This book has such a great setting, but the author does not seem to know what to do with it. The scope of the Metro universe is so vast, but the author seems to be afraid of any radical change to it. Despite all the discoveries and dramatic events, the state of the metro universe at the end of the second book is almost identical the beginning of the first book.

Instead, we get treated to more inexplicable "magic". More rebasing of how awful life in the Metro is. More big conflicts that miraculously brings us back to the status quo ante. Yawn. ( )

O dezamăgire după Metro 2033, față de care e mult mai simplistă, mai puțin originală și mai lipsită de atmosferă.
Pe de altă parte e foarte alertă, plină de acțiune și se citește foarte rapid, fără a plictisi.
Nemulțumirea mea personală ține și de dozele de misticism, care pe mine mă scot din imersiune, dar asta e o chestie de gust la fiecare.
recenzie pe larg: https://bloguldesefe.ro/2021/10/16/lasati-orice-speranta-voi-care-intrati-in-met... ( )

The second book in this trilogy, and in my eyes better than the first.
The deeper Artyom goes into the subway the deeper the horror gets.
I love the plodding, creepy slow brooding style of plot, and the overall jab at politics and philosophy.
The involvement of religion, and sects is fantastic.
Great book. ( )

It's not a continuation of artyoms story but turns into a very own adventure worth reading (in my case listening to, audiobook of metro is great) ( )

A bit of a disappointment after 2033. Much of what I enjoyed from 2033 is missing here, specifically the horror elements and the supernatural encounters in the dark tunnels and surface wasteland. With only one such encounter in the early chapters, 2034 deals almost entirely with humanity's condition living in the tunnels and a disease outbreak in one station. The translation has improved, but my edition had a lot of unnecessary hyphens and dialogue was not properly formatted. Multiple characters would speak in the same paragraph making it difficult to tell who was talking.

Hunter, who got the ball rolling in 2033, is the main focus here. He is torn between his desire to help the inhabitants of the Metro, while also convinced that exterminating an entire station is the only option to prevent a plague from spreading. Following him is Homer, an older man who was a Metro employee before the war who now wishes to chronicle the events in the Metro. Sasha, a recent orphan joins them, and feels a need to help Hunter retain his humanity. Artyom is absent, the character appearing around the middle of the book is a different person. Why the author gave him the same name, I'm not sure. Miller (Melnik) makes a brief appearance and explains why Hunter is the way he is. He also mentions Artyom from 2033 and the aftermath of the first novel.

It seemed like the author wanted a romance, but this fell flat. None of the characters were particularly interesting, and without the mystery or danger from 2033 it was far too easy to nod off while reading. ( )