The armies of the Commonwealth, the Empire and the neutral factions, all the leading players and clans of the preventers, have been summoned under the banners of Nergal the Radiant to the sands of the deadly Lakharian Desert, to wage war against a most terrible enemy of all life itself — Scyth. His supporters include not only mindless wild races, but also nightmarish monsters: the zombie guitarist Infect, the death mage Crawler and one undead warrior by the name of Bomber.
Dan Sugralinov grew up in a small working-class town on the Russian border with Kazakhstan. It’s a miracle he survived his childhood games of hide-and-seek in the surrounding building sites complete with perilous rebar structures and flooded foundation pits.
Ever since he learned to read at the age of five, he couldn’t put a book down. Reluctant to earn himself the name of a conceited nerd, he concentrated on playing soccer which allowed him to become friends with the town’s toughest kids.
In 1995, he graduated with honors, entering the St Petersburg Academy of Engineering and Economics where he studied business creation. He must have done something right because in the years that followed, he first worked on TV and radio just to get the taste of it, then opened his first successful business followed by several more. In between, he started writing and playing video games, winning the St Petersburg Mortal Kombat championship and becoming runner-up for Starcraft and Warcraft 3. He is a 14-times champion in Quake, Quake 2 and Quake 3 as well as the world’s ex-#1 in the World of Warcraft.
In 2004, he wrote his first motivational novella The Bricks which to date has garnered him over 3,000,000 readers online alone.
In 2014, Russia’s leading publishers of business literature Mann, Ivanov & Ferber published a revised and extended edition of his book, The Bricks 2.0.
In 2015, Dan discovered the existence of LitRPG. He devoured everything that had been written in that genre until he finally decided he too could write similar books.
In summer 2017, he published his first book in the subgenre of realRPG: Level Up.
Dan Sugralinov is a consummate gamer, a multiple MMORPG champion and the world’s ex-#1 in the World of Warcraft. He is also a successful businessman and author of books on marketing and business organization. His first LitRPG series Level Up took Russia by storm in 2017. Its English translation is about to be released on Amazon.
I hate trying to write reviews because there are really only pass/fail results for me. Did I make it all the way through? Yes? 5 stars. No? There would be nothing here to read. In all fairness, if an author holds my attention from page one to the end, they’ve done their job. Anything less than 5 stars is petty criticism from someone incapable of even doing the job let alone doing a better one.
So in respect for the author and their work, I am going to start pasting this along with a generic review I found somewhere. “This was a fun book. I am glad that I read it. You should try it too.”
Now, since I have to keep explaining myself to people who don't like my reviews, I guess some clarification is in order.
1. I am 100% against criticism for works of art. Art is subjective, meaning reviews are irrelevant. The observer's opinion is only relevant to the observer. It is my belief that regardless of what others might say, I have to experience the art for myself.
2. I read upwards of 20 books a month. The $10/month I spend on K U, feels like I am cheating the authors. But since I can't afford 20 books a month if I were to purchase them directly, all I can offer is a positive review. That leads us to the final point.
3. If I get to the end of a book, then it was worth my time. I give those books 5 stars because it helps the author get exposure. That is the only reason I write reviews at all.
I understand that people are people and they are going to do what they do regardless of my stance. I know the way that I review books upsets some people. I am sorry they feel that way but as many have said, they will just ignore my review going forward. In fact, if you made it this far through my review, you should definitely read the book and completely ignore all of the reviews here. You are a much better judge of what you will like than anyone here.
Imersīvās spēles Disgardium ir pārņēmusi visu pasauli tik tālu, ka pat vispasaules valdības to padarījušas par obligāti izmantojamu instrumentu jauno cilvēkbērnu izglītošanas procesā. Vēl jo vairāk fiziskajā realitātē pasaules populācija ir pieaugusi tik tālu, ka ir bijis nepieciešams izstrādāt iedzīvotāju klasifikācijas sistēmu, kas tos ierindo šķirās pēc to pienesuma kopējam pasaules labumam, kur tiem, kuri sevi atrod zemākajās kārtās, neatliek kā cits, kā vien par niecīgu atlīdzību veikt tos pašus mazkvalificētus darbus Disgardium viduslaiku tipa fantāzijas pasaulē un vien no malas noskatīties citu panākumos.
Another great book by the author, really enjoyed it, this one feels a bit more in between action but still adds to the story overall and am looking forward to the next book
Well written and the details are beautiful. You have created a masterpiece and the characters are so believable. Please don't stop writing this series.
I received a review copy of this book It's very clear that the series is leading up to one massively involved epic battle, and I for one don't want to miss a word of it. This book did an amazing job of setting up for the final confrontation. I am still half hoping our main character goes against all advice, deals, and even his own knowledge, and just unleashes his balancing power on the source of all the trouble, that would be epic. Unfortunately, that isn't likely, but I'm still going to read the next book in the series, and those ofyou who have followed the series up to now certainly don't want to miss the next book in the series, this book looks like it setup for something absolutely amazing to end the series (well, assuming it will be the end). In any case, if you've not read this book yet, and you're an LitRPG fan, I don't know what you're waiting for, go grab a copy, and start reading now, you won't be disappointed.
Author split this book into two parts and it shows. This book felt much shorter than previous books in the series and it felt less logical at times. In the previous books I rarely felt like the MC made out of character choices, but it felt that way a few times in this book. Also, some of the intrigue was a little confusing like I felt I must have missed a page somewhere or something because I didnt understand what was going on. Lastly, the game mechanics seemed really bad and easily abused in this book, and in previous books they felt more realistic. An example would be that he can't cast teleport while being attacked because pretty much anything interrupts the spell, but he can scribe scrolls while in combat and being chewed up.
Still decent book but whenever authors split books into two smaller books, the writing always seems to suffer.
Combined review for books 1-9 as I read them all before writing the review:
Certainly an interesting setting, both the world outside as well as the game. Sugralinov has setup and interesting and a little frighteningly plausible future where ai and robotics has progressed to the point to make most humans unnecessary. To keep people busy, and give them work, they've created a ubiquitous online game that people are required to play for a certain amount of time each day when their young, and when their older they can earn money through. Most people are just wage slaves though, restricted to pointless mining or other menial jobs. This book focuses on he higher echelons and the MC doing his best to raise the poorer people's standard of living.
A lot of questions are starting to rise about not just the game but the nature of actual reality as some things seem to bleed through. There's a bit of SOMA happening at one point too. All and all very engaging and I can't wait for more.
The series continues to grow and develop into epic proportions and the author has an ability to keep building the plot while sharing a few nuggets to engage and disrupt the main storyline. Ultimately, this entry does wonders as far as world growth and understanding on a global scale what the actions of our hero(es) are and will have, but there are so many lines in the water that it's still unclear how things will actually transpire and which we will catch in the end. Very well done juggling so many interesting arcs and continuing to build; truly leaves me wanting to dive into the next entry as soon as possible just to see what happens.
This is an excellent series and I just wish I could pre-order book 5 right now. Dan is yet another great Russian author and I hope to be visiting his worlds and imagination for many years to come..
The story itself? It’s book 4.. you should know what’s going on by now. More great character development and twits... a great read....
And the story continues, with some good preparations
Well. I bought this one yesterday just have it ready for the summerholidays. and to read the first chapter just to see what would happen. So now i have read the first chapter and feel I can give a review based on this, especially as I also accidentally read the rest of the book. Verdict - This is a very very good book. Look forward to the next one(s)
I am loving this series! I can see that some grammar and spelling mistakes were not caught in the editing process, but it did not detract from the story at all. The politics that are being introduced are interesting as well. Of course, the fights and the descriptions are what kept me on the edge of my seat. I am queuing up the next book right now!
Lots of story. Lots of loot and even some intrigue. This book is obviously not finished (part one of two really) yet manages to wrap up a bunch of story lines pretty well