The Frugal Wizard's Handbook For Surviving Medieval England - Tumblr Posts

The Frugal Wizard's Handbook for Surviving Medieval England- Book Review

SPOILER WARNING

Brandon Sanderson's work rewards people who embrace their oddities and worst flaw, and The Frugal Wizard's Handbook is no different. Amnesiac John West finds himself in an alternate dimension that resembles Medieval England, but has no idea how he arrived or who he is. As memories slowly come back to him, he recognizes that he might not want to remember that last part. His relationships with Sefawynn, a storyteller, and Ealstan, a local lord, help him accept his identity.

John West's character arc from wannabe wizard to actual hero was enjoyable to read. Seeing him grow in confidence through his relationship with Sefawynn was touching. Sefawynn herself has a pretty great arc, though I think the romantic tension between her and John wasn't well developed. I understand that they accept each others' flaws, but we don't see a lot of flirting or signs of attraction. Most of the characters in this book aren't given much depth. Thokk, Ealstan, and Jen suffer the most from this. Thokk fills the kooky old lady archetype, but has very little characterization outside of that. Her status as a goddess isn't really questioned by John, but neither were a lot of things near the end of the story

Jen's characterization are especially shallow. Even though John couldn't remember much about Jen, there could've been ways to characterize her (e.g Ryan and John commiserate over what she was like, John has some sort of charm or memorabilia that reminds him of her). Instead, we don't learn about her until we learn she betrays John. Jen cheating on John only serves to server his ties to his home dimension so he can stay in Medieval England. It isn't given the time to fully flesh out John's feelings. This book would've benefitted from at least two more chapters describing the emotional fallout from what happened

3.5/5 stars - enjoyed the overall message of the story; certainly could've used more time to develop character relationships