The Frugal Wizard's Handbook for Surviving Medieval England

An entertaining book about the adventures of a man who ends up in England in a pocket universe with no memory of why he is there, with only the remains of a Frugal Wizard's Handbook to guide him.

As he gradually regains his memory, he gets involved in a quest to save the region from gangsters and an invasion, and learns more about himself and the world. Along the way, he makes some friends, shows off his powers (enhanced by technology from his own time) and discovers the truth about himself as his memory fully returns. But it is what he does from then on that will determine the future of the world he has landed in. And the world itself it not without some interesting features not found in our world.

The book contains interesting 'dramatic' illustrations and excerpts from the Handbook to guide the reader. It also an alternate quest in the marginalia involving a small wizard who also enters a pocket universe, only to alter it in unexpected ways.

I've never read anything as bland as this. There's nothing really "bad" about this, but there's also nothing really good, either.

Full review here.

Overall, the book was a very fast read and very fun. Once all the pieces click together it's more waiting to see how much the main character will take it and how his unique personality will play into the narrative. At the end, I was left wondering about some details. There are some subtle hints that make me wonder if Sanderson will revisit this universe.

For a longer review, check out my blog: strakul.blogspot.com/2023/06/book-review-frugal-wizards-handbook-for.html

Brandon Sanderson is one of my favourite authors, so I didn't even bother reading the back of the book before starting this novel. There I was, on the first page, stunned that I was reading an amnesia story. Red flags were going off; this is one of my most hated tropes. Several hours later, I'm here expressing my disbelief that I actually enjoyed an amnesia story. Apparently this is considered the 'White Room' story style: where the narrator has to figure out who they are along with the reader. Keeping the reader in the dark is the critical difference, and what a difference it is!

In order to avoid spoilers, I'll simply expresss how well done the amnesia story element was. It drove character growth in a meaningful capacity while also avoiding irritating resolution mechanisms. All the downsides of the trope were avoided, and the fragments of the titular Frugal Wizard’s Handbook for Surviving Medieval England guidebook was a clever way to introduce worldbuilding to both narrator and reader. The first-person POV was critical in pulling this off. I liked the main character's personality, as a blend of sarcasm and self-deprecation that was both funny and gave us an underdog we could root for.

Perhaps it was the title of the novel that made me assume everything would be tongue-in-cheek, but the accuracy of the historical fiction in this novel surprised me. It's lucky that I had dived into realistic Arthurian legends recently! The Celtic and Anglo-Saxon culture is really well-represented, and I further appreciate the main character calling out that just because he's from the future, doesn't mean the people of the past are dumber. I loved the representation as culture shock; something that's difficult to write because it requires us to recognition things we didn't realize existed.

The story skips a lot of Sanderson traits though: there's no magic system, it's not set in the Cosmere, and it's not even building up a trilogy! Despite all that, this is a tremendously enjoyable one-shot. It's imaginative, unique, realistic yet funny, and defies easy categorization as I tag it as fantasy, science-fiction, and historical fiction all at once.

Highly Recommended.