A summary of "SNUFF" by Victor Pelevin

This book is a satirical dystopia, written in 2011, about the confrontation between two artificially separated worlds: the technologically advanced floating offshore world of Byzantium and the backward, ground-based Ukraine. Life in both societies is dominated by media technologies: information corporations cynically construct reality and unleash brutal armed conflicts for the sake of creating entertaining and religious video content.

Provoked war

The story is told from the perspective of Demian-Landulf Damilola Karpov. He pilots the stealth combat camera "Hennelor" and films videos for the independent corporation CINEWS INC. Damilola creates sacred films — snafs — that alternate scenes of real orc murders with pornography. Damilola’s partner, the shock discoursemonger Bernard-Henri Montaigne Montesquieu, is looking for a suitable pretext to start another conflict. The pilot manages to drive the young orcs Grim and Chloe onto the road right in front of the convoy of the thug Rvan Durex.

Bernard-Henri stages the rescue of an innocent girl in front of the cameras. Damilola opens fire with the camera’s cannons, killing numerous orc soldiers. The rescued Chloe leaves with the philosopher, while Grim flees. Returning home, Grim speaks with the procurator. He forces the teenager to smoke a narcotic mixture and informs him that he is being drafted into the army as an orderly for the ruler. Soon, Grim is taken to the barracks. During a ritual divination using the book "Tao Pesdyn," he receives a rare prophecy about an encounter with the beast and the light of Manitou.

The annual battle takes place in a gigantic circular amphitheater, known locally as the Circus. Damilola films the battle from the air, earning millions of manitou for a well-placed shot where the orcish army resembles a black octopus. Grim zips across the field on a moped, watching the famed orcish warriors fall to mechanical mammoths and steel-clad knights. Humans use flying walls, fragmenting the enemy army into isolated groups.

Defeated, the Orcish suicide bombers detonate ancient gas bombs. The toxic cloud kills several renowned Byzantine heroes. In response, the humans drop a powerful projectile on Rvan Durex’s headquarters. The Urkagan’s luxurious longship explodes. Grim suffers a concussion and loses consciousness for a long time, remaining lying on the battlefield among piles of corpses.

Life on Byzantium

Awakening one night after a bloody battle, Grim returns to the orc capital on foot. He finds Chloe in the discoursemonger’s secret hideout. The horrific truth is revealed: the philosopher is a serial killer, brutally murdering orcish girls. Chloe discovers the scalps of past victims in a hidden stash, ties up Bernard-Henri, and takes him hostage. The teenagers decide to escape to a safe haven in the philosopher’s car.

Orc police surround the house, preparing to storm it. Damilola receives a direct order from the priestess Alena-Libertina to rescue the orc couple, sacrificing her partner. The pilot destroys their pursuers with heavy missiles and takes Grim and Chloe aboard a hovering offshore. The maniac’s house burns to the ground. The Byzantium authorities stage a major television show. Grim and Chloe are presented as refugees fleeing a ruthless tyranny. Bernard-Henri is secretly recognized as a fallen hero, his bloody crimes concealed.

The rescued teenagers are given housing in an offshore company. Chloe quickly adapts to her new surroundings. She makes useful connections in the bohemian community, attends social events, and becomes an actress. Grim struggles with the break with his familiar reality. The young man feels like an outsider among the haughty denizens of the upper class.

The illusion of freedom

Damilola lives with Kaya, an extremely expensive artificial sura. The pilot manually adjusts Kaya’s mental parameters. By setting his spirituality and bitchiness parameters to maximum, he is constantly subjected to psychological pressure from the machine. Kaya begins to show an exaggerated interest in Grim, in an attempt to provoke her master’s jealousy. Damilola suffers, but agrees to introduce the sura to the orc in exchange for a dose of unprecedented physical pleasure — a dopamine rush.

Grim gradually masters the profession of content sommelier. The young man uses a computer program, a creative finishing tool, to transform his fragmented thoughts into cynical dialogues for new snuff pieces. Soon, the young man meets the priestess Alena-Libertina, who reveals to him the religious doctrine of the upper world.

The priestess explains that time in the universe flows backwards — from destruction to the moment of creation. Snuffs are considered the seeds of the future reality, and the blood spilled in the arena is necessary to nourish the deity Manitou. Grim is shocked by this philosophy, but continues to work for the Byzantium information machine. Soon, his grim texts cease to generate income. Grim sinks into a deep depression and decides to return to Ukraine to earn money by buying babies for childless Byzantines.

Escape and finale

Kaya continues to play a complex game. The artificial girl steals virtual money from Damilola’s account and secretly orders materials for a hot air balloon. Inspired by the ideas of the ancient "Film Burners" sect, she descends into Ukraine disguised as an ordinary tourist. Soon, Grim abandons his comfortable life in the offshore world and sets out after her. The teenager finds the artificial girl in an abandoned stone quarry. Together, they fly south, hoping to find refuge in the forests of independent tribes.

Distraught with grief, Damilola pursues the fugitives in a combat camera. He catches up with them in the dead of night in the forest. The pilot hovers over a clearing and takes aim at the pair, intending to shoot Grim and kill Kaya in cold blood. The craft opens fire, but instead of deadly missiles, the night sky lights up with celebratory fireworks. Damilola forgot to replace the pyrotechnics with live rounds after a casual job. The battery runs out, and the useless craft crashes into the dense forest. Grim and Kaya survive.

Left without his beloved and his precious equipment, Damilola faces a new global catastrophe. The ambitious Rvan Contex seizes power in Ukraine. Seeking revenge on the inhabitants of the sky city, the new ruler plants a gas bomb under Byzantium’s support solenoid, detonating the offshore’s gravity anchor. The floating city loses stability and is doomed to an inevitable collapse.

The inhabitants of Byzantium hastily evacuate to the ground, carrying their remaining belongings. Damilola flatly refuses to leave the dying world. He remains in his empty apartment to finish writing his revealing memoirs. The pilot grimly consoles himself with the thought that Grim will forever suffer from Kaya’s unbearable, bitchy nature, whose algorithms no one can disable. In the final moments before the city’s fall, Damilola mentally addresses his creator: "Manitou, I hope I did my job well."