The North

Metro 2033: The North is a novel by Russian science fiction writer Andrey Butorin, as part of the Universe of Metro 2033. Released in October 2010, this is the eight book in the series. The first book in the Peninsula of Hope trilogy.

The novel takes place in the Murmansk region of Russia. This entry follows the adventures of a Sami boy named Nanas, who, living far from the remnants of civilization, knows nothing about the world outside his settlement. One winter day, Nanas receives a message from a mysterious celestial spirit to rescue a certain girl, Nadia, and bring her to the surviving town called Polar Zores. Nanas sets out on a perilous journey into an unfamiliar post-nuclear world.

Escape from the Soyt
The action of this novel takes place on the Kola Peninsula. Nanas, a young member of the surviving Sami community, escapes from his settlement pursued by Siladan, ruler of the Soyt, who wants to burn his dog Seid. Despite Seid being ugly, he's the only friend Nanas has ever known, having lost his parents years ago and living without any other relatives in the community. Although Seid is unusually intelligent for a dog, Siladan, on the other hand, views the dog as "the spawn of evil spirits". The community believes that apart from their village there are no living people left in the world, with everything else around them having been destroyed by evil spirits.

During the pursuit of Nanas by Siladan's men, a plane falls out of the sky, crashing onto the tundra below. The pilot manages to eject himself. All the witnesses don't understand what is happening, for the people born in the soyt have never seen civilization before. The pursuers return, believing that it's all over for Nanas and Seid. Nanas, on the other hand, mistakens the ejected man for a celestial spirit. The wounded pilot decides on using the boy's complete misunderstanding of what happened to his advantage and confirms that he is a celestial spirit. He tasks Nanas with a mission to get to the Northern Fleet's Vidyayevo base and find a girl named Nadezhda there, then deliver her to the town of Polyarnye Zori. The pilot shows Nanas the location of all the necessary landmarks on his map. Nanas, thanks to his phenomenal memory, remembers them, though he cannot read and only sees a map for the first time. After explaining to Nanas all that is required, the pilot passes out. Nanas takes his knife, map, and diary with him. Guided by the task of the "celestial spirit" and banished from his own native settlement, Nanas sets off on a sledge (sled) with a reindeer and Seid.

The Way to Vidyayevo
First, on the orders of the pilot, Nanas finds a bag containing two protective suits and a Geiger counter near his village. The pilot primitively explains what they are for and how to use them. However, contrary to the pilot's orders, Nanas is afraid to put on the protective suit because of its appearance. Along the way, Nanas encounters the first remnants of a former civilization - burnt buildings, but considers them as creations of spirits. Also, along the way, Nanas begins to notice huge five-toed footprints in the snow, realizing that he's now being pursued by some kind of monster. Soon, he and Seid discover the corpse of a moose, with its stomach and sternum ripped open. Also, a piece of its exposed intestine extends beyond the animal's hind legs and ends wrapped across a birch branch with the heart stuck into it.

On reaching the Olenegorsk fork between the road to his settlement and the St. Petersburg-Murmansk highway, Nanas encounters a bandit who, after trying to kill the boy, himself dies at the hands of the Sami. Nanas realizes that, for the first time in his life, he has killed someone.

Meanwhile, Nanas begins to encounter animals mutated by high levels of radiation, such as a horned scaly hare. Later, he and Seid face off against a mutant with blue eyes. On their approach towards the destroyed Murmansk, Nanas suffers a headache which begins to grow worse with each step. The Sami is protected from radiation only by a breastplate, one of the pieces of radiation-resistant mineral which Siladan and the elders wore in his village. Radiation also affects the reindeer, which eventually dies. The Narts are summoned to carry Seid, who, unlike Nanas, feels well. While under this severe pressure, Nanas puts on the protective suit after all.

The next survivor Nanas and Seid meet is a white female dog, who turns out to be Seid's paternal counterpart. Seid is delighted to meet her. Seid and the dog willingly continue to drive the Narts together. Nanas decides on calling the white dog Snezhka.

The travelers, on the last leg of their journey to Vidyayevo, reach the abandoned village of Ura-Guba, where a fight ensues: several blue-eyed monsters, surrounding the travelers, attack Nanas, Seid, and Snezhka. However, several other white dogs come to the aid of the travelers. Seid commands Nanas to flee, hoping that he and the other dogs will distract the monsters. At this point, Nanas finally realizes that his dog can communicate with him, though in fact he does so through telepathy. Nanas, following Seid's command, travels to Vidyayevo alone.

Upon reaching Vidyayevo, Nanas calls out to Nadia. His cries, however, attracts more blue-eyed mutants. Fleeing from them, Nanas finds himself inside a dungeon where, in the darkness, he is pursued by a mutant gooseneck.

Near the end of his journey, the young man meets Nadia, who at first distrusts Nanas and holds him at gunpoint. Nanas tells her the purpose of his arrival. Nadia takes him to a nuclear submarine preserved in an underground bunker, where Nanas continues to learn some of the realities of civilization: he takes a shower, dresses in the clothes Nadia brought him, watches a DVD, eats dinner, and drinks wine with the girl. Nadia becomes more and more attracted to Nanas. Over dinner, they tell each other their life stories. Nanas discovers that he is the first real person Nadia has met since the man who replaced her father.

The Way to Polyarnye Zori
The next day, Nanas and Nadezhda leave the bunker by snowmobile. Their final destination is Polyarnye Zori. Nanas willy-nilly demonstrates to Nadezhda his cowardice in front of the machine gun and snowmobile. First, at Nadezhda's will, the couple visit the site of Nikoshin's death. Later, they drive past the site of Seid's battle with the blue-eyed mutants, where they retrieve the pilot's bag which Nanas left behind. Soon, Nanas and Nadezhda are reunited with Seid and Snezhka. Seid joins the wayfarers, and during their journey communicates with Nanas: they tell each other about the events they experienced separately from one another. Seid also reveals some of the information he learned after mentally communicating with Nadia earlier. Nanas realizes his mistakes in communicating with Nadia and that the girl, despite his cowardice, is waiting for him to become a man. Seid also tries to convince Nanas that spirits don't exist and all the realities of the former civilization were created by humans. Nanas also understands the truth about the "celestial spirit", Semyon Budin, with whom his adventure began. However, Seid decides not to reveal the whole truth to Nanas, both about Nadia's attitude toward him and some of the dangers which threaten the travelers.

Near Olenegorsk, both travelers see several bandits on snowmobiles in pursuit of a man on a tractor. Nadia tries to detain the bandits, but is ambushed by one of their members, who takes her away helpless. Seid, seeing the hopelessness of the situation, gives Nanas the ability to drive a snowmobile at the cost of all his strength. Nanas, on one of the remaining snowmobiles, catches up with the bandit, disarms him, and thereby saves Nadia.

Returning to the tractor and finding the wounded old man there, as well as a lone Seid, exhausted after giving Nanas his new ability, the travelers move both into the snowmobile. The old man, who's name is Roman Andrevich, turns out to be a history teacher. He says that on their way to Polyarnye Zori, the travelers will have to pass Monchegorsk, which belongs to the bandits. They decide to go first to the village of Kilometer 27, about which they know nothing of. Along the way, Nadezhda teaches Nanas how to use the machine gun.

Upon reaching kilometer 27, the travelers decide to spend the night. It turns out that the room the hikers choose to sleep in was formerly home to Nadia's parents. Nanas discovers that Semyon Budin is Nadia's father, and the girl discovers that it was her father who wanted to rescue her. Nanas shows Nadia the diary Budin gave him. He also becomes conclusively convinced that Nadezhda, like her father, is a human, not a spirit, and that Semyon simply deceived Nanas by sending him out to save his daughter. Now, Nanas is free to decide his own fate without fear of the spirit's revenge. At the same time, Nanas concludes that he has every right to love Nadezhda. The girl, also in love with Nanas, knowing the Sami now realizes that he has simply been used, offers to break up with him and go home, and as compensation accept the knowledge of civilization and the skills he has acquired. Nanas explains to Nadia, however, that he wants to stay with her. Nadia is relieved, after this moment no longer hiding her feelings for him.

Nanas and Nadya decide to continue with Seid and Roman Andrevich to Polyarnye Zori, taking a detour to Monchegorsk along the Bolshaya Imandra Lake. Since there is a chance that the bandits will notice them from the city, all four travelers set off at night. However, because of the northern lights, Nanas and his friends are discovered by bandits from the Monchegorsk group YULA, who give chase. Roman save everyone at the cost of his own life by lighting some explosives in front of the bandits, thereby drowning all of them in the icy water.

At dawn, the travelers stop at a clearing and go to sleep. Nanas has a nightmare, after which he wakes up to find that Nadia and Seid are missing. Following their tracks, he finds him friends in a clearing next to a huge humanoid creature, which apparently created the strange footprints Nanas saw earlier on his way to Vidyaev. This creature has the power of telepathy, by which it paralyzed Nanas in his sleep and brought Nadia to himself. Now, this giant was pinning Nadia down, intending to kill her.

Since the creature was unable to hear Nanas's words or thoughts, they began to communicate through Seid. It turned out that the monster had decided to take revenge on Nanas for killing its mate. The creature's mate had been killed by Semyon Budin's plane, which had crashed near the Sámi, and the creature had decided that Nanas was to blame for it, which is why it has been pursuing him ever since.

Nanas wants to prove the creature wrong. Since Nanas's consciousness is closed off from the monster, Seid decides to help convey his thoughts to the giant. Suffering pain and risking his life, Nanas mentally relives his entire life again. The creature realizes its mistake, apologizes to Nanas, and leaves the travelers behind.

When Nanas regains consciousness, Hope, who thought the young man was dead, is relieved. Seid bids Nanas farewell, intending to return to Coke with the giant. It turns out that the travelers have almost reached the Polyarnye Zori, so that the city has become visible on the horizon. The city is only a short distance away.

Main Characters

 * Nanas is the main character in the novel. It's from his point of view that the plot of the book takes place.
 * Nadezhda Budina is a young girl, whose rescue is sent by the "heavenly spirit". In the second half of the novel, she becomes Nanas's partner and lover.
 * Seid is a mutant dog who accompanies his master Nanas almost all the way through the novel.
 * Semyon Budin - Nadezhda's father, the "heavenly spirit" who entrusted Nanas with saving the girl.

Interesting Facts
Север
 * The novel ripped the series out of the Moscow-St. Petersburg loop.
 * Confirmed what was said about Polyarnye Zori in "Metro 2034".
 * The narrative is not about major cities.
 * Murmansk wasn't just obliterated in a nuclear strike, it was turned into a frozen lake.
 * The founder of the Peninsula of Hope trilogy.
 * Together with two subsequent parts of this cycle, it was part of the first set of three separate books.
 * There is an amateur translation into Polish.