This page contains unmarked spoilers from the previous novels and Metro: Last Light, so beware!
Metro 2035 is a novel written by Dmitry Glukhovsky, published in 2015. It is a sequel to both his previous novel, Metro 2034, and the video game Metro: Last Light, and the third book in the novel series overall.
One year after the events of Metro: Last Light, Artyom has quit the Rangers, married Anna, and returned to his home station. Life in the Metro has also settled back to normal, with several changes: the Fourth Reich appears to have reformed itself in order to attract more residents, while the Red Line is suffering from a famine after a blight ruins their food supply.
Artyom, however, believes that two years ago, on top of Ostankino Tower, he heard radio transmissions from outside Moscow. Now, he is determined to make contact, and prove that there are others alive outside Moscow.
To do so, however, he must brave the Metro once again, and the new political changes that have reshaped it.
The novel is followed by the video game Metro Exodus (although the canon is sorta loose).
This novel features the following tropes:
- Adapted Out: The Baby Dark One, despite playing a major role in Last Light, is never mentioned in this book, and does not appear to exist in this book's version of the events of Last Light.
- An Aesop: The whole novel is a metaphor of the Russian government remaining in power by prioritizing heavily the financing and development of Moscow over the rest of the country, while simultaneously controlling the media to prevent exposing the citizens of Moscow to the harsh reality of life the rest of the country lives.
- The Bad Guy Wins: In the end, the Invisible Watchers (the Russian government remnants) and its corrupt leader Bessolov keep their control over the Metro, with none of the citizens but Anna believing Artyom's attempt to enlighten them on the truth.
- Big Bad: Aleksei Bessolov. He is responsible for the manipulation of the main Moscow Metro factions, as well as him being the primary mastermind behind Lyokha's betrayal into becoming his second-in-command and Artyom and Anna's exile to Vladivostok, when he was successful in propagandizing the citizens of the Moscow Metro to turn against both of them.
- Big Bad Friend: Lyokha starts off as Artyom's closest companion and sidekick until he betrays him near the end during their imprisonment close to Arbat station by becoming Bessolov's The Dragon.
- Bittersweet Ending: Artyom discovers the Metro's dark secret, that the remnants of the pre-war Russian government are playing the Metro factions against each other to stay in power, and hiding the fact that people outside Moscow survived the apocalypse. The Metro population is also too complacent with their lifestyles to care. There is hope for the future, however, as Artyom and Anna decide to leave to try and find the other survivors.
- Broad Strokes: Although the book is considered a sequel to Metro: Last Light, some details and events are different from how they were portrayed in the game, occasionally contradicting previous canon. For instance, there appear to be no surviving Dark Ones (when a major plot point of Last Light was finding the last of them), with the Rangers winning the battle for D6 on their own.
- This also applies to how Metro Exodus follows the book up, as it makes little reference to the infamous Reveal of this novel, retcons the ending, and shows Artyom and Anna being absolutely head over heels in love, which is NOT the ground for their relationship in this novel.
- In the same fashion, Exodus' DLC Sam's Story also follows this. In this original novel's ending both Artyom and Anna were driven out from the Moscow Metro after failing to convince the residents regarding the truth of life above the surface and travelled 9000 kilometres all the way to Vladivostok to avoid the Watchers and Bessolov. Sam's Story also retcons this part of the ending, where the titular protagonist Sam is the one who goes eastward to Vladivostok to go back to the United States.
- Buy Them Off: How The Conspiracy is kept secret and Artyom is left alone - everyone aware of it and still alive is offered some cosy spot or other form of bribery, becoming complacent. Considering the other choice is a bullet, it's not that surprising.
- Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Mutants are almost entirely absent in this book, even above ground where you'd think they'd be everywhere. Only time that mutants make an appearence is late in the book when Artyom encounters a pack of non-hostile mutated feral dogs.
- The Conspiracy: Invisible Watchers not only are real, but pull strings in the entire metro system, making all factions dance to the tune they play. As far as the book is concerned, they do it solely to stay in the the illusion of power.
- The Cuckoolander Was Right: Artyom was right - there are survivors outside of Moscow. Plentiful. Some of them even relatively close.
- Cutting Off the Branches: The book considers the Redemption ending of Metro: Last Light canon, and goes from it.
- Disaster Dominoes: Lyokha's betrayal of Artyom by becoming Bessolov's The Dragon kickstarts the latter's fall into grace, when he is ultimately betrayed by everyone in the Moscow Metro.
- The Famine: The Red Line is suffering from one, as their mushroom supplies have been ruined by blight. In fact, the knowledge of their crisis was the main factor in Fourth Reich's invasion on the Theatre Station based on Dietmar's statement.
- Gambit Roulette: Subverted, if not outright deconstructed. It becomes clear that whatever plan the Invisible Watchers ever had no longer works, thanks to a whole lot of unexpected factors.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: The Nazis invaded Theatre Station, which is under Red Line control but still busy with disorder from famine resulting from blight on their mushroom crops. Unfortunately, this turned out to be their downfall as the Nazis accidentally flooded their three main stations in a botched attempt to seal off their tunnels during the Red Line's follow-up invasion after a successful counter attack.
- Late-Arrival Spoiler: The fact that Last Light's good ending is canon, though some details of how the ending happened are changed.
- The Reveal: A whole slew of them, not all related.
- First of all, the Invisible Watchers, later revealed to be led by Aleksei Bessolov, are very much real, being The Remnant of Russian government. And they not just merely influence the situation in the metro, but actively shape the political situation from behind. But most importantly, there are plentiful survivors outside of Moscow and the inhabitants of the metro were kept deliberately in the dark about it, while the few that do know about it were fed nothing but lies and propaganda to keep the rest in line.
- On a much smaller scale, it's revealed the Reds build a small outpost in the surface and installed multiple wind turbines around it. Whatever edge this could provide them is made moot due to the mushroom blight.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: At the end, Artyom and Anna decide to leave Moscow and head eastward.
- Shoot the Messenger: A variation. After delivering a diplomatic note to the Reich, Artyom is promptly Made a Slave without as much as a blink.
- Sympathetic Adulterer: Played With. By the virtue of Protagonist-Centered Morality, Artyom falling for Sasha, despite being a married man, isn't portrayed all that bad. However, by 2035, Artryom himself is established in-universe as a jerk, so nobody cares or find it any worse than what he already did for past few years.
- There Is Another: After smashing a radio jammer on the surface, Artyom discovers from radio transmissions that other people survived the apocalypse outside Moscow.
- Took a Level in Jerkass: Artyom stops being
Vanilla Protagonist by taking few. This works against him, as nobody is willing to put up with him or his apparently crazy antics. - Unwitting Pawn: Miller was fed lies and supplies by the Invisible Watchers, so Rangers could enforce status quo and do all their biddings without ever questioning the situation.
- War Is Hell: Nazi put the enslaved laborers, including Artyom, as cannon fodders against the incoming Red Line soldiers after they were sealed off from behind to prevent their stations from being taken over. As the prisoners only had pickaxes and hammers, they had to resort to hand-to-hand combat in the pitch-black darkness. In the bloody conclusion, Artyom and surviving prisoners found out that they were fighting against similarly poorly-armed prisoners sent by the Red Line as meat-shields just as their own enemies did.
