The Frugal Wizard’s Handbook for Surviving Medieval England by Brandon Sanderson. It is an intriguing mix of science fiction and fantasy that ended up being hilarious. The story opens with a man waking up in an unknown location with absolutely no memory. In fact the only thing he seems to have is fragments of a book titled “The Frugal Wizard’s Handbook for Surviving Medieval England.” As he starts exploring he quickly discovers that he actually is in a version of Medieval England and that he more than likely traveled dimensions to get there. His memory slowly trickles back and he starts piecing things together though he never seems to get the complete picture. Before long he also discovers that he is not the only traveler currently in that dimension and that the others might possibly want him dead. Working on surviving he manages to make friends with some of the locals as they band together to push back against this other group of travelers. Things start getting weirder when mysterious and somewhat unexplainable things start happening that seem to imply there might actually be magic in this dimension.
I have never read anything by Brandon Sanderson before so this was my first introduction to his work but I will say it was a pretty great introduction. It was such an intriguing blend of genres and themes that you would normally think won’t go together very well and yet it was a very well-blended and seamless whole. There was hints of science fiction with the dimensional travel and other bits and pieces of technology with fantasy overlaid on top of that with the weird happenings that just keep happening. It ended up feeling like I was reading a fantasy novel instead of science fiction even though there were obvious elements of science fiction present. I was genuinely impressed by how well they were blended together to create something this cohesive. In terms of thematic content it was just as impressive as it expertly blended together the ideas of struggling with different cultures and beliefs systems while traveling with a journey of self discovery and a little bit of realizing you don’t like who you are and feeling the need to try and change. The fact that all of that was included in such a short book was seriously impressive. There was also a good balance between being serious and being humorous which helped lighten the overall atmosphere of the book which easily could have been much darker. On top of that it did an excellent job of narrating from the perspective of a character that was absolutely clueless about everything. I feel like the book handled everything extremely well. The one thing I was sure about was how it also included the fragments of the handbook sprinkled throughout the text. While it was interesting to see the fragments I also felt like there were times they did nothing but interrupt the story, especially when they were really frequent. Overall, the story was great and I am happy to give it 4.5 out of 5 stars.
This was a good example of the blending of science fiction and fantasy so if you enjoy either of those genres than this might just appeal to you. It does feel more like fantasy than science fiction though so keep that in mind. Considering the content it might also appeal to readers who like books set in Medieval England. It is primarily aimed at an adult audience but I can’t remember any specific issues that would make it unsuitable for younger readers beyond some fairly mild violence. This book could probably be read by readers as young as fourteen without any issues. I hope you will consider trying it as I thought it was pretty good. If you do feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.