The Frugal Wizard’s Handbook For Surviving Medieval England

By Brandon Sanderson
Science fiction/Gollancz/Trade paperback/366 pages/$22.09/Amazon SG (amzn.to/3TePIhN)
4 stars

There is evidently a substantial Venn diagram intersection that embraces fans of Arthur C. Clarke, Diana Wynne Jones, Robert Ludlum and the inimitable Terry Pratchett.

This book is aimed squarely at that demographic which will grasp instantly the references, narrative framework and sense of humour driving the story. 

The ever-prolific Brandon Sanderson went into overdrive during the pandemic years and produced five novels, four of which he then went on to Kickstarter to fund in a self-publishing drive.

That 2022 campaign, which raised a mind-boggling US$15.1 million (S$20.2 million) in the first 24 hours alone, is officially the most successful Kickstarter of all time. Sanderson wanted to raise US$1 million, but ended the campaign with some US$41.7 million for what he calls A Year Of Sanderson. 

The Frugal Wizard’s Handbook For Surviving Medieval England is one of his pandemic manuscripts, a standalone story outside of his famed Cosmere universe. 

Narrated in the first person, the story begins with protagonist John West waking up in the middle of a field with no memory of his identity and dressed like a cosplayer at a Renaissance fair. 

He soon realises that he is stranded in a vaguely mediaeval-era England, and reading excerpts from an inconveniently patchy guidebook – burnt to loose leaf pages – he learns that he has travelled into an alternate dimension from his own technologically advanced world.

This is where any self-respecting sci-fi geek will instantly make the connection to Clarke’s famed dictum: “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”

As it turns out, alternate universes are so varied and easily accessible in this fictional world that people can buy their own micro-universe to become a “wizard” in their own dimension. 

West, upon crashing into his new universe, discovers that he is not who he thinks he is and also stumbles up against a “big bad” from his world – a gang boss trying to take over the world with advanced tech and weaponry. 

To say more will be to ruin the entertaining twists and turns of this frothy adventure, which coasts along agreeably. There is a palpably geeky joy in Sanderson’s writing, which revels in the obsessively nerdy teasing out of “what ifs” and “if so then whats”. 

He explains how multiple dimensions work in admirably non-technical terms, answering the question of why a dimension with talking bananas is unlikely and resorting to just one graph illustration in the process. 

Admirers of his Mistborn series, in which a system of alchemical magic is systematically thought through, will similarly appreciate the world-building here. The world West ends up in is a recognisable riff off ye olde Anglo-Saxon with invading Hordamen (Vikings), but with comic twists. Sanderson describes the Hordamen as “remarkably well-kempt”: “They looked like men who enjoyed spa days and bought the nice conditioner.” 

His humour can sometimes be a bit juvenile. There is an eye-rolling joke about “carp diem” that he keeps rolling out, even as another character breaks down exactly why it is not funny. And the pages of the guide book’s FAQ, cutely illustrated with an adorable wizard, sometimes become an easy deus ex machina to explain the workings of this universe. 

But that, really, is minor quibbling because Sanderson is masterful at pacing and scene-setting, and this crackling fun read is a perfect stocking stuffer for sci-fi and fantasy enthusiasts.

If you like this, read: The Tough Guide To Fantasyland by Diana Wynne Jones (Firebird Books, 2006, $15.70, Amazon SG, go to amzn.to/3Ni9G7A). This hilarious, laugh-out-loud funny 1996 classic sends up all the fantasy tropes of a ragtag bunch of adventurers on a mission, all in the form of a guidebook to Fantasyland.