Disaster Classes

The Calamitous Bob #5

by Álex Gilbert

The Academy, the continent's best mage school overlooks the city of Helock, and this is where Viv is headed next to hopefully find a way to survive her own magic. The way will be fraught with danger, but with some diplomacy, and a sprinkle of murders, Viv has good odds of success. She just needs to survive pirates, slavers, kidnappers, rioters, assassins, and worst of all, plagiarism.

Genres: Fantasy, Litrpg, Fiction, Dragons

458 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 17, 2023

Reviews

[Tony Hinde]

Gilbert does a good job of holding the readers interest. Despite the large number of words written, he still manages to keep the narrative narrowly focussed.

[Jared]

Well-written LitRPG!

It is unfortunate when series come from RoyalRoad which are poorly paced, poorly written, and either slightly-to-terribly misogynistic.
But not so with The Calamitous Bob!

An excellent series that follows a female MC, The Calamitous Bob is a tale filled with goodness, inclusivity, and the cutest dragon. (All Hail Arthur!)

The fifth book continues the trend and I continue to highly recommend!

[Russell Gray]

I haven't really looked at my entire history of Gamelit series in a while, but I'd say this is shaping up to be a top 3 reading experience.

It's a bit of a risk to add a magical school arc midway through a series, especially since it's a bit of a cliche to do so, but here it's merely a subplot that's part of a larger story flow so it works. Generally, it would be hard for me to care much about adolescent concerns about school life after a character has successfully led a rebellion and established a sovereign nation, but luckily, the focus is on other things rather than childish social squabbles.

The romance subplot in this book is fine I guess, though it seems like it came on a bit strong and quickly. Honestly, I don't know that any gamelit is going to do romance well for me because that's not what I'm here for. Best case, it contributes nothing to my experience, and beyond that just risks distraction or displeasure. It's only a minor annoyance in this series since the romance characters actually serve purposes to the story other than merely checking a romance box on a trope list.

The author continues to do a great job balancing the power curve. Despite how OP certain characters seem, there always seem to be checks and balances. I can't wait to see where the story goes after we wrap up the school business and get Viv's mana poisoning taken care of.

[Todd Stewart]

great series. superior pace. no mopey MC!

This is a super fun barely LitRPG story. The MC is strong but makes plenty of mistakes and is far from foolproof. The first book The Calamitous Bob says it all. The MC has to fight off bad Luck as much as obvious opportunities that she stumbles into. If you like The First Defier or Randidly Ghosthound…. This is your next read.

[Tony Hisgett]

An enjoyable read with an interesting group of main characters and not overwhelmed with too many stats like many other books of this genre.
I considered giving five stars, but I wasn’t convinced by the romance. This felt very much like the author had just stuck this in to try to widen the books audience.

[Christopher]

A bit of a circuitous book, where the web-serial origins really show through. Viv is trying to get to Helock, a city of magical learning that can fix her magical health issues, but she encounters several obstacles in her way. It was entertaining enough, but lack of an over-arching plot made it a bit tedious.

[Topher]

I read somewhere that this was supposed to cover up through the competition of the Glastian princes, and so hadn't marked it read yet - then read the summaries of the next few books when I saw an announcement for book 6 being released mixed in with where I was reading.

Looking at summaries, I think I'm up through 8 - maybe more? But 8 sounds about right for having just finished the nemeti arc.

[William Moses Jr.]

Another great addition to the series. Gilbert's take on magical wizard school is nice. There are definitely traces of other stories' magical schools here, but the overall idea is still tailored to the world in which the MC finds herself, which means that it is a delightful mix of the new and the old.

[Jonathan Bradley]

Now it is my second favorite Lit-RPG

Better than the last book. There are some time jumps that confused me and some characters that need to be fleshed out more. It's still a great book. I can already tell I will be rereading the series as soon as I am done with it. PLEASE DO THE AUDIO BOOKS. The audio versions stop with book two. The whole series needs audio versions.

[William Howe]

gold, Gold, GOLD

New friend is called ‘The Red Mist’ because his spells…are effective.

Still living with a deadline. Academy is a light touch, not omnipresent and obtrusive. A few classes, some new friends.

Top notch stuff.

[M L Brooks]

Disappointing

Honestly the biggest issue for me was how forced Viv's romance felt. she barely knew the guy for two seconds before they were a thing. It just kinda ruined the whole book for me.

[Christian Jeffress]

Very Enjoyable

Definitely another highly entertaining read with lots more happening, and even more world building. The main character and side characters are like we’re great, with a final penultimate battle as well. Undoubtably looking forward to the next book in the series.

[Paul Virdone]

needs proofreading

An entertaining enough story, but ruined by many typos, grammatical errors, and missing words. I’m not sure I’ll continue with this series given the poor quality control.

[Okurimono]

Not so much on whether it was good or not. But I lost interest after like 30ish percent cause I really wanted to see Viv go through school.

The other stuff just made me annoyed.

So it’s a case of I wanted something. Didn’t get it. So I got bored. 🤷🏾‍♀️

[Matthew Miller]

Slow

Super dry and slow. Not a whole lot going on overall. She learns some stuff, saves a sister, kills some undead, and watches a riot. Easily my least favorite in the series.

[Laurent Dhellin]

I'am a HUGE fan of the serie, I can not wait for the next book !

[Vero]

I liked this less - I didn't like the university vibe, and the story drags a bit, I hoped it would come to a conclusion in the 5th installment, but nope.

[Murphies_law]

Ever more disappointing..

Yeah - she changed her sexual orientation again - after only meeting the guy!

Most of the book is filler. No real excitement or fun anymore..

[Michael]

I love the books, but I'm just a little burned out on reading long series so I'm gonna take a little breaky break

[V]

Great story continuation

[Liesl Andrico]

This series just gets better the more books in I get. It follows the story of Viv who is transported from her mundane life on Earth to a world where she can use magic. She has adventures. She makes friends. She gets involved in stuff. The dialogue is witty, the banter fun, and the situations are creative. I've enjoyed reading this series.

[Ta]

The series starts to suffer from the author resolving conflicts too easily, too quickly. The approaching, yet easily subverted death is not enough of a threat to keep the tension high.

No one bothers to significantly challenge Viv and all the allies are cool with everything she does... which can get ridiculous at some point.

[Cody Hatch]

The series is fantastic. Read it.

[Merlon Crenel]

It's pretty good but I'm dinging a point for the excessive number of spelling and grammatical mistakes and for trying to make "But I digress" a catchphrase for Ereska, jamming it into her speech even when it doesn't make sense.

[Sarah]

2026 Update:
I love Sidjin, but the Helock storyline isn't my favorite of the series. You can feel the power building, though. Viv is def getting OP by the end of this book.

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I'm still loving this series. The world building and character development remain entertaining. I can't wait to see how it progresses.