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

#1 New York Times Bestselling author Brandon Sanderson meshes Jason Bourne, epic fantasy, and time travel together in a standalone adventure where an amnesiac wizard's only hope of survival in medieval England lies in recovering his missing memories.

A man awakes in a clearing in what appears to be medieval England with no memory of who he is, where he came from, or why he is there. Chased by a group from his own time, his sole hope for survival lies in regaining his missing memories, making allies among the locals, and perhaps even trusting in their superstitious boasts.

His only help from the "real world" should have been a guidebook entitled The Frugal Wizard's Handbook for Surviving Medieval England, except his copy exploded during transit. The few fragments he managed to save provide clues to his situation, but can he figure them out in time to survive?

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.

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 feel pained to say this for the very first time about a Sanderson book and never thought it would come to this, but this was mid.

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.