Reviews - The Frugal Wizard's Handbook for Surviving Medieval England

6.35k reviews for:

The Frugal Wizard's Handbook for Surviving Medieval England

Brandon Sanderson

3.73 AVERAGE

copiouskac's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous lighthearted medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

maedbetweenthepages's review against another edition

4.0

4 stars.

The more I read, the more I liked this! It was a very fun romp in the beginning and by the end I found myself connected to the characters a lot more than I realized. Reading from the gorgeous premium edition of the book for the first half was probably part of it as well as all the little details added up to a really immersive experience.
I can see why this isn't everyone's favorite, but I had a really good time with it!

aubreedavis18's review against another edition

3.5

slow-paced

a_a_ron's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous funny lighthearted relaxing fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

ashira12356's review against another edition

4.25

adventurous emotional funny hopeful relaxing 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

The book was such a fun read. The overall story line was great with the revealing of what was actually going on and other side plots. The jokes from all the characters gave it energy but I found the actual manual a bit confusing and irrelevant to the story. Wish I read it in one go.

This book is about John, a man who travelled back in time to medieval England. He meets with the local people Sefawyn, Earlstan to figure out where he is. He has a manual of the dimension he travelled to that helps him out with his abilities. They encounter hoardamen and other villagers on their way to stop people from John’s dimension and criminal past. John slowly starts remembering fragments or his past and why he came there: his failures in life. In the end John realizes he’s had the potential the whole time, he can be happy, people were using him and he found happiness in the dimension with Sefawyn and lives happily ever after telling the story of how they won against Woden, Vikings and Alevs.

sumaiahareb's review against another edition

2.5

medium-paced

Okay so… this one was a weird ride. I went in expecting classic Sanderson; tight plot, cool magic, maybe a twist or two. but instead I got a kind of bizarre mash-up of sci-fi, and time travel that felt like it didn’t quite know what it wanted to be!!

The premise is fun in theory: a guy from a futuristic world ends up in a version of medieval England, with memory loss and a mysterious “frugal wizard’s guidebook” to help him out. It sounds chaotic in a good way, but it ended up just… being chaotic.

The humor felt forced half the time, like it was trying so hard to be quirky and clever, but I found myself eye-rolling more than laughing.

Also, compared to Sanderson’s other work, this felt thin. The worldbuilding wasn’t deep, the emotional beats didn’t land, and it just didn’t stick with me.

Not Brandon Sanderson worst, but definitely not his best.