Sudoku Master Class: 144 Devilish Puzzles with Advanced Strategies |
 |
 click here for more details, find new or used items |
Tom Sheldon
|
|
Pages: 256 (Paperback)
ISBN: 0452287979
Pub: Plume Books
Pub date: 2006-09-07
Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 40237
Reader Reviews:
I hope this is not the end of this terrific series! (0/2 people found this helpful)
My introduction to sudoku was Sheldon's Big Brain Workout, a book which guides the beginner from easy to more difficult puzzles. Sudoku Genius continues the series, with difficult puzzles representing the "nine circles of hell," from Daunting to Deadly. Sudoku Master Class introduces advanced strategies for solving the most difficult puzzles. For the first twenty-four puzzles, the answer key provides guides to the techniques discussed in the introduction--including X-wing, swordfish, and various buried partnerships, so those experimenting with new techniques may want to check the hints in the answer key first so that they can practice these techniques.
Like the other books in the series, the puzzles themselves are large, with plenty of space to record options, one puzzle per page. The books, about five inches by eight inches, fit nicely into a purse or briefcase, and though there is no spiral binding, the fixed binding still allows for right-handed puzzlers to have plenty of space to work the puzzles on the left side of the book. Though all these puzzles are supposed to be difficult, some are much more difficult than others, and I found myself wondering, after a particularly difficult puzzle, if the author deliberately made the next puzzle much easier, as was so often the case.
Three puzzles (#57, #64, and #130) are missing one number from the outset, and while these may appear difficult, they are, in fact, the most fun of all the puzzles, and not difficult at all. I confess that as I was practicing techniques at the beginning of the book, I sometimes got stuck and had to resort to "trailing," Sheldon's word for choosing one number from two pairs and tracing it through the puzzle to see if it is the correct choice. Gradually, as I became more proficient at some of the techniques, the amount of channeling declined so that by the end I was not doing it at all, the sign that Sheldon has created good puzzles which rely on logic, rather than chance.
My appreciation of this series has grown since I tried to find a comparable new collection at the local bookstore--Sheldon may be unique in his grouping of puzzles of comparable level of difficulty in a single book. (Most others range from easy to difficult.) I'm crossing my fingers that Sheldon has another installment in the works. Mary Whipple
Similar Products
Sudoku to Go Diabolical
Mensa Absolutely Nasty Sudoku Level 4 (Mensa): Level 4 (Official Mensa Puzzle Book)
Extreme Sudoku
Extreme Su Doku: Bk. 2 (Sudoku)
Categories
Amazon.co.uk places this book into the following categories:
Books -> Refinements -> Language (feature_browse-bin) -> English
Books -> Refinements -> Age (feature_two_browse-bin)
Books -> Refinements -> Format (binding_browse-bin) -> Paperback