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HomeEverything ElseWill ShortzMensa Guide to Solving Sudoku: Hundreds of Puzzles Plus Techniques to Help You Crack Them All |
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 Finally! May 06, 2010
I had heard about this book, but couldn't find it in the book stores. I have been doing the Mensa Sudoku puzzles, finishing books 1 and 2. I do them in ink, but to continue to do this, I was going to need some help. This book is it!
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
 Not too impressed. Apr 03, 2010
The book is long on puzzles (a good thing) but short on dialog (not so good). For 200+ pages there isn't a lot of writing in here. All the advanced techniques are indeed discussed but it's mostly just a glazing of the subject. Usually there is only one example of each type of problem given in detail and hardly any discussion on tips of how to look for each type of scenario, and pitfalls to watch for. With the associated puzzles included you eventually start to put it all together but it's not in keeping with what you might expect out of any kind of training or educational manual. Furthermore, the binding on my copy was poor. Pages continue to fall out of the book, and with this book there is a lot of going back looking for explainations. I suppose for the money it's ok since there are lots of puzzles to solve and you can learn new tricks however it was less than I had hopped for. The author should have spent a little more time writing to make it a really good book. Overall it's a thumbs down and I wouldn't recommend it.
2 of 2 found the following review helpful:
Great Introductory Book Jan 21, 2010
I'll preface with the fact that I'm not a member of Mensa. I bought this book after becoming curious about the Sudoku craze a couple of years ago. I found it to be engaging, well organized, and presented in easy, step-by-step, lay-person's terms. After working my way through this book in a short time I went from a know-nothing-at-all to a beginner black belt (Brown belt is easy for me and black belts can require more than I want to do.) Because of the information in this book I would be an outright black belt, but I don't want to put the effort forth in looking that deeply for number patterns; instead, I enjoy Sudoku as a relaxing pastime, and now look for alternative Sudoku puzzles with various formats. I would love it if Peter Gordon and Frank Longo made some. I highly recommend it--it's a great book!
2 of 2 found the following review helpful:
Best yet, for me Jan 19, 2010
I like Gordon's book better than Sudoku Master Class by Sheldon and Just Sudoku published by Loki.
1) Clearest, fullest explanations of strategies with examples and practice problems (76 pages!)
2) Goes farther in advanced strategies.
3) Brief history of Sudoku.
4) Many unspecified problems, numbers 97 to 800, increasing in difficulty.
Problems number 200, 300, 400, 500, and 600 can be solved without X-wing or swordfish. Problems 700 and 701 require X-wing. Haven't solved 702. 703 to 707 all require uniqueness arguments.
Example: if there is a rectangle with possibles XY, XY, XY, XYZ in two boxes, Z cannot be a correct choice because the puzzle would have two solutions.
It doesn't bother me that the grids are small. Any problem worth working hard on I always copy onto a larger form.
4 of 6 found the following review helpful:
Please read Kimberly J. Annis' review Dec 10, 2009
If you are a beginner and want to learn to solve sudoke; do yourself a favor and keep looking.
I would recommend
1. Master Sudoku: week by week" Paul Stephens
2. "Master Sudoku: Step-by-Step Instructions for Players at All Levels" by Carol Vorderman
3. Chad Barker (SP) The Sudoku Professor has four or five free video lessons to teach people how to get started solving sudoku at [...], Then has five or 6 hours of Sudoku instruction if you choose to buy them. The free lessons easily gives you techniques to solve the level 1 and II puzzles. If you want to be able to break Level III and IV puzzles his complete course will help you.
4. Dave Meade also has free Sudoku lessons on the internet these lessons are not video based but still a *^&% site better that this AWFUL book. I do not remember Dave's site for sudoku lessons but should be easy to find with a search engine.
What's wrong with this book? Well how much time do you have to read this review or e-Mail me.
1. This book is large format which means it is large and unwieldy. I much prefer the normal sized paperbacks
2. As Kimberly pointed out correctly there are six puzzles per page, and insufficient room for pencil marks.
3. He has his own way of numbering the cells 11-99. In my opinion numbering the columns A-I and rows 1-9 would be MUCH easier for the reader to find the cells he is talking about. Either change the labeling method or high lighting the cell he is talking about would be a tremendous help to the reader.
4. I have been solving Sudoku for more than a year, and I have worked my way from Level 1 (easiest to level 4 puzzles (Often labeled Hardent or chalenger) in sudoku magazines. I bought this book solely for the purpose of discovering "Gordonian logic" that he uses to break the most difficult (level 5 (expert) level puzzles. I have gone over and over and over this section, and it makes absolutely no logic to me. In my opinion it looks like nothing more than a guess which I have been using to solve a few level 5 puzzles.
If you are interested in Sudoku. Don't waste your time here (unless aggravation and frustration is your thing;) but check out the four better options I describe above.
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