Crimea

Metro 2033: Crimea is a novel by Nikita Averin, published as part of the Metro 2033 universe in October 2013. The forty-first book of the series, Averin's novel serves as the first entry of his Crimea: The Last Hope trilogy.

Synopsis
It used to be like this, riding your trusty horse (green, eight-legged, omnivorous) toward Dzhankoi. On the left - splashing radioactive Black Sea, teeming with mutated wildlife, on the right - fuming ruins of former boarding houses and resorts, overhead - the merciless scorching sun and ravenous seagulls. A beauty, in a word! You see a metal cable stretching somewhere into the watery abyss. A normal person would have driven past it. But you're not normal, you're the Poshta of the Leafleting Clan. You do not look for adventure - it finds you. And that's not to say that you're not at a resort. Here, brother, it's all grown-up. The island of Crimea...

Story
Crimea is separated from the mainland and cut off from the rest of the world. Bandits, Cossacks, Tatars, sailors from Sevastopol, the Council of the Free Cities of Crimea, and the Listonosh clan have settled on the island, trying to revive civilization. One of the Listonosh named Poshta rides his horse Odin into the town of Balaklava, where he gets hold of a punch card that contains information about the Renaissance Bunkers. In order to escape from facility 825, where they won't let him go, he contacts a guy named Toothpick. After escaping, they board the Flying Train. After a short trip, they stop for the night because the train runs on solar panels. Suddenly the train is attacked by mountain bandits, while Bujen's men deal with the gang, Poshta is stunned by Toothpick, takes the punch card, and escapes with the bandits. Upon waking up, Poshta learns that the bandits have fled to Sevastopol. Poshta heads to the city, where he meets Russian sailors. Once in the floating city, which consists of Russian Navy ships, he asks Captain Voronin about the bandits, and learns that they are hiding in the city. Poshta learns that the captain has a naval decoder and asks the captain for this device and men to destroy the bandits. But he offers him a deal: his warhorse must go out against Chimera, a mutant belonging to the NATO, and Poshta agrees. After a sweepstakes fight, where Poshta's horse wins, Voronin gives the hero his fighters and a decoder. After destroying the bandit group, Poshta learns that Toothpick has escaped to the Bakhchisaray. Poshta goes there, where Khan Aslan Girei II rules. There he meets a detachment of plastuns, an elite special unit of Cossacks. After a conversation he learns that the daughter of Sesaul Tapilin has been kidnapped. Then it becomes known that it was the Cult of the Grey Light. Gathering the squad, Poshta and Vahmister Ognev advance to the cultists' base, pretending to be bandits, they ask to be accepted into the cult. They are disarmed and then have a rite of initiation in which they will have to kill people. But Ognev notices the Cossack's daughter in the crowd, and when the squad gets their weapons, a firefight between the plastuns and the cultists ensues. After the Cossacks are killed, Poshta escapes with Olesya, the Sesaul's daughter. In Bakhchisaray he learns that a decoder is missing after his room is searched. Poshta heads to Girei's palace, where he is instructed to deliver a parcel to Hetman Doroshenko, at which time he will return the decoder. After a series of events, Poshta gives Olesya to the Cossack, and gets the Toothpick and the punch card. Afterwards, Poshta learns that Bujen and his unit have been captured at Krasnoperekopsk, along with the train. He gets there, but without the Toothpick and punch card. There he manages to find the deposed king of Tortuga, Redtail. He agrees to help free the train, after capturing the punch card and meeting with Professor Kaisanbek Alanovich. Poshta, along with Redtail, frees Bujen and his crew, and then leaves Tortuga with a fight. On the way to the train, Toothpick runs in with a shotgun. During the fight, Bujen is killed, but Poshta avenges his comrade and kills Toothpick. After the hero arrives in Dzhankoi, where after decoding the map he learns the coordinates of the Renaissance bunkers, which Poshta will have to find.

Interesting Facts
Крым (роман)
 * The novel grew out of the short story entiled "A Letter to You".
 * Post-nuclear Crimea is an island.
 * Poshta's horse, Odin, is named not only after the supreme Scandinavian god, but word meaning "friend" in one of the Ukrainian dialects (that is, the accent, by the original intention, was placed on the second syllable).
 * Although the former peninsula wasn't heavily bombed, many survivors mutated over time, developing immunity to radiation. At the same time, the Listonosh clan, to which the protagonist belongs, is able to artificially endow a person with this ability.
 * Almost all members of the Listonosh clan have "postal" nicknames.