Reviews with content warning for Suicide attempt - The Frugal Wizard's Handbook for Surviving Medieval England

This book is kind of a disappointment.

I love the world building. I love how it's a medieval fantasy setting with a futuristic lense on top of it. It leads to a very unique setting that the characters explore.

I love the protagonist in this book especially when he is by himself and it is only his internal monologue. The other characters were weaker and just not as fleshed out as he was. I would have preferred if the main character had spent more time with it only being him because those pages flew by while the other pages of him interacting with the others were more of a slog.

I didn't like John's romance with Sefawynn I feel it was kind of a forced romance that only happened because they were two main characters of the opposite sex. I have noticed this trope happens in most Sanderson books and I find it annoying but it's not a deal breaker in his writing or anything.

The death fake outs in this book are so obvious that I did not register them as deaths. I just couldn't believe that the book tried to fake Ealstan's death twice.

The best parts of this book were the FAQs that were sprinkled throughout they were really funny and explained world building that would have been out of place in the main story. When the story felt like a slog I would read it for the next FAQ almost like it was a reward.

This is a book that has a lot of potential but I feel that it did not fully meet my expectations. If this got a sequel I would read it but I would not recommend this book over so many other great Sanderson books.

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purplepenning's review against another edition

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adventurous funny lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No

4.25

A Douglas Adams-esque science fantasy that I thoroughly enjoyed! It's entirely possible that non-Sanderson readers are enjoying the secret project books better than the Sanderson fans. We go in with no expectations and are immensely entertained. This one is humorous, but not frothy, and pulls together the adventuring, the fantasy, the sci-fi, and the human story quite well by the end.

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erins_bookshelf_'s review against another edition

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adventurous funny tense medium-paced

3.75

It started out kind of confusing and slow, but about a third of the way through it started picking up and I did enjoy it. It’s not my favorite of Sanderson’s worldbuilding- it was a bit confusing and some parts

like people from Earth having a weird effect on beings from the book’s dimension

didn’t make a ton of sense- but overall it was enjoyable and fun. I always love a character finally standing up for themselves and becoming a new person, and John’s character development was really good. It’s almost 4 stars, but because I still feel confused it’s not quite there.

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amphibianwitch's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No

2.25

Ha sido un poco decepcionante, pero me cuesta desgranar por qué. Por un lado, creo que había demasiada información: el worbu de cifi, el worbu religioso, el worbu del medievo, el pasado del protagonista... demasiadas cosas que explicarle al lector en lugar de desarrollar la historia y a los personajes.

Pero es que por otro lado tampoco creo que la historia y los personajes fueran tan interesantes. El grupo está compuesto del protagonista inútil pero que al final triunfa, la chica que está para ser el interés amoroso y el tipo grande, fuerte y estoico. Cada vez que aparecía un personaje más interesante (como Thokk o Yazad), tenía un peso poco relevante en la trama. (view spoiler)

En cuanto a la historia, el tema de los vikingos es que no me importaba mucho. Colocar a un grupo de "invasores" como enemigos, pero de los que no sabemos nada, pues no sé, me parece raro en Sanderson. Es un recurso un poco vago. Y en general el final no me ha parecido que diera los frutos que se iban sembrando durante la historia. No sé, si tienes que empezar la última pelea, la que debería tener una gran carga emocional y culminar la evolución del prota, explicando cosas del contexto... a mí ya me has perdido.

Aún así había ideas que molaban en esta historia. La cifi, Logna, la idea de los concursos multidimensionales y las partes humorísiticas (Sir Runian von Internet, ¡yo te Nintendo!). Una de las mejores cosas, y que ha hecho que no me diera pereza avanzar con el libro, ha sido la increíble interpretación de Francesc Belda (que también disfruté muchísimo en Trenza del Mar Esmeralda) y de Belén Roca.

Pero no sé, en general me ha aburrido.

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bumblebee's review against another edition

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adventurous medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.5

This might have earned 3 stars if there hadn’t been a nonsensical romance. Alas.

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sassmistress's review against another edition

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adventurous funny mysterious fast-paced

5.0

Five stars, page turner. Anything I say will be a spoiler but I'm a sucker for SFF that can make me laugh. Very original concept with some good old tropes like "wakes up with no memories" and side comment footnotes.

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kylieqrada's review against another edition

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adventurous funny medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I am an eternal B Sands stan, but this wasn't really it for me. I liked the format of the special edition I have, and the concept is sound. But some of the themes didn't quite land.

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