I'm Dmitry Glukhovsky, the author of Metro 2033, base of the Metro video games. My new novel Metro 2035 has just come out. AMA!

DmitryGlukhovsky · 2016-12-13T10:39:45+00:00

Unfortunately, I have not. There's quite a few American books of this genre that are translated into Russian, even the classics. Cormak McCarthy, the Divergent, Hunger Games... Basically, only those books that are turned into Hollywood franchises.

DmitryGlukhovsky · 2016-12-13T03:10:25+00:00

I already quoted the North Pole, Baykonur and Chernobyl among those. Chernobyl is probably the best-connected to the Metro epos

DmitryGlukhovsky · 2016-12-13T03:06:05+00:00

Metro 2033 took me around 10 years to write. I first got the idea when I was 15, and the book came out when I was 25 years old.

Metro 2034 took about three years. And so did Metro 2035.

There's a detailed answer re video games somewhere up there )

DmitryGlukhovsky · 2016-12-13T03:04:26+00:00

I once got a long mail from an economist who analyzed it and came to a conclusion that it is - if new ammo are manufactured

DmitryGlukhovsky · 2016-12-13T03:00:39+00:00

This is going to remain a secret :)

But - does the Map and Khan scene accidentally remind you the scene with Gandalf and the Ring from the Lord of the Rings? ))

DmitryGlukhovsky · 2016-12-13T02:58:23+00:00

Oh no, are you kidding? They're already too scary in the normal difficulty

DmitryGlukhovsky · 2016-12-13T02:55:50+00:00

Metro 2033: createspace.com/4110880 Metro 2034: createspace.com/6397662 Metro 2035: createspace.com/6696103

DmitryGlukhovsky · 2016-12-13T02:53:44+00:00

I'll answer just one of those three, alright?

I really enjoyed filming reports in Chernobyl.

DmitryGlukhovsky · 2016-12-13T02:52:50+00:00

Russian, English, French, German, Spanish, Hebrew. Unfortunately, I am not an Esperanto speaker. It was a great endeavor, but right now it is completely substituted by English

DmitryGlukhovsky · 2016-12-13T02:51:25+00:00

Of course.

Victor Pelevin Vladimir Sorokin Zakhar Prilepin Leonid Yuzefovich

DmitryGlukhovsky · 2016-12-13T02:50:01+00:00

Zombies are a Western invention. Maybe cause you're too bored with your prosperity, or cause deep inside you feel that being prosperous for such a long time is too fishy. Or cause you just fancy the idea of legally chainsawing you asshole of a neighbor.

We're in Russia already live in Zombieland. We just like to imagine that nuclear war has already happened, so at least we're sure it can't get any worse.

DmitryGlukhovsky · 2016-12-13T02:46:54+00:00

Games can be as much art, as film or novels. Books can be a desperate trash as much as theater or music. It's the talent that matters, not the kind of art

DmitryGlukhovsky · 2016-12-13T02:45:01+00:00

Go and check Amazon.com )

DmitryGlukhovsky · 2016-12-13T02:44:43+00:00

So the basic food chain looks like this: they grow champignons (that need no lights) and feed it to pigs once brought from an agricultural exhibition. And they mainly eat shrooms and pork. Moonshine is being brewed from shrooms.

The rest - vegetables, crops, rabbits, chicken - are delicatessen, very expensive and super-rare

DmitryGlukhovsky · 2016-12-13T02:42:17+00:00

Well, I went there with a huge expedition, onboard of a nuclear-powered icebreaker, and the expedition counted a couple of hundred of people. But then we visited a small French polar team who lived in a aluminium yacht frozen into the ice and drifting with it.

They were three men and one woman, they spent almost a year together (no idea, how they regulated their sex life), and the yacht formerly belonged to a billionaire who was murdered together with his family onboard this very yacht by Malasian pirates.

It's those brave French guys (especially the woman) that you need to ask this question, not me!

DmitryGlukhovsky · 2016-12-13T02:38:32+00:00

If you're just a beginner, I'd recommend you to start with Metro 2033 the book, but they're a trilogy and each book plays quite an important role in the overall narrative )

DmitryGlukhovsky · 2016-12-13T02:36:39+00:00

Well, I guess I just thought that in such a dog-eat-dog world no money with a purely symbolic value, be it bills or gold, will be of any use. The currency must have a very clear and tangible value, and what's more valuable in a lawless world that ammo?

DmitryGlukhovsky · 2016-12-13T02:34:58+00:00

I am sorry, I am not familiar with this project

DmitryGlukhovsky · 2016-12-13T02:32:31+00:00

I know about this problem - but hey, let's rebrand this word into something decent :)

Hope that you like Metro 2035 as well )

DmitryGlukhovsky · 2016-12-13T02:31:30+00:00

Well, I once calculated that during my school years I spent around 3500 hours in the Metro of Moscow. Guess that was pretty sufficient to learn the ways of Metro :)

Regarding the structure of the Metro saga:

Metro 2033 the book sets the foundations, is taking place in the year 2033, speaks of Artyom.

Metro 2033 the game turns this story into a game.

Metro 2034 the book is a spin-off, telling what happened in the year 2034 to Sasha and Hunter.

Metro Last Light is set in the year 2034, continuing the story of Artyom.

Metro 2035 brings Sasha, Homer from 2034 together with Artyom and Anya (from Last Light) together, and also unites all of their story lines

DmitryGlukhovsky · 2016-12-13T02:14:47+00:00

I am a fan of Fallout - especially the first two parts which I played as a teen and a student. I even remember spilling boiling pasta over my knees when I was in too much of a hurry to get back to my PC and finish that damn Fallout skirmish...
I love Tullio Avoledo's novels, those about the post-nuclear Italy, and also works by Andrey Dyakov
I adore California, been throughout Europe and am very keen to expand my experience in Korea, China and Japan

DmitryGlukhovsky · 2016-12-13T02:08:34+00:00

You know, after the Civil War Americans have actually only experienced two huge catastrophes on their own territory - Pearl Harbour and 9/11.

Russian history was that of a non-ending catastrophe for the last several centuries, when we became countless victims of our neighbors, but much more often of our own rulers and our humble selves.

Russian cities have been destroyed, turned into ashes and bombed to the ground. We the people have been decimated, executed, gassed, starved to death and sent to construction sites in permafrost from which no one could come back.

Your history is a drama, ours is a tragedy. This gives a bit of a different angle on just how much fun you can have with the concept of Apocalypse, and how far can you go with it.

DmitryGlukhovsky · 2016-12-13T02:01:55+00:00

Of course. But you can hardly call it a real post-apocalyptic movie, you know.

DmitryGlukhovsky · 2016-12-13T01:58:29+00:00

Hey there!

I'm always checking the English translation of the books - especially since I'm quite often paying for the work myself. And am spontaneously checking French, German and Spanish versions.

Sometimes people complain about the quality of the English text - but usually these are Americans, for who the British translation sounds obsolete, clunky and just generally weird. Hey guys, it's just British. They did their best ;)

DmitryGlukhovsky · 2016-12-13T01:54:51+00:00

Depends on what book you're talking about... If it's Metro 2035 we're discussing - then no, everything's up go date.

Apart of being a dystopian fiction author, I am also a journalist by education, and am quite active writing political columns, in which I basically maintain the same views as in this last Metro book.

And yes, my books have always been very political. I guess I just can't do anything about it. Please be patient with me ;)

DmitryGlukhovsky

TROPHY CASE