The Frugal Wizard's Handbook for Surviving Medieval England

This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader.

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What’s The Frugal Wizard’s Handbook for Surviving Medieval England About?

At some point in the future, scientists discover the ability to move between parallel dimensions, and even find a group of them capable of sustaining human life—and buy/license exclusive access to some of them with histories and developments similar to our own, but delayed somewhat, so that visitors from “our” world look advanced. And then you “sell” these universes to people who are looking for the ultimate getaway.

Sure, sometimes you temporarily lose your memory when you travel to your new dimension. So you need to write everything you need to know in a book that you carry with you. But if things get bumpy in your entry, that book might catch on fire, removing a lot of your information—so it takes a bit to recover your memory. Which is what happens to John West when he wakes up in a version of medieval England.

I know that Sanderson keeps saying that John West is inspired by Jason Bourne—but that suggests that he’s competent on multiple/several levels and that’s not John. He’s not even a Samantha Caine. He’s more like a Myfanwy Thomas. But for the sake of discussion, let’s go with Bourne okay?

Imagine Bourne wakes up in Terry Brooks’ Landover, and tries to pull off a Hank Morgan-con to convince the locals that he’s a wizard with great power. Throw in a little bit of Wizard in Rhyme‘s mixing of math/quantum physics into fantasy and a Douglas Adams-ish book-within-the-book (heavy on the “ish”) and you’ve got this book.

Oh, and mobsters from his time are wandering around, as is at least one undercover policeman. And they all know John West—and he’s not on anyone’s good side.

So, what did I think about The Frugal Wizard’s Handbook for Surviving Medieval England?

I recognize—and want to remind everyone—that this is a completely subjective thing, and if I’d read this two months ago or two months from now, I’d react differently. But…this was good. Not great. Certainly not bad. Good—but somehow underwhelming.

But I couldn’t shake the feeling the whole time that I should be enjoying it more than I was. I like the tone (although it felt like Sanderson was holding back and wouldn’t let this get as funny, snarky, or whatever as it should’ve been). I love the premise, the characters, the twists, etc., etc., etc. But…it felt restrained? Like he’s trying to assure everyone that no matter what he’s still Brandon Sanderson—he’s not going full-comedy (or whatever). I couldn’t help but wonder if he’d put this out under a pen name if he’d been able to let loose a bit more. If Scalzi, Cline, or Meyer had done this? Absolutely would’ve worked.

It’s been bugging me for days—I absolutely should’ve been raving about this, or at least enthusiastically talking about it. But I’m not. There’s utterly nothing I can point to that explains it, either. All the elements are there for the kind of book that I love, and they were combined to just become something that I liked. Explain that one, Gestalt.

I absolutely recommend this—and think that many readers will find it as enjoyable as I thought I should. And even if you walk away with the same whelmed-level as I did, you’ll have had a good time. But I’m not sure you should rush to it.

"The more I've studied history, the more I've maintained that great achievements aren't so much about aptitude as about timing."

This one never really came together for me. I had similar concerns going into Tress of the Emerald Sea, but I ended up finding it pretty charming in the end after I'd spent some time with it. This one lacked that charming part, and just felt a bit of a chore to get through. It just wasn't what I expect out of Sanderson, and even beyond that, it was just....fine. Even reading it blind without knowing who the author was, I probably wouldn't rate it much higher.

I'll keep this brief and un-spoilery. A man wakes up in a field, surrounded by burned grass, doesn't remember how he got there or what he was doing or even who he was. Around him in the burned grass are charred pages of some book; reading these he starts piecing small things together. Turns out he's bought a pocket dimension in medieval England, but now he's stranded and has to figure out what to do, how to get home, and how to help the local people that rescued him.

Right off the bat I'll say Johnny's tendency to mentally rate experiences (like a Yelp reviewer or something) really grated on my nerves. It always felt forced and shoehorned in, and even after it's directly addressed near the end it didn't help. The humor in this one, too, felt repetitive, with a lot of the same joke beats being hit each time. Lots of eyeroll jokes. I also wasn't really invested in Johnny as the main character, as he felt really bland and boring. He does get quite a bit of character development near the end, but it's basically dumped on you all at once and doesn't feel very authentic as a result. The side characters aren't really explored all that much either, which, I guess, is a product of the relatively short nature of the book.

I loved the artwork though! Most pages feature at least a doodle at the bottom, with several full color spreads throughout. The concept of buying your own dimension to live out your medieval fantasy in is interesting, but since this seems like a one-off novel I'm a bit disappointed it can't be explored more. The story itself is....fine. Serviceable, but not remarkable.

In summary, kind of a miss for me. An adequate book, but not really a Sanderson book.

Eerst en vooral, mijn eerste indruk van de officiële cover ontgoochelde mij toch wel een beetje.
Deze is niet zo anders dan de tijdelijke cover en hij ziet er op één of andere manier onaf uit. Hopelijk ziet die er in het echt wel iets minder amateuristisch uit.
Toegegeven, we waren enorm verwend met de cover het vorige geheime project, dus misschien viel deze me daarom een beetje tegen? Hoe dan ook, ik bewaar mijn finale indruk voor het uiterlijke plaatje voor wanneer ik mijn fysieke exemplaar heb. Afgaande op het e-boek kan ik wel al kwijt dat de illustraties weer van heel hoge kwaliteit zijn.

Maar goed, wat met het verhaal?
Awel, dat was net zo plezant, onnozel en gniffel-lacherig als de titel me had beloofd, met ook weer een impressionant staaltje wereldopbouw.

Qua verhaallijn voelde het wel wat te kort, zeker om alles dat werd geïntroduceerd een gepaste en impactvolle afsluiting te geven. Ook bij de personages had ik het moeilijk om mij emotioneel verbonden te voelen. Dus deze aspecten zorgden er voor mij wel voor dat bepaalde onthullingen en gebeurtenissen een beetje plat vielen.

In de schrijfstijl is heel duidelijk te merken hoe vrij Sanderson zich voelde om te doen wat hij wou. Het voelde enorm ongeremd en onderhoudend. Het was duidelijk dat hij zich rot heeft geamuseerd tijdens het schrijven.
Dit is ook te merken aan de hoge hoeveelheid humor en grapjes die in dit boek zitten verwerkt. Toegeven, de humor is soms wat puberaal, maar ik kon het over het algemeen wel smaken. Vooral die humor deed me echt wel denken aan de absurditeit en onnozelheid van The Hitchhicker's Guide.

Maar wat weer bijzonder was in dit boek is – hoe kan het ook anders met Sanderson - de wereldopbouw.
Sanderson doet weer met de vingers in de neus wat hij het beste kan. Straffer nog, hij creëert niet één nieuwe wereld, maar twee! En over beide zou ik direct meer boeken willen lezen.

Plezant vond ik de manier waarop we één van die werelden leerden kennen, namelijk door hoofdstukken in onze gewone verhaallijn af te wisselen met hoofdstukken van het titulaire handboek (ja, toch wel veel Hitchhicker's Guide invloeden). Dit was een heel effectieve manier om op korte tijd over die wereld te leren, zonder dat het echt als een infodump ging aanvoelen. De cartooneske en stripboekachtige illustraties die gepaard gingen met die hoofdstukken, droegen ook heel veel bij aan de verteerbaarheid, hoewel het me niet altijd duidelijk was hoe ze bij de tekst pasten.

Dus ja, hoewel ik The Frugal Wizard's Handbook for Surviving Medieval England niet meteen als een nieuwe favoriet ga bestempelen, heb ik het zeker met plezier gelezen. Het is gewoon een heel vlot, uniek en plezant verhaal en soms is dat ook gewoon meer dan voldoende.

Sanderson is my favorite author but unfortunately this one didn't really work for me. It is initially pretty interesting and I liked the humor, but I just think the things Sanderson is best at - character, plot, reveals, worldbuilding, magic- are all severely lacking here. The humor got old fast in the face of rising stakes. The book is not bad by any means, but it's a bad Sanderson book to me. I appreciate him trying something new and I know some people will really enjoy what this is, but by the second half I was basically forcing myself to finish.

4/10

Secret Project 2 was definitely the book out of the 4 that I was least hyped for. Despite having an interesting premise, I didn't really know what it was the book was going to be trying to deliver on, even after reading the preview that Sanderson released last year.

It's been two days since I finished the book, and if I was to be completely honest, I still don't really know where it lands for me. On the one hand, it was a total page turner, but in the sense that I wanted to see where the story went out of curiosity, as opposed to out of love for the story being told. And despite the fact that it never actually got all that exciting to read, I was still disappointed to be finished with the book, as I wanted to spend more time with the few side characters that managed to hold my attention, and the world that I felt wasn't explored to the fullest of its potential.

So I don't fully understand my feelings on the book. I'm left feeling really conflicted about whether I enjoyed it or not, because on the one hand, I don't regret reading it, and had a pretty decent time with it, but wouldn't recommend it to anyone. The rest of this is gonna be a little rambly, since I'm gonna try and put my feelings to paper (sort of) to maybe get a better grip on them.

First things first, lets talk positives, because there's a good chunk to like here. The setting/concept is cool. I group them because it's impossible to divorce one from the other. It's top tier. It's a very cool idea that I've never seen done before, and scratches my itch of wanting read more Sci-fi that has cool concepts without getting really heady. It also manages to interweave fantasy in fun ways, which I can really appreciate. The historical accuracy of the setting seems fantastic, albeit with some creative liberties that make sense with the rules the books establishes.

Then there's the art that's done throughout the book. It's not the beautiful tapestries that we saw with Tress, but my god, do these look good. There's a solid variety of art pieces, one set tells a story, others are at the top of chapters of the in universe manual, some are just traditional art depicting a scene from the last few pages. Steve Argyle absolutely killed it in every regard. I'm hyped as hell to get my physical copy so that I can actually see them put to paper, because hoo boy are they great.

I'm personally not jazzed with the cover, as I think it's a bit mid, but all the interior art makes up for that by a mile (and who knows, the physical edition might sway me, I'll include an edit when I get it).

And lastly, some of the side characters are excellent. Mainly Ealstan and Sefawynn. There's some other pretty good ones, but I can't mention them because spoilers. Sefawynn is definitely my favourite character in the book. I like her strong personality and no nonsense attitude that she displays throughout. Her character arc was the only one that I was even remotely invested in, as I wanted to see how she'd overcome her confidence issues.

Other than that, I don't really vibe with anything else in the book to the point where I'd count it as something I liked. The story itself was kinda mediocre, since it just ends up becoming a fairly generic behind enemy lines cop thriller, except we don't follow the cop. We follow his friend, who sort of just bumbled into the whole thing.

Then there's most of the characters. They're either bland and forgettable, or downright shit. For instance, the main villain of the story is the most generic gang leader I've ever read. It's like he was ripped right out of a James Patterson novel, and put into an actually good authors work. Others are just a total drain, like Ryan (Fuck Ryan, all my homies hate Ryan), or just don't have enough screentime to make any meaningful impact on the experience.

But the worst offender, by a country mile, is Johnny, our (un)lovable protagonist. I hate Johnny, and I think he's a big reason behind why I didn't connect with the book as much as I'd have liked. Johnny's a whiny, needy little twat, who thankfully, actually has an arc of some description, but that arcs dire. I have never been less invested in a Sanderson character than I was with Johnny. I genuinely believe that he's one of, if not the worst, protagonist Sanderson has ever written. I hated him, and was glad to be out of his head by the end.

Then there's the pacing of the book. It never felt like it picked up, while also feeling like it went too quick. The book just sort of lackadaisically plodded along, like the story was actively bogging itself down attempting to prevent itself from getting to the point, and then when it finally did, it just speedran towards the most predictable ending that it could have possibly hit. We didn't even really get a satisfying conclusion to the main throughline, as the villain ended up just leaving, and that was that. There was a lot of really solid potential with certain twists, that weren't really set up that well beforehand, (with one exception being the wight that follows Johnny), and overall, the plot left me thoroughly whelmed. Again, this is something that I feel actually stems from Johnny being a shit PoV, because the more interesting parts of the Sanderlanche, happen to 2 other characters, with Johnny just winning a pretty meh fight.

As I mentioned at the beginning, I don't think that the world got explored to the fullest of its capabilities. Dan Wells has expressed interest in continuing the series, and I'd definitely be intrigued to see more of it, both dealing with the universe Johnny visited, and other potential time periods that are being monetized. I think there's a lot of mileage in the concept, I just wish we'd gone further in this book.

And if I'm being honest, that could be one of my issues with the book overall. I feel like it could have been a lot longer, and actually expanded on the really interesting ideas that were presented throughout the book, like the religions and the magic, but ultimately we didn't really get a whole lot of expansion on any of these things, except being told that they exist, which is a massive shame.

I could also see this dimension being used to explore the entire world, as we see characters from the Middle East and Asia at different points in the book, so I'm definitely not soured on the idea or the world, I just wish it had been handled differently, and perhaps, had this not been a side project for Sanderson, it would have been, but alas, here we are.

All in all, the book is a mixed bag. It doesn't break the streak that Sanderson has for me of never writing a bad book, but it is another one of his rare mediocre books. It's propped up quite a bit by the obvious love that Steve Argyle put into it. But I didn't connect with the plot, or the characters, with key exceptions that did prevent this book from being terrible. I would say, out of all the ones that I've read, this is probably Sandersons worst book, but it's still very far from a bad one. 2.5/5 stars.

Pretty decent, but not amazing. A good, compelling read with a good heart, but there really isn't much going on here. The writing tone doesn't quite land - feels like it's trying to be casual and funny, which it kind of is, but not really. As far as sci-fi goes, the core concept is pretty cool, but compared to other sci-fi, the envisioning of the future is pretty shallow and doesn't feel very ‘real'. Apparently 2080 is largely just like today but with a couple additional pieces of cool tech. Still, looking past that, it's a pretty good story in an interesting setting.

This was fun, but it is a long way from Sanderson's best work. The basic conceit that advanced technology would be indistinct from magic to a more primitive society is a fun one, the use of multiworld and portal fantasy to act on that idea works well. As always Sanderson's prose is very easy to read. But then it destroys that conceit by providing a portal world that does actually have magic in it, which feels like a bit of a wasted opportunity.

The main character, John West, is well drawn. I appreciate the use of a white room setup - with John trying to figure out who he is as part of the background. The local characters to the dimension are all also well drawn. The other characters from John's home dimension are more of a mixed bag. Some of the dynamics there just feel a bit weird?

The Saxon world is also well built, with things almost but not quite following a semi-historical course here. It feels well researched with a nice sprinkling of Norse and Old English mythology thrown in.

I am not sure that the Frugal Wizards Guide excerpts work especially well though. They are repetitive, the humour just feels very forced, and I think the small print references are much more culturally referenced in America than other parts of the English speaking world, which feels strange for a book supposedly referencing medieval England.

This is not a bad book but compared to other Sanderson books it really does not stand up particularly well, with some slightly strange directions to the story. Worth a read for curiosity's sake, but not essential Sanderson reading.

Wow, I really loved this book.

I thought the amnesia was done well, with him guessing his past at every revelation.It has a more funny tone with going to different worlds and messing things up while still bringing up the fact that this isn't really an ok thing to be doing. no matter how "real" they are.John/Runion rating everything was hilarious. trying to "drown" in 2 foot of water. The way even though its a silly book it still manages to touch on some important things. Who are true friends. finding what you want to do with life. never too late to change. Bravery in threat of violence. i'm sure there are more that i'm missing as well.
Just know that this book while fun is good and wholesome

The blend of historical accuracy / inaccuracy and fantasy elements showcases Sanderson's masterful world-building. The humorous five-star rating system and the book's whimsical illustrations add a lighthearted touch. Secondary characters are well-developed, and the plot is full of unexpected twists.

It is a fast-paced, engaging tale that demonstrates Sanderson's versatility as a writer. It's a must-read for fans of epic fantasy, time-travel, and thrilling adventure. Five out of five stars.

This was a fun book. As with most Sanderson books, the characters were good and the story compelling enough to be engaging. This was unique for him as it was written in the first person. It worked here for narrative reasons I won't spoil for anyone. I was a treat to read something that was not in the Cosmere and just a good overall story. I both read and listened to this book. The quality of the ebook book was amazing and will look even better on paper. I look forward to holding it. Until then I enjoyed the PDF that was provided with Kickstarter and all the illustrations. The narration from Michael and Kate was, as always, excellent. I recommend this book to anyone at any time. No prior reading is necessary. Have fun!

It was ok. I didn't love the “rating system” gimmick. The ending was fairly predictable. Some of the world building was interesting, but that's about it. I hope the other books from the Kickstarter will be better.

I'm generally a Michael Kramer fan, but he didn't feel like a great fit for this book. I'm not sure exactly why. His narration was fine.

Similarly, Kate Reading narration of the inserts was also fine.

Downright delightful. I loved the setting, the conflict, the mixture of magical, historical, and technological fantasy, and how all the flavors worked together.

I don't know why all of Sanderson's amnesia-style characters go through a cop phase (see Warbreaker), but it was fun to see a cop with augmentations figure out how to use them as he figured himself out. The way he rebuilds himself is something that I particularly enjoyed about this book.

I expected more from this story. Reading through it was a bit meth on moments, but only when book back at the story as a whole do I like it more. As I was reading my enjoyment was nit what I had wanted or expected from Sanderson.
There is defiantly some humor. But it wasn't as humorous to me from what I assumed from the premise. Here I think the deer dive into the magic failed, along with the ending plot. I wanted a character stumbling in an unknown world and making mistakes, not a antagonist that we got.
The characters were thought but but I did like the side characters more.
I would have loved to see more of the world, but it was an okay read