Apocalyptic, Short Stories, Russia

2 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 23, 2013

About the author

Dmitry Glukhovsky (Russian: Дмитрий Глуховский) is a professional Russian author and journalist. Glukhovsky started in 2002 by publishing his first novel, Metro 2033, on his own website to be viewed for free. The novel has later become an interactive experiment, drawing in many readers, and has since been made into a video game for the Xbox 360 console and PC. Glukhovsky is known in Russia for his novels Metro 2033 and "It's Getting Darker". He is also an author of a series of satirical "Stories of Motherland" criticizing today's Russia.
As a journalist, Dmitry Glukhovsky has worked for EuroNews TV in France, Deutsche Welle, and RT. In 2008-2009 he worked as a radio host of a Mayak Radio Station. He writes columns for Harper’s Bazaar, l’Officiel and Playboy.
He has lived in Israel, Germany and France and speaks English, French, German, Hebrew and Spanish as well as his native Russian.

Reviews

[Atlas · Rating 5 out of 5]

That was great...really great...I wish I had started reading this prologue before reading the main (Metro 2033) novel.
I quote this from the last couple sentences of this mini book:

"It may be true that our time is over. That human beings were once the ultimate stage of evolution, but now their place is at the bottom of the food chain. That we have no tomorrow. But we still have today, and even if legions of fiends from hell attack us, we will not surrender without a fight.
Don’t write us off too soon.
We’ll keep fighting right to the end.
To the bitter end."

Now these very words explains why I`m in love with this series.
It was a very short ride, though.

I recommend reading this before the main "Metro 2033"....though it`s hard to be found

From the Post-Apocalyptic egypt metro I speak
Good day
^_^

[S. ≽^•⩊•^≼ I'm not here yet · Rating 4 out of 5]

Those who unleashed the war were the first to die...
Dreamers die first.

Wait, what, Who when next after whom will die then?

We didn't deserve to be saved: many of us regard our survival not as a reward, but as a curse.

STILL

We'll keep fighting right to the end.
To the bitter end.

[Frank Davis · Rating 4 out of 5]

"We didn’t deserve to be saved: many of us regard our survival not as a reward, but as a curse."

Well, that was a 5 minute read and I'm not quite sure why I'm giving it 4 stars instead of 3 stars. It certainly has set the mood to start the series, but it has no plot, it's basically a state of the union address explaining how things are at the start of the series. But I would have thought that all the details provided here would be found in the first book. Perhaps not.

Perhaps the war that caused the nuclear disaster is never mentioned later on? Perhaps the number of survivors, being whittled down from 500,000 to 50,000 individuals is new information?

Since I'm starting here, I'm not sure exactly what value this serves as a prologue and I get more of a "teaser" or "taster" vibe from it. And also, since I'm starting here, I can attest that I am a suitably teased. Now, onto the main course!

"Don’t write us off too soon.  
We’ll keep fighting right to the end.  
To the bitter end."

[Kathrin · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 stars for a nice prologue to the series. It might be more interesting if you read it before starting with book 1. However, I read it after finishing Metro 2033 because it wasn't part of my box set.

[Hanane'S Archaeology · Rating 4 out of 5]

الحالمون يموتون أولا ; هي قاعدة مجتمع مترو الأنفاق ، المجتمع الوحيد المتبقي ؛ أمل البشرية الزائف و صراع البقاء على قيد الحياة .
أضحكت محطة مترو أنفاق موسكو الملجأ الوحيد و آخر معقل للبشرية أجمع ؛ بعد الحروب النووية الرهيبة التي عاشها العالم في الآونة الأخيرة ؛ و خصوصا بعدما سادت الوحوش سطح الأرض و جاء دورها لتستلم قيادة الكوكب بعد فناء الإنسان من على السطح . فكيف ستنجوا البشرية ؟ كيف يستطيعون النجاة تحت الأنقاض ؟ كيف سينقذون الإرث البشري ؟ و كيف ستكون المواجهة مع وحوش العالم العلوي ؟ كلها أسئلة تجيب عنها السلسلة فقط ضع حزام الأمان و إنطلق نحو المستقبل المظلم

[Jeff Koeppen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an excellent albeit too short, introduction to the Metro Trilogy. I wish I would've read this prior to reading Metro 2033. It is a nice summary of what happened leading up to the events of the first Metro book and a description of how the Russian Metro was actually designed to support a population of people in the event of a war. I had no idea.

It was originally provided as free content for Kindle but has since disappeared and is hard to obtain. Thanks, MonumentToDecency for providing me with the content!

[MonumentToDecency · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is installment .05 in the Metro series and it's been, for me at least, near impossible to track down.

A very kind person posted the text on the GR page, under 'questions about this book,' and I've since ebooked it. It was originally free, but god knows where to get it, all links to it are dead or offer corrupt files. So if anyone wants a copy of it as a ebook, in whatever format, let me know and I'll happily send you the file.

It's only 4 pages long but, imho, it's a must have for any completionists out there. Well worth the time.

[Victor · Rating 3 out of 5]

Exactly what it says on the lid: the prologue. You could have figured the same from the first chapter but this is the tl;dr version. I hoped it was less pointless.

[THISISGHOST1 · Rating 5 out of 5]

I actually played the games first but was always curious to read the books and have to say a strong start for the book and extremely well written.

[Jodi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wer die Metro-Reihe bereits kennt, muss diesen Prolog ehrlich gesagt nicht unbedingt lesen. Alles, was darin erwähnt wird, kennt man bereits. Aber eben - es ist ein Prolog. Mit diesem sollte man einsteigen und ihn nicht erst lesen, wenn man bereits mehrere Metro-Bücher im Regal stehen hat (so wie ich).

[Jorge Silva · Rating 5 out of 5]

A short, but amazing read. What a way to kickstart the whole series. I trully recommend everyone to read this before starting reading the books, as it adds another depth to your reading journey.

There are many aspects of this prologue that are seen in the introduction of all Metro games (Metro 2033, Metro Last Light and Metro Exodus), but the one that does it the best is definitely Metro Last Light (beware that you may get spoiled while watching these intros if you did not play the games or read Metro 2033 beforehand).

As of today (28th April 2023), for an unknown reason, this free prologue has been unlisted from all websites that previously listed it. It's truly a shame to see this since this prologue, while short (2 pages long), is really well written and gives readers a very good base to enter the this journey.

Special thanks to Ana for finding this prologue for me.

[Димон · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had the audiobook, I could not have read this entire thing in Russian otherwise, but I think it was good. Drawn out and the ending was confusing, but I liked the two main characters and how no-nonsense military they were.

[Augustus Amadeus · Rating 4 out of 5]

It briefly gives the gist about the Metro saga.

[Uroš Novaković · Rating 4 out of 5]

A 2 page prologue to the Metro 2033 novel. Nothing special about it so I see no reason why this wasn't included in the published book.

[Nino · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a lovely prologue, but wished it was longer.

[Matthias Noch · Rating 2 out of 5]

Just a 2 page long Intro to the Game

[Don · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brief, but does create the mood of what is going to become the full story. Glad that to read prior to diving into Metro further.

[M-A. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can’t say enough positive things about this book. It was fun to read, the setting is original (and positively filled with horror and gore) and the main characters were well developed and had some nice depth. I’m glad that I waited to play the video game, as the last 3rd of the book and the ending took the story to some unexpected places and ideas. The prose in this book oscillated between adventure paced dialogue and action to some really deep, Dostoevsky-level introspective philosophical questioning about some of the fundamental questions of humanity and life itself. It’s also worth noting that the Russian to English translation seemed very well done to me.

[Randy Johnson · Rating 3 out of 5]

A quest, a series of challenges leading to self-discovery, various interactions with unfamiliar beings; this is The Iliad recast as a post-apocalyptic sci-fi story and set in the remains of the Moscow Metro (originally built to double as the world's largest bomb shelter, should the need arise). Interesting, though not awesome. Touches of melodrama here and there, and an ending that may call Ender Wiggin to mind.

[Cameron Piccirillo · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was good. it begins off slow but picks up as the story continues, with lots of anticipation. The problem in the story changes throughout the book but is still easy to follow. It Gives grate descriptive detail that allows you to imagine the different settings and characters in your mined. the book is not for every one but if you enjoy an adventure story, this is a grate read.

[Randi · Rating 1 out of 5]

The book has an interesting subject but I found I had to make myself slog through the story. Perhaps it was due to how the book is structured with little white space and paragraphs that run for pages. The story could have benefited from a more heavy-handed editor. It is one of the few books I was glad when I it was finally finished and will not be reading any of the other books in the series.

[Derek Till · Rating 4 out of 5]

I personally loved this book. I originally played the video game and had a blast with that as well. Though this here added much more needed depth and interesting sections. The beginning may be slow, and the translation may be a bit poor at points, but I still had a blast reading it and will read Metro 2034 over the summer. Glukhovsky, you did well!

[Timo Multamäki · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very good dystopian story. Sometimes a bit hard to follow due to Russian names and so small print on the map. Great story and surprising ending. Will surely read the other books by this author.

[Antonio · Rating 2 out of 5]

So far this book is boring....

[Andrey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice book, the atmosphere its very depth and the characters are well devoloped, only issue is the ending, not what you can expect.

[william westmoreland · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great Prologue

A very good description of the book Metro 2033, it also does not repeat most of the beginning of the book. This is an amazing book for only being 6 pages!

[Vulcan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great prologue to the Metro series.

Big applause to Dmitry