Disillusioned

Land of Dis #3

by Robert Kroese

“One of the most enjoyable reads I have had in quite some time.” – J.G. Once there was an Epic Struggle Between Good and Evil. Unfortunately, Vergil slept through it. Thanks to an accident involving some magic powder, Vergil, a knight in the service of the Order of Avaress, awakens in a world irrevocably changed by the outcome of that epic battle. Finding himself suddenly an old man, Vergil must try to navigate this strange new world with only the help of his slightly dim but well-meaning servant Handri. Despite the peaceful, civilized veneer of modern-day Dis, Vergil is convinced that a great evil still threatens the land, and he and Handri set about to uncover and vanquish it. But Vergil's prejudices and chivalric principles prove worse than useless in this strange new world, and he succeeds only in getting himself in deeper and deeper in trouble while stirring up simmering animosities between goblins and humans. Can Vergil separate illusion from reality and uncover the true threat to Dis before it's too late? Find out in this fast-paced, lighthearted fantasy!

Genres: Fantasy, Humor, Fiction, Audiobook, Ebooks, Magic

225 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 15, 2015

About the author

Robert Kroese's sense of irony was honed growing up in Grand Rapids, Michigan - home of the Amway Corporation and the Gerald R. Ford Museum, and the first city in the United States to fluoridate its water supply. In second grade, he wrote his first novel, the saga of Captain Bill and his spaceship Thee Eagle. This turned out to be the high point of his academic career. After barely graduating from Calvin College in 1992 with a philosophy degree, he was fired from a variety of jobs before moving to California, where he stumbled into software development. As this job required neither punctuality nor a sense of direction, he excelled at it. In 2009, he called upon his extensive knowledge of useless information and love of explosions to write his first novel, Mercury Falls. Since then, he has written 18 more books.

Reviews

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Disillusioned is the third book in the Dis trilogy, set mostly one hundred years after Disenchanted. Dis has changed much over this time and thanks to the discovery of the mysterious element zelaznium is undergoing something of an industrial revolution.

Vergil wakes up hundred years after an accident involving zelaznium and quickly realises that Dis has changed dramatically. In this new technological world monsters, especially goblins, are no longer the enemy of mankind. Vergil, a knight errant, is told all is not as it seems and as he goes to investigate he ends up messing with extreme political factions and discovers a plot to cause chaos led by a magician.

What works so well here is the subtle political vibe. In Vergil, Kroese represents the older citizen who grew up with foreigners being the enemy but now finds themselves living in an increasingly diverse world. It's very well done and though the story revolves around this sort of theme it still works as a silly fantasy novel.

I like the way Kroese has moved Dis on, giving it an almost steampunk vibe. It's nice to have a more modern fantasy world, one where goblins and ogres can co-exist with steam railways. It made this book feel more original as I've read few books set in such a world (presumably inspired by Terry Pratchett's later Discworld novels.)

My one disappointment was that this was probably the least funny book by Kroese I've read so far. I feel that as the trilogy has moved on he has edged away from the humour a little. It's still light-hearted but there are less jokes and I can't actually remember a moment when I laughed out loud like Kroese usually makes me do.

An very enjoyable third installment to the Dis series.

[Thomas · Rating 2 out of 5]

After the philosophy-heavy Distopia, I was hoping to get a little more of the slapstick-happy antics as seen in Disenchanted, and for the first 30 pages or so, I thought that was what I was getting. Then it delved into issues of race and society, and it got a little long winded and heavy handed on the themes. I give Kroese credit for attempting a heavy theme, but it got in the way of the story the same way it did in Distopia.

I would've rated this two stars, but the ending falls apart, and is capped with a clunky, amateurish "Where are they now?" sort of ending that felt tacked on. He could have made a couple of chapters out of it, but instead he rushes through it like he's ready to finish the whole thing. I think that chapter was five pages, at the most.

Disenchanted was fun, if a little rough around the edges. Distopia still had some of the antics, but took itself too seriously. Disillusioned takes the worst characteristics of the two preceding books and makes a full novel out of it. It wasn't terrible, but it could have been much, MUCH better.

[Adrienne · Rating 1 out of 5]

The third book in the Dis series is primarily a poor allegory for race relations. The characters were under-developed, and thus uninteresting, while the plot was ridiculous, but not in the entertaining way the first book was. Vergil is a fish out of a water as a medieval knight suddenly thrust into an industrial era, and through his obstinate bigotry towards "monsters" and general bumbling, manages to cause all of the conflict in the book. The "lesson" on racism reads as though it was written by someone who believes they understand a complex issue simply by being an observer, without ever talking to anyone who has actually experienced what it's like to be on the receiving end of blatant prejudice. I cannot even say this book is worthwhile from a completion standpoint for the Dis trilogy, as it lacks the humor of its predecessors and feels completely disjointed from them. I recommend skipping this one.

[astaliegurec · Rating 2 out of 5]

Take Cervantes' "Don Quixote," mix it with Irving's "Rip Van Winkle," take the resulting book and beat me over the head repeatedly until I can't take it any more, and that's Robert Kroese's 2015 novel "Land of Dis, Book 3: Disillusioned." Zero subtlety. Painfully obvious. I quit at 19%. I'm rating it at a Pretty Bad 2 stars out of 5. I'm not rating it all the way down simply because technically, the writing is fine. It's just the plot, story and characters I can't stand.

[Jeffrey Schmieder · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun book about a Rip Van Winkle character who wakes up to find out his arch enemy goblins are now important members of society. And his ancestral lands are now worthless. He goes on a quixotic quest with a modern day helper.

[Verity Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Man of Averess

This is a humorous combination of Don Quixote and Rip Van Winkle, wrapped up in some social commentary in the style of Terry Pratchett. Fun, but not as brilliantly hilarious as the original Dis novel.

[Bram Slaats · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love how this unique take on old tropes is worked out. I also like how it is kept pretty down to earth while still having pretty humorous situations

[Kimberly Souder · Rating 3 out of 5]

Similar to the other reviews. I enjoyed the series and would recommend it to fans of fanstasy and humor, but I only found it slightly entertaining myself. Overall I liked the Mercury series better.

[Bruce Pitz · Rating 5 out of 5]

A good conclusion to the Dis saga...

[Mike · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is the third book in the Land of Dis series, which features a jump to an industrial economy, and the difficulties of a man who essentially fell into a coma in his own pre-industrial time and awoke in a changed society. In all honesty, it left me disappointed. It does not live up to the previous two in the series. Here are my thoughts:

Things I liked about this book:

- Entertaining cluelessness. I appreciate some instances where characters are remarkably oblivious to what's actually going on. A good example here is a knight talking about the woman he was in love with and hoped to marry: "Favorita was clearly sympathetic to these young men, but she insisted that she was holding out for a knight -- and not just any knight, but one worthy of the title. So she sent all these men away disappointed. But none of them were more disappointed than Favorita herself, who despaired of ever finding her worthy knight. Her best friend, a buxon young servant girl named Jasmeen, attempted to console her, but to no avail. After each of these visits, Favorita's disconsolate moans could be heard late into the night, and often Jasmeen was so moved by her friend's sorrow that she joined in the moaning as well." This sort of thing is well done in this book.

Things I did not like about this book:

- Editing. It seriously needs editing. It reads like an Advance Reader Copy; there are missing words in some sentences, clearly wrong ones in others, and inconsistent spellings of character names on the same page. One such example: "He saw her toss aside six more men before they she fell. Then the crowd converged in front of Vergil again, and she was lost from view. One of the guards was looking their direction." This sort of thing is fine in an ARC, but it bothers me when I actually paid money for a published book.

- Very uncomfortable racism. I get that this is allegorical, but it's a stark change from previous books in the series. In those, the racism was cartoonish and thus clearly satire. In this one, it's...much more plausible. That moves it away from the light hearted humor fantasy that I had come to expect from the series.

- Underdeveloped characters. Only Vergil is a relatively complete character. The other major characters (Handri, Grimble, Lagorna, Lord Balphry) are pretty flat.

[Virginia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Disappointing - got the impression that he felt the Dis world needed to be a trilogy, and threw this one on, just because. Could have been a great trilogy, the immediate things surrounding the Battle of Brand's stuff, what led to it years and years before, and what changes it led to, a hundred years later. But, didn't quite work out that way. I admit, that this one was almost completely lacking in Kroese's usual humor made me want to rate it even lower, but I talked myself into a 3 instead of a 2 as I wouldn't have dinged it for not being full of delightfully dry humor if I hadn't come to expect it from the author's other works. Liked it enough, but nothing at all special. Nice message, once you get to the end and figure it out, but that's the best thing going for it.

[Courtney Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Disillusioned follows Disenchanted and Distopia in the Dis trilogy (series?). I think the Dis trilogy is interesting because all three take place in the same world, but in wildly different times, so they're all connected yet not. Disillusioned takes placed hundreds of years after the events in Disenchanted, and because of the technological advancements thanks to zelaznium, it's got many more hints of steampunk than the first two which are more straight fantasy-comedy. This also means you don't necessarily need to read the first two books to understand this one.

Overall, I enjoyed the book. It was a nice, light read and the main character, Vergil, reminded me a lot of Don Quixote. If you liked Robert Kroese's other books, definitely pick this one up.

[Chelsea Hite · Rating 5 out of 5]

Half Don Quixote, half Sam Vimes

And really, what more can you ask for? Far more subtle on the social commentary than the second book in the series, which is a plus. One of my favorite stylistic choices in this series is the discworld-esque footnotes. Unfortunately their quality has deteriorated since the first book, but the same could be said of Pratchett himself so ymmv.
I would love too see some of these characters again, and that goes for the whole series (Tobalt/Shelly adventures please!). I really hope the author continues to develop Dis, it is a fabulous world and we need more!

[Medeia Sharif · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thanks to some magic powder known as Zelaznium, Vergil goes to sleep for a hundred years. When he wakes up, with his servant Handri at his side, the world has changed. In this fantastical realm with golems, goblins, and other interesting creatures, Vergil goes into battle despite his age and ignorance of the modern world…he’ll learn soon enough that things aren’t right and a big threat looms over the land. The novel had an interesting premise, character quirks Kroese is known for, and plenty of action.

[Katherine · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hoo boy. I had really hoped that this book would make up for the poor showing I thought the second book in the series was, but no luck. The blunt political commentary continued in this book with the bonus commentary on race relations (monsters vs. humans here). For me, that completely ruined what could have been a really interesting story about the power of prejudice, hatred, and fear. But no, Kroese broke out the blunt stick again and beat the reader over the head with the commentary.

In addition, the editing in this book was atrocious. Character actions were mixed up from sentence to sentence, gender pronouns were routinely mixed up, and words were missing from sentences. As another reviewer said, this came across more like an advanced reader's copy than a finished novel. As an independent author, I understand that the author doesn't have the resources that others do, but as a Kickstarter funder for this project, I'm disappointed that there wasn't more time spent on editing and proofing.

Again, if you don't mind blatant political commentary trying to be satire, you might enjoy this, but I just can't recommend it as a fantasy novel.

[Brandon Freund · Rating 3 out of 5]

Second favorite of the series, the favorite being book 1. I felt the climax could've gone a different direction. But think Gran Torino if Gran Torino was a fanciful adventure with goblins and whatnot.