The Frugal Wizard's Handbook for Surviving Medieval England by: Brandon Sanderson

 

The Frugal Wizard’s Handbook for Surviving Medieval England is the Secret Project from Brandon Sanderson with no connection to the Cosmere and is just a story that begun as a mix of ideas from years ago and those that came to the man as he lay attempting to sleep.  Sanderson and Dan Wells had this idea for a story about time travel tourism sending people back to the sinking of the RMS Titanic, potentially with a pair of teams attempting to sabotage the sinking and the other attempting to sabotage the saboteurs.  It was this idea that eventually worked its way into shifting the setting to medieval England, then further to an alternate dimension of medieval England with its own idiosyncrasies, and instead of two teams it largely becomes a story of redemption for one man finding his place in the world.  Much of The Frugal Wizard’s Handbook for Surviving Medieval England is told through Sanderson’s attempts to be as witty as Douglas Adams, with several interludes of the in universe book of the same name by Cecil G. Bagsworth III while the actual plot is of a man waking up in one of the many dimensions for sale with no memory and his copy of the handbook scattered, attempting to regain his memory and bearings when it turns out the mafia has invaded this dimension.  The tonal incongruence is what leads this book away from being one of Sanderson’s best, nor even really up to the standard of Sanderson’s weaker books.  There are essentially two stories at play here, both clearly ones that Sanderson is interested in writing, but neither quite fit together, certainly not well enough for this to work entirely as a book.

 

The interludes by Cecil G. Bagsworth III and the many illustrations on almost every page of the deluxe Kickstarter edition by Steve Argyle, available on Sanderson’s website for those not reading a physical or digital copy of the book, work incredibly well to make this humorous tale of the many dimensions, hinting at the future state of the world where dimensional travel has become a trivial tourist trap.  Sanderson, especially as the interludes continue to become more ridiculous, is this close to hitting the heart of the issue largely being capitalism, and while it is clear that Sanderson is at least aware of what he is getting at there is this great reluctance to actually get anywhere than this.  There are two interludes dedicated to colonialism and imperialism which are essentially putting the tongue firmly in cheek to explore that yes this is essentially committing those acts as an act of tourism and is widely irresponsible.  Jokes are made at the expense of how capitalism will often put up platitudes of combating the damage that it does to others in the form of odd pieces of charity that really wouldn’t help the problem.  The narrative voice of Cecil G. Bagsworth III is honestly one that could carry an entire novel, even a novel that was as outwardly satirical as Sanderson feels as if he is desperately attempting to achieve, though only if The Frugal Wizard’s Handbook for Surviving Medieval England was actually the in universe book instead of a novel.

 

The actual plot suffers from what occurs when several plots attempt to set up a mystery box, the answer as to what is inside the box is unsatisfying.  Sanderson beginning the novel with a blank slate protagonist and building to a protagonist that is an almost complete failure, responsible for the predicament of himself but also those around him that he has to redeem, suffers from perhaps being the most obvious thing that could be in the mystery box.  Now this particular twist is well executed and the protagonist, eventually revealed to be called John West, is at least charming, though sadly nowhere near as interesting as Sanderson’s other protagonists.  There are other twists, however, in The Frugal Wizard’s Handbook for Surviving Medieval England that generally don’t work, including one particular example of a classic fantasy fake out death that is used to completely twist the emotions of our protagonist.  Sanderson also develops this romance that at least tracks with the increase in John’s confidence as even without his memory he is a bumbling fool that needs to learn how to stand on his own two feet.  The closest this plot gets to really tying into the ideas is what could be an interesting commentary on how capitalism does not properly value the uniqueness of the individual, John being a failure not through lack of talent but through the universe generally not going his way, something joked about due to the insane improbabilities that populate the novel.

 

Overall, The Frugal Wizard’s Handbook for Surviving Medieval England may be a book that doesn’t really involve wizards nor medieval England, and because of that it’s a book that suffers from a general lack of focus.  It’s incredibly fun in places in the few places that the themes generally do align, but the characters are largely bland, and there really isn’t enough to make this one a very engaging read beyond some fun in the prose.  It’s perhaps the weakest thing I’ve read from Brandon Sanderson, an author I usually rate much higher than this, and there’s disappointment in just how with maybe another draft or two it could have been improved.  4/10.