The Frugal Wizard's Handbook for Surviving Medieval England

Pleasantly surprised by this one. A lot of online chatter placed the Frugal Wizard at the bottom of Sanderson's four (soon to be five) Secret Projects. Perhaps these low expectations aided me, as I found myself on the disappointed end of Tress after all the online praise. In Frugal Wizard I found a character with a somewhat relatable voice, a world with a fun history to unpack, and most importantly themes around the cumulative effect of an individual's wins or losses in life. This last part directly feeds into a lot of the self-development and psychological content I enjoy reading on the non-fiction side of things.

Coming back to the world and story, this is Jason Bourne meets Medieval England but with some futuristic high tech gear. The unravelling of our lead character's past at times became a bit farcical, but overall placed him in a good position to build meaningful relationships in his present situation with the boastful skop Sefawynn and thegn Ealstan. The artwork was fun, the chapter headings and blue text within chapters were genuinely cool, and the interludes regarding the actual handbook were entertaining whilst accomplishing smart worldbuilding.

Perhaps I really enjoyed this because it was so separate to the Cosmere, and felt like Sanderson just having fun as a writer.