The Frugal Wizard’s Handbook for Surviving Medieval England is a Rare Sanderson Miss

Brandon Sanderson’s Secret Project #2 is less than the sum of its parts.

Brandon Sanderson has four secret projects coming out this year, and one normal book slated for a November release on top of that, to say that this is a prolific year for him would be an understatement. The first one of his secret projects was a success (4.6/5 on Goodreads is a high score, even compared to Sanderson’s other books), but this one… not so much.

Secret Project #2 (or its annoyingly-long title, The Frugal Wizard’s Handbook for Surviving Medieval England) is unique within the context of the secret projects. It is the only one not set in the Cosmere — Sanderson’s own version of the MCU — , and it is the only one that take place on (some version of) Earth.

This book is about a (at least at first) nameless main character who woke up in a slightly different version of medieval England (for example, the people here worship Norse gods, but with slightly misspelled names like Woden and Friag instead of Odin and Freya), but he’s forgotten everything about himself, so he needs to figure things out, quickly.

Despite the fact that Sanderson is my favorite author, I’ve never been a fan of his non-Cosmere works. The only one among them that I love are the Skyward books, where our world is so far in the past, it barely matters.

It’s difficult for me to express exactly why that is, I think it has something to do with the fact that his characters feel… less real when they’re set in our world. Maybe I feel this way because of the way they talk, or the way they’re characterized, I dunno, but to me, his Cosmere characters are just so much more engaging and interesting.

And I think this book is no exception. As a whole, I think this book does most of the things that every Sanderson books do. In particular, it has clear cut arcs for the main characters (or just one main character in this case) and it has great foreshadowing that makes for a satisfying ending that’s surprising, but feels inevitable when you think about it. And it also has really interesting worldbuilding that feels really well thought out.

And it even does one thing that many Sanderson books (especially the thicker ones) don’t do. It is incredibly fast paced from the beginning, with short and punchy chapters that make the readers wanna keep turning the pages.

And yet, when I was done, I felt like something important was missing from this story. Is it because it’s a relatively short book? Maybe, there are so much interesting information in the worldbuilding of this book, and I can’t help but feel like this particular direction of the story isn’t the most interesting one that you can explore in this setting. And even if you ignore that, I do think while the main character is decently compelling, the rest are just… not. They don’t really have a lot going for them.

Partly because in the beginning of the story, the main character is just so occupied with trying to figure out who he is so there’s not much space to explore the other characters.

I do admit that in the second half of the book, things picked up a bit when it comes to the characterization and the things that are being explored in this setting. But still, compared to the rest of Sanderson’s works, I think this one lacks quite a lot of things. Unlike with most of Sanderson’s other books, I don’t feel like I would ever want to reread this book. It just feels so… barebones, there’s no depth or substance beyond the surface, unlike most of Sanderson’s Cosmere works.

Before I finish, I do have to mention Steve Argyle’s art. There are way more of them than I thought there would be, and even though they didn’t save the book or anything, they are definitely one of the redeeming qualities of it.

Overall, I find it to be a painfully average book. It’s a far cry from the brilliancy of Secret Project #1/Tress of the Emerald Sea, so don’t expect something like that book.

If you’re just a new reader who’s never read a Brandon Sanderson book before, and wants something that is quick and easy to read, then this is for you. But if you are a experienced reader (whether in the context of Sanderson’s other works, or in general), just lower your expectations and you might be able to enjoy this book.

It’s a rare Sanderson miss, but when you have five books out in one year, one miss is not the end of the world. 2.5/5

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