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The Sudoku Addict's Workbook: 150 Brand-New Puzzles with Gridlock-Busting Tips and Techniques
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List Price:
$9.95
Pay Mortgages Price: $9.95
Subject To Change Without Notice
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Duncan Baird
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 793
EAN: 9781844835850
ISBN: 1844835855
Label: Duncan Baird
Manufacturer: Duncan Baird
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 208
Publication Date: 2008-04-01
Publisher: Duncan Baird
Studio: Duncan Baird
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Editorial Reviews:
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Become a sudoku-solving whiz! Sudoku guru Paul Stephens (Mastering Sudoku) has devised a skill-building workbook that can take you from average to confidently advanced in no time. His comprehensive how-to features a selection of foolproof techniques, along with 150 hand-picked puzzles (self-generated from his own computer program) specially chosen to provide practice in key strategies. Each puzzle has an introductory profile, expert tips for extra guidance, and a grade-yourself time score. On the solution pages, Stephens has highlighted many key solving patterns—an ingenious way to help newcomers master even difficult puzzles. A 10-page introduction covers all the major techniques from pairs and triples to X-wing, swordfish and non-unique rectangles. Sudoku has never been so much fun!
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: First class exercises for intermediate/advanced sudoku addict, but not a workbook for those hoping to improve strategies.
Comment: Paul Stephens's collection of one hundred fifty new puzzles will keep sudoku addicts going for a long time. Even the easiest ones at the beginning offer some significant challenges, if not with the puzzles themselves but with the time limitations he provides for "improver," "expert," and "genius." The puzzles are unusually well devised, and they are printed on top quality paper, so that if you, like me, may have to do a particularly challenging puzzle three times before you finally figure out all the tricks, you can erase and then re-do, without any problems. Erasing is clean, without any residue left on the eraser, and the puzzle is so "new"-looking that I defy anyone to realize that this is a re-do.
I've been a sudoku addict for about three years, doing between two and three puzzles a day, and I was hoping that this book would provide me with some the techniques that the really great puzzle solvers use to work on a solution when they hit gridlock, but I was disappointed, not with the puzzles, but with the author's unusually arcane descriptions of the sudoku strategies which most of us do automatically. Spending time trying to translate what I have been doing automatically, into the author's pre-established vocabulary is annoying, when the need to do this is based on the author's unusual labeling and not on the technique itself.
I finally decided to just do the puzzles, the way I normally do. I've learned a lot about the math and strategy from doing the successive Tom Sheldon series (which I strongly recommend, regardless of level of expertise), and knowing the complex names that Stephens applies to the usual sudoku strategies is not important to me. In fact, I find most of them LESS helpful than just following instinct.
This is one of the best books I've found in terms of the quality of the puzzles, but if you are hoping to improve your skills as a result of this book, you may be disappointed. The author provides graphic examples for the strategies he suggests, but the scope of these and the ability of the puzzler to apply them to future use is so limited that I finally gave up. (I've never quite figured out what the A and B in his examples represent because the whole puzzle is not shown, and I can't see his suggestions in total context!) I've found that the techniques I already have from the Paul Sheldon series have stood me in good stead, however, and I have totally enjoyed, and even admired, Stephens's puzzles. n Mary Whipple
The Big Sudoku Brain Workout: 150 Puzzles for a Younger Mind, Book One, by Tom Sheldon
Sudoku Genius: 144 of the Most Fiendish Puzzles Ever Devised, Book Two, by Tom Sheldon
Sudoku Master Class, Book Three, by Tom Sheldon
Will Shortz Presents The Little Black Book of Sudoku: 400 Puzzles (Will Shortz Presents...)
Customer Rating:
Summary: Addict's Workbook
Comment: I look for Sudoku books with three qualities. First, I want puzzles that have only one solution. If I find a book that includes puzzles with more than one solution I discard it. Two, I want books with grids large enough that I can enter candidates in the cells. Third, I want books with challenging puzzles. Many of the descriptions on Amazon omit such info.
I prefer grids that are about 4 ½" x 4 ½". The grids in my newspaper are about 3" x 3" (which is tolerable because not many candidates are needed).
Paul Stephens' Sudoku Addict's Workbook: The puzzles have only one solution; the grids are about 3 ½" x 3 ½". There are 150 puzzles in this book. This book guides the user to apply techniques learned from Mastering Sudoku. Explanation of techniques is not as detailed as in the former book.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A path to Sudoku enlightenment for advanced learners!
Comment: What an absolutely marvelous idea for Sudoku addicts like myself! Paul Stephens, the author of this marvelous little puzzle compilation, explained the idea beautifully in his foreword:
" ... it can sometimes be hard to find the right puzzle for your skill level, or to give you practice in a particular solving technique. I've aimed to address that problem with this book. It contains 150 puzzles, hand-picked for the techniques needed to solve them. Each puzzle has a description giving you a guide to the major techniques required, along with tips on where to look within the puzzle and what to expect next."
The puzzles are graded from moderate to fiendish (and trust me here, fellow puzzle solvers, "fiendish" in this book means EXACTLY what it says!) and take you through the simplest gridlock busting techniques to the most complex. Each technique (with a few variations) is briefly explained in the opening pages but it takes solving the actual puzzles to switch on that "aha" light bulb, to come to understand how the technique is applied in a full puzzle and to see how it fits into the context of a developing solution.
Stephens covers an enormous range of puzzle solving techniques including:
Crosshatching
Single candidate squares
Single square candidates
Virtual crosshatching
Naked pairs, triples and quads
Row, column and box claims
Remote pair chains
Non-unique rectangles
Bivalue Universal Grave
X-wings, Swordfish and Jellyfish
XY-wings
XYZ-wings
Conjugate Pair Chains
Multi-colouring
XY-chains
Forcing chains and loops
Nishio
Nice Loops
Even the easiest puzzles in the book (which were, in fact, somewhat lower than the solving ability I had already achieved) were made more challenging and more pleasurable in the doing because Stephens put in three solving time estimates - one for "genius", one for "expert" and one for "improving solvers". I got the greatest kick out of trying high speed solving to see if I could achieve the "genius" time estimate. In the earliest puzzles, I could come very close to the "genius" time and invariably beat the "expert" time. But it didn't take long for Stephens to feed me a dose of humility. By the time I got to the middle of the book, I was feeling more than adequately challenged and felt that I was improving my skills with every puzzle that I looked at.
This is NOT for beginners nor could it by any stretch be considered a "Sudoku for Dummies" but if you're already a competent solver looking for challenges and a way to stretch your puzzle solving abilities with more esoteric techniques, then look no further than this delightful book. Highly recommended.
Paul Weiss
Customer Rating:
Summary: An irreplaceable book for those wanting to work on strategy
Comment: I'm astonished by the negative reveiws of this book -- the only explanation I can see for them is absolute ignorance as to the purpose of the book.
So, as a reminder for those who left negative reviews as to the authors stated intent, I'll copy-paste an excerpt from the introduction:
"Before the puzzles you'll find a 10-page quick reference guide to the solving techniques you'll need to complete this book. This isn't a full sudoku-solving tutorial (for that try my book Mastering Sudoku), but should be enough to jog your memory"
(I.e. the book isn't meant as a replacement for a more comprehensive strategy tutorial...)
Customer Rating:
Summary: Sudoku Addict's Workbook
Comment: So relieved to read the other reviews, I was wondering if I was the only one having difficulty understanding the very brief instructions on strategy. The quality of the paper is excellent and the binding is very good. However, I purchased the book in hopes of learning some advanced strategies, in that respect it is a disappointment.
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