Siege of Paradise

Metro 2033: Siege of Paradise is the second novel by the Russian science fiction writer Andrey Butorin, written as part of the Metro 2033 universe series and the Peninsula of Hope trilogy. Released in November 2011, this is the twentieth book of the series.

The novel is a direct continuation of the first part of the trilogy - Butorin's novel The North. The place of action is the city of Polyarnye, in the Zori Murmansk region. The main characters are Nanas and his fiance Nadezhda Budina. In the novel, the two main characters, along with residents of the Polyarnye Zori (untouched by nuclear war and thriving thanks to the working Kola Nuclear Power Plant), try to protect their home from the hordes of raiders seeking to destroy the city and its nuclear power plant.

Barbarian Attack
The plot directly continues the events of the novel The North. The protagonist Nanas and his girlfriend Nadezhda Budina get to the town of Polyarnye Zori. They meet with the leadership of the city's garrison. Nadezhda tells them that she is the same person Semyon Budin tried to save, and they escort her to the town's administration. When they find out who he is, they treat Nanas like a savage - with mockery, they kick him out of town. Before this, Nadezhda promises Nanas that she will come back for him. Nanas spends the night in the woods near the city walls.

Upon waking up, Nanas finds neither Nadezhda nor any trace of her leading out of the city, and concludes that the girl has remained in Polyarnye Zori. Immediately he has different thoughts about what is happening, one of which he clings to - Nadezhda has cheated on him by remaining in the city she liked. The second - about the danger threatening Nadezhda inside the city - he tries to verify by talking to one of the guards on the city wall, but he refuses to help and chases Nana away, threatening to fire upon him with a machine gun. Frustrated with everyone, Nanas leaves, hoping to survive alone in the woods despite being left with almost no weapons and no means of survival. He plans to make his way to the other nearest town, which is unknown to him, Kandalaksha.

Wandering through the woods, Nanas hears the cry of Nadia calling out for him. Returning to the track, he sees a snowmobile with its driver dying of an arrow to his back. According to the driver, more than a thousand armed barbarians, who have already destroyed Kandalaksha, are heading towards Polyarnye Zori. Here Nanas meets Nadezhda, who for the sake of him refused the place of residence offered to her in Polyarnye Zori.

At Nanas's will, the couple return to Polyarnye Zori with news of the impending danger in the city. Later, an outside patrol confirms the information brought by the protagonists: a large number of people in skins, armed with both throwing weapons and firearms, are moving toward the town. Martial law is declared in the city, making it impossible for Nanas and Nadia to leave. They are taken to the "White House", the mayor's office in Polyarnye Zori.

On the way, the travelers look at the city, never ceasing to be amazed at how everything has been preserved. At the "White House" they meet Viktor Safonov, the mayor, and Nanas also meets Oleg Yarchuk, the head of the city's garrison. Safonov and Yarchuk, learning of the Sami's excellent memory, decide to place him on the city's payroll. Since Nanas is accepted into the city, Nadezhda also agrees to stay there. Nanas is given a last name and a first name to register with the city. He is then sent to serve in security.

Nanas joins a squad led by Vitaly Kirkin, heading out to help the southern sector garrison. During the squad's sortie, Nanas is attacked by an albino snake, but thanks to fighter Sorokin, who drives off the snake, it crawls away, causing only minor damage to the young rookie. At the same time, Nanas and his commander catch one of the barbarians, who is then interrogated by the head guard, Soshin. As a result of capturing the "tongue", Nanas' authority grows.

General mobilization is announced throughout the city. Nanas joins the Dalistian and stands on the city wall, to provide cover from above for the squad that will engage the enemy in direct combat. However, Nanas, forgetting his orders, fires at the barbarians earlier than necessary, wasting ammunition, though not in vain. Later, during a break, a fighter who saw Nanas not firing at the right time accuses him of doing so, thinking that he simply did not want to wound the barbarians, to whom he supposedly belongs. Later, Nanas meets Hope, and they walk around the city. That evening, someone attacks Nanas from behind, hitting him in the head with a heavy object. The young man loses consciousness without seeing who the attacker is.

Dr. Rashidov assigns Nanas to bed rest. Nanas is visited by an investigator who, after listening to Nanas, decides that he cannot find the perpetrator. He warns Nanas not to bother filing a report, because otherwise they will "disclose" that Nanas beat himself in order to "get out of the service".

A few days later, Nanas returns to duty and is back on the wall. He watches as the barbarians bring three citizens they have captured to the city wall, one of whom is the mayor's son, Ignat Safonov. Sheka, the leader of the barbarians, speaks to the mayor. She demands that he open the city gates. Upon hearing the refusal, Sheka offers the mayor the return of one of his prisoners in exchange for her captive. The mayor is unable to make the right choice between his son and the other prisoners, and the barbarians kill all the prisoners except Ignat. The barbarians take Ignat away, and Sheka advises the mayor to consider her demand to open the gates, or his son will suffer the same fate as the other captives.

That same day, Nanas secretly hears from his allies that the barbarians know about the Kola Nuclear Power Plant, which powers the city and is surrounded by a separate wall, and that they have recently made a failed attempt to attack the plant.

The Mayor's Assignment
At night, Mayor Safonov invites Nanas to a secret meeting in an abandoned house. He discusses with Nanas the possibility of surrendering the southern sector of the city to the barbarians in order to beef up security for the rest. Safonov says he wants to infiltrate Nanas into the barbarian tribe as an imaginary defector to learn all information about their military forces and plans, bringing the enemy army into the southern sector to prove his "loyalty". Safonov helps Nanas sneak out behind the city wall.

Nanas meets Sheka and her right-hand man, Turu. Sheka seems very beautiful to him, and on her whim he sleeps with her. Nanas learns some information from Sheka about the barbarians. He also meets with Ignat, who proves to him that Safonov is not really worried about the people of the town, but only about his official position, and that he probably just set Nanas up. Ignat brings some clarity to the information previously known to Nanas about the existence of a certain Potapov installation at the KNPP, which, if not for Safonov's whim, would have made the city and the plant much more secure from external threats than they are now.

At dawn, the barbarians stage a mock execution of Ignat in front of the city guards. Then the savages, following Nanas, sneak into the southern sector of the city, but meet a large resistance force, whose soldiers, in addition, seeing Nanas, want to kill the "traitor". Nanas withdraws from the battlefield and is left alone, unneeded by the citizens of the city or the barbarians.

First of all, Nanas decides to find food. He encounters a mutant bear that nearly kills him, but Nanas is helped by three white dogs led by Seid. As it turns out, the dogs have decided to test the degree of danger to themselves coming from Polyarnye Zori, and so they head toward this town. Next, Nanas and the dogs meet the barbarian Gore, who has left on his own. He tells his story and that of the barbarians. Nanas learns that Sheki's dream is to destroy the KNPP, and that the barbarians do not believe Gore's revelation that destroying the KNPP threatens them all with death.

While the travelers decide what each of them should do now, Nanas gets the idea to save Polyarnye Zori. With the help of intelligent dogs, he proposes to make the Potapov plant work. The comrades eventually agree to such a plan.

Later, Nanas, Gore, and the dogs advance toward the city and the station. Now the barbarians are no longer besieging the city, but the station itself. The city and station are connected by a tunnel with holes in it - one of which Nanas suggests using to sneak into the tunnel and, for fear of being shot, find some of the guards, telling them the purpose of his visit. Once inside the tunnel, Nanas walks alone toward the city.

Nanas is detained by the guards, treating him as a traitor. At the same time, he is met by Ignat. The guards take Nanas to the head of the Zasheika garrison, Vitaly Kirkin. Yarchuk and Mayor Safonov arrive there as well. The latter berates Nanas for treason, and Nanas becomes convinced of the truth of what Ignat said. Saham tells those present of the assignment given to him by the mayor. Safonov becomes increasingly out of control, seeing Yarchuk's reaction (who begins to believe Nanas' words), and eventually emotionally walks out of the room. Nanas tells Yarchuk how Polyarnye Zori can be saved with the help of Potapov's installation at the KNPP. Yarchuk agrees to give it a try.

In the tunnel, Kirkin, Yarchuk, Nanas, Nadezhda, and a couple of guards finally reach the location where Gore was. They learn from Seid that Mayor Safonov ran past them recently with a bag. Officials confirm that the mayor was on his way to the KNPP, and report that he took five kilograms of explosives with him. When everyone arrives at the plant, it finally becomes clear that Safonov wants to blow up the Potapov plant - which will lead to global radioactive contamination for many kilometers around, something the mayor is unaware of. The rescuers, led by Yarchuk, get to the very hall with the installation just as Safonov finishes placing explosives on the structure and prepares to fire his gun into it. Yarchuk tries to negotiate with Safonov, but they fail. Eventually, with the help of Seid, Yarchuk kills Safonov before he can detonate the rig.

Saving the City
With the help of the dogs, the Allied team attempts to activate the Potapov installation - inflicting terror on all who are near the installation. The attempt proves successful. Yarchuk decides to use the installation continuously for three days, which will mean an unconditional victory over the barbarians. All of the station's guards and weapons are moved to the city perimeter.

Soon, Nanas is forgiven. The only thing that continues to bother Nanas is the memory of how he cheated on Nadia with Sheka, and the fact that the young man has yet to tell Nadia about it. After the incident with the mayor and the activation of the installation, Nanas is sent to the hospital. When his condition improves slightly, he goes on duty of his own free will. Then, at a meeting with Yarchuk and Soshin, he lays out a plan to destroy the barbarians: by turning off the installation for a while and waiting for the barbarians to approach KNPP, to demoralize them by suddenly turning on the installation, and then to smash them with all his might. To get the barbarians closer to the KNPP, the council decides to use Gore and the captured traitor Parsykin (who hit Nanas over the head), faking their escape and killing Gore.

The plan is carried out and works; although the chiefs promise to shoot Gore with blank cartridges, they actually decide to wound him to be more natural, though they do not tell Nanas about it. The latter, watching the escape taking place in front of the barbarians, while Gore is wounded, thinks he has been killed. He becomes enraged and runs out of town to the wounded man, hoping to leave Polyarnye Zori forever. He is caught up with Ignat, who he tells of his night with Sheka out of anger. Nadezhda, overhearing this, leaves him, returning to Polyarnye Zori. Nanas searches the city for the girl to no avail. He then sets out for one last battle with the intention of saving Nadia and the city or die trying.

When demoralized barbarians appear near the city wall, the city guards, along with Nanas, begin a direct battle with them. Eventually, Nanas flees far into the woods. Sheka comes out to him, before presenting Nanas with a choice: "Take me. Or kill me." At this point, Nadia appears nearby and orders for Sheka to leave immediately, threatening her with a crossbow. Realizing she's no match, Sheka agrees on Nadia's terms under the condition she allow her tribe an opportunity to retreat. Nadia then tells Nanas that he is no stranger to her, and they return to town together.

Epilogue
After defeating the barbarians, Nadezhda becomes the heroine of Polyarnye Zori as Sheka's "presumed" assassin. The city's former security chief, Zasheika Kirkin, becomes the new mayor. Nadezhda and Nanas marry, although Yarchuk previously suggested that Nadezhda cancel her wedding to Nanas and marry him. Preparations also begin for an expedition to Vidyayevo, in which Yarchuk expects to get weapons and other supplies to Polyarnye Zori, while Nadezhda wants to visit the site of her father's death near the Sami Syat on the way.

Interesting Facts
Осада рая
 * The novel is set in the legendary Polyarnye Zori.
 * The author himself was not there. When writing the novel, he was guided by materials on the web. On October 28, 2015 there was a meeting with readers just in Polyarnye Zori. Andrey was at the KNPP during his school years.
 * Karelia and Finland are mentioned.
 * There is an amateur translation into Polish.