The Frugal Wizard’s Handbook for Surviving Medieval England – Brandon Sanderson

I know! I know this book came out several weeks ago. To be honest, it took me a week to finish it when it came out. Then I started anxiety medicine and words turned slippery. I couldn’t read. I couldn’t write.

But here I am, now, reviewing the book.

Better late than never.

Let’s talk about the elephant in the room: the title. For the love of all things holy, I cannot remember it. The Frugal Wizard is all I can ever remember. It feels disrespectful for me to not be able to remember the title of a book, but its so long… And I always want to say hand guide instead of handbook. (See previous remark about words being slippery.)

Beyond the title, the concept for this book is just so cool. Interdimensional travel with wizards and spies? Awesome. It’s like they shoved Jason Bourne into a medieval town and sprinkled some magic in there. Lots of fun, lots of opportunity.

The execution? Well… That was a little lackluster.

A man wakes up in medieval England with no memory of how he got there. All he had with him was a charred copy of something called “The Frugal Wizard’s Handbook to Surviving Medieval England”. The concept is simple and the plot is easy to follow.

Let’s start with what Sanderson usually does best: worldbuilding. This book is centered around Anglo-Saxon history. It follows their gods and their beliefs. I recognized some of the names of the Saxon gods due to my shallow knowledge of norse gods, the same way someone might recognize Roman gods due to Greek gods. The names were similar and their roles were similar, but it would be fallacious to assume they’re the same.

We aren’t given any backstory or additional knowledge of the gods. I understand that these are gods from mythology that I can study and research outside of the story Sanderson has placed them in. I, however, also believe they are very niche and some amount of explanation would have benefited the world greatly. It was difficult to engage with. It created distance from the story because I was too confused, too busy trying to figure out what he was referencing.

The protagonist is somewhat of an antihero. He’s a blank slate with a quirk for rating things when you first meet him, and you quickly realize he’s a fumbling mess. While I see what Sanderson was trying to do, I am not the type of person to have a lot of empathy for someone who is cynical and self-deprecating. I lacked empathy for the main character. I didn’t care what happened to him, which is quite unfortunate, given that the story is told from a first-person perspective. Some scenes, especially towards the start of the book were challenging to read because of my disdain for him. How can you engage with a story when you don’t care about the narrator? His personality traits irritated me.

About halfway through the book he started growing on me. I don’t know if its because I got used to him, or if he developed, but I love where he ended up. His redemption arc was fun to read about. It was empowering. The overall theming of the plot was excellent.

This book is funny sometimes. Some of the dialogue feels stiff, forced, and out of character for the world. I suppose the stiffness could add to the comedy and the “unknown dimension” aspects of the book, but it didn’t work for me. It was awkward. I was cringing. The protagonist’s habit of rating things was one of the funniest parts of the book. I mean:

“You’re a good tree. Tall, thick–and most importantly–wooden. Four and a half stars. Would hide behind you again. Half a point off for lack of refreshments.”

Frugal Wizard’s Handbook to Surviving Medieval England, pg 23.

That made me cackle when I read it the first time. It still sparks a little humor in my chest.

The side characters needed a little more love and attention. I found them to be lackluster. They left a lot to be desired. Due to their lack of development, the world fell flat. The people are the most important part of any world, of any community, and its challenging to understand the world when I don’t understand the people.

There seems to be a theme with a lot of people’s opinions of this book. It leaves a lot to be desired. It doesn’t feel as fleshed out as Sanderson’s Cosmere books (Frugal Wizard is non-Cosmere). I enjoyed reading the book. I’m glad it exists.

But it just doesn’t hit as hard as some of his other books. It did spark appreciation for the knowledge we have and the common man, but… It’s just lackluster.

3/5.

I was tired of being called a coward. I was tired of believing it.

Brandon Sanderson, Frugal Wizard’s Handbook to Surviving Medieval England