Puzzle Ninja Signed

by BELLOS A (Artist)

Puzzle Pit Your Wits Against The Japanese Puzzle Masters [Paperback] Bellos, Alex

Genres: Puzzles, Mathematics, Nonfiction

Paperback

Reviews

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sitting down to do the crossword or Sudoku in a paper gives most people a lot of pleasure, it stretches your brain and enables you to while away a few moments away from a screen of some sort. For those that want to stretch themselves some more, then Alex Bellos has been over to Japan and has come home bearing puzzle shaped gifts.

These have been sought from the enigmatologists of Japan and are very different to the puzzles that you may have come across so far. There are graphical ones, ones that create mazes, a puzzle where you need to separate the wolves from the sheep and even a golf one. For most of them, there are two or three simple rules, however, from simplicity comes complexity and these may start easy, but he collected puzzles that he describes as excruciatingly difficult.

Dare to ask questions and seek answers to the puzzles of life. ― Lailah Gifty Akita

So if you fancy having your brain fried in new and fiendishly complicated ways, this could be the books for you. There are twenty of these new puzzles and over 200 examples in total collected from the wonderfully named Puzzle Poet and The Super Sensi to name but two. Was pleased to see one of my favourites in here, O'Elaki too. If you love puzzles then this is one for your bookshelf; though I cannot be held responsible for any stress caused…

[Daniel Hasegan · Rating 5 out of 5]

So much fun! Sudoku is nothing compared to the games in this book. My favorites are: Slitherlink, Heyawake, Ren-katsu, Kenken. I hope he make a part 2, or otherwise I'll have to learn Japanese

[Dan Lewis · Rating 5 out of 5]

At first I hesitated to buy this book. It is consumable, which breaks my number one rule about books, which is to buy it in order to give it away. After you have finished with this book, it will be filled with your solutions.

When I finished the final puzzle, my first reaction was relief. I told my spouse, "I'm done. I'm free." This book consumed my evenings for weeks on end, and I had mastered all of its challenges. I was a puzzle ninja.

I'm not really sure how to keep it. An ambitious, but forgetful person could erase it and start over. I'm unlikely to do so, or to leaf through my greatest hits.

So with all that in mind, here are my criteria for buying and enjoying this book.

1. You would enjoy abstract Japanese grid puzzles of the ilk of sudoku, and want to experience over twenty new kinds in over two hundred well-curated specimens. You might even play more of the kinds you like the best.

2. You like erasing and redoing puzzles until they're perfect.

3. You can stare in silence at a puzzle without being able to make a single mark for several minutes.

4. You want to learn about the modern history of puzzle making in Japan through conversations with the makers.

5. You're ready to solve a book and let it go.

6. You want to be a puzzle ninja.

[D · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely exceptional puzzle book. So many puzzle books are just dashed off for sale in pound stores, full of lazy, computer-generated puzzles printed on cheap yellowing toilet paper quality pages. This book was an exceptional find for me - a carefully curated and eye-opening selection of puzzles drawn together by someone with a real love for them and who has clearly gone to extreme efforts to source an absolutely excellent section of puzzles. The author has actually travelled to Japan and talked directly to puzzle setters for some of the specialist puzzle magaines, and the book includes interviews with the puzzle setters to understand their motivation. What struck me is that there is a real love of beauty here - not just mathematical "beauty" in the puzzles but a fascination with beauty in interesting geometry, as well as a recognition of some of the beautiful history and minds behind the puzzles (the author has also written books making this love even more clear, like "Beautiful Symmetry: A Coloring Book about Math"). Just unparalleled, I've never found a puzzle book like this before or since.

[Peter · Rating 5 out of 5]

The 5* is for me, not for the book!
There is a nice variety of puzzles, many of which were new to me. They start off pretty simple but build up to some rather tricky finales.
I liked some of the puzzle types much more than others: those where you could use logic to make progress rather than have to resort to trial and error, but maybe I just did not 'get it' on those.
All in all highly enjoyable and excellent value for money.

[Brian Delaney · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thoroughly enjoying these puzzles. The author writes a weekly maths column in the Guardian and this is really well put together with a variety of puzzles and clear instructions.

[Iamreddave · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nice introduction to lots of different puzzle types

[Connor Stack · Rating 5 out of 5]

So fun, so addictive. I'm really liking Bellos' books.