Dan Sugralinov's The Final Battle Volume 1 (Disgardium Book #14)
A Book Review
Ya know, it’s weird. Disgardium was supposed to be a twelve book series. When I first got into it, I read all twelve only to find out that the twelfth book was so long that the author was going to cut it into three pieces, meaning that instead of twelve books it would end up as a fourteen book series. So I kept reading. Now I have the fourteenth book, only to find out that it has been split into two parts and there is a fifteenth coming later this year. It’s a bit frustrating because I want to know how this thing ends, but I’m okay with that because I’m going to be sad when there is no more Disgardium to look forward to.
The latest installment of the series The Final Battle Volume 1 (Disgardium Book #14) is finally here though, and I loved it. Things are coming to a head. The world, both the “real” world and the game world are in danger of massive amounts of destruction. Alex(real name)/Scyth(character name) has been fighting the forces of greed/evil throughout the Disgardium series, but in Dan Surgralinov’s The Final Battle Volume 1 (Disgardium Volume #14) the problems have compounded. The other side is arrayed against out heroes, and they have greater numbers, strong morale and a goal. Things do not look good.
Of course, one of the things that I’ve always loved about Alex is his resourcefulness. He’s got a plan. It doesn’t look a thing like any plan I’d come up with, but then I’ve never had the weight of the world on my shoulders they way he has. This kid has guts. That works for me. With the exception of Thomas Covenant, who I watched like a NASCAR fan hoping for wreck in Turn Three, I’ve never been able to read about a main character that I didn’t respect. Alex is a kid. He didn’t become a legally recognized adult until Book uhh… Book uhh…
Listen, it’s only been a couple of books. Work with me.
And I’m old enough to refer to young adults as kids. Just ask my oldest daughter, the nineteen year old EMT, who I address to her face as “Kid.” That’s just me.
And Alex is the kind of kid I can get behind. He’s a fictional character but I can see things in his character reminiscent of what I’ve read in historical accounts of the men who fought in Normandy on D-Day. This is a kid who never asked to be put in charge of anything. He would have been content to just live his life doing whatever and not have to deal with a fight that someone else started. At the end of the day though, the fight fell in his lap and when everything went to crap he stood up and said “Follow me!” I almost feel bad for Alex, but I’m glad he was there when needed because the world would have been screwed without him.
Alex has a supporting cast in The Final Battle Volume 1, but it’s not the usual band of miscreants. That makes me a little crazy, because I miss some of my friends from earlier books, but it works. I’m guessing they’ll all be back next book and that’s good too. For only having one book left, this series still has a lot of story left in it.
And speaking of The Final Battle Volume 1 and the Disgardium series, it is very important to remember that this is not a standalone novel. The series has been awesome so far, but this is not the right book if you’re just starting out. If you’re going to start the Disgardium series, start with Class-A Threat. That’s the first book in the series and this is a series that continuously builds on what comes before. These books don’t necessarily bleed into each other Back to the Future style, but they’re not far from that either. If any of this is going to make sense, you have to understand what’s going on. Alex and friends have come a long way and got through a lot. You need to be there for all of it to really understand what’s going on.
And speaking of knowing what’s going on, I’m a huge fan of the fact that Sugralinov does not include character sheets in any of the Disgardium series. I’ve read a bit of LitRPG and that’s always been one of my least favorite parts of the genre. I’ve played everything from World of Warcraft to Dungeons and Dragons to Everquest to Rifts and I know how to read a character sheet when it’s in front of me. When a character sheet is spread out across five different pages on my Kindle it’s not clear or obvious what the author is expecting me to get. Sugralinov gets that. If he wants his reader to know something he works it into the story. That makes both his life and the lives of his reader easier.
The Final Battle Volume 1 has the action scenes that you would expect from any LitRPG story. Sugralinov just does them better than most. If you’ve played basically any Massively Multiplayer Role Playing game ever, then you know that possessing top end abilities and using them effectively is the key to winning every fight ever. Seriously don’t ask me about my first time raiding in WoW. Seriously, it was ugly. It’s not just about what you can do, it’s about what you actually do. Sugralinov gets that and so does Scyth.
Sugralinov has been building toward an epic finish since this series started. It’s almost here. On one hand, I can’t wait. On the other, I’m really hoping he can bring this thing to the ending it deserves. Only time will tell, but for now The Final Battle Volume 1 is a worthy sequel to what has come before and I’ll be downloading the next one on the day it comes out.
Bottom Line: 5.0 out of 5 Red Stars on the Horn
The Final Battle (Disgardium Book #14)
Dan Sugralinov
Magic Dome Books, 2025
The Final Battle (Disgardium Book #14) is available for purchase at the following link. If you click the link and buy literally anything from Amazon I get a small percentage at no cost to you.