Customer Reviews

The Atlantic Cryptic Crosswords

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I have been doing cryptic crosswords for more than twenty years. I LOVE those things! Cox and Rathvon are undeniably the top in their field. I pre-ordered this volume way before it came out, and got utterly hooked when it arrived. I am very busy, and I tried to ration the 60 puzzles to evenings at home, after work, after travels, so that I could spread out and savor the fun . . . still, I finished the book in less than 2 months.

There is not a single disappointment in this collection. Every puzzle is devious in its own way. I like them HARD, as difficult as possible. I want them to take many days to finish, and if you do too, then this is the PERFECT book for you!

All of the clues are tricky, some even sinfully misleading, but they are all fair. I often found myself laughing out loud at the surface meaning, which really shouldn't matter too much, once you have a feel for how to attack such clues, but nonetheless adds a level of enjoyment to the solving, a kind of "Wow, that is beautiful! How did they think of that?" The puzzles are all works of art in their own way and can be enjoyed for the sheer aesthetics of the construction, for the elegant mental gymnastics it must have taken to invent them.

Puzzles #20 and #53 were the hardest for me, especially #53, which I had to erase TWICE to start all over.

If you like tackling problems that seem intractable, and need to know that they are indeed honest and solvable, with hard work and patience, then this is the book for you. In most cases, merely cracking the cryptic clues is just the first step -- discerning where or how to place them makes it even MORE fun! It must have been a Herculean . . . almost Sisyphean . . . effort for Cox and Rathvon to produce such ingenious, flawless works.

I must respectfully disagree with any who think Rathvon and Cox were wasting their time constructing these elaborate puzzles. These are variety cryptics, a scarce commodity in the world today. Regular crosswords are available in an essentially limitless supply. Cryptic crosswords with no extra twist are less common, but there still seem to be plenty. But there are few enough variety cryptics available that, except for this latest volume, I've worked essentially all that are in print or are available on the Internet (and I'm sure I'm far from alone in this respect).

I didn't buy this when it first came out, because I'd worked the authors' previous two collections of Atlantic puzzles, I'd been an Atlantic subscriber for several years, and after I canceled my subscription when the Puzzler was dropped from the Atlantic-on-paper, I'd faithfully worked all the puzzles posted on Atlantic-online, so I figured there'd be nothing new for me in this collection. Still, I couldn't resist peeking inside the cover while browsing in a local brick-and-mortar store, and I was pleased to read the authors' claim that this new collection contains few puzzles that were previously collected in book form, and none that have been posted online. It sounds like most of these will be new to me, and maybe I'm forgetful enough that any that I *have* worked before will *seem* like new! (So far, this appears to be true.)

Thanks, Emily and Henry. Keep up the good work!

I always buy crypic crossword books (at least the American style) as soon as I see them. I probably have a big enough collection to keep me going for years, even without on-line ones. I usually switch off books for a bit of variety. But in this case, I started with the first puzzle and couldn't help myself. I just kept going. Like another poster, I wanted to "ration" them but no use - These are just too good. They are the perfect combination of tough nut, but not uncrackable, as some of the British collections are. (I still dip into the Brit books now and then but when you look up the answer and still don't get it, it's just not fun anymore.)

I've done many of Cox and Rathvon's cryptics published in the Atlantic over the last couple years, but I hadn't done the older ones despite the availability of some previous book collections. I snapped up this book as soon as it was published and it immediately displaced all the other crossword books in my house.

Every single one of these cryptics is a meaty challenge. Some are quicker to yield (which means they only take several times as long as a tough Saturday New York Times crossword), while others require far more mental effort (tasty, tasty mental effort).

If you are new to cryptics, this is not the book for you. Cryptics beginners would do better with something like Fraser Simpson's101 Cryptic Crosswords: From the New Yorker. But more experienced fans of cryptics will relish Cox and Rathvon's creative twists on the format, their spot-on clues, and the way they make our brains work harder.

For years, these maddening, fascinating puzzles ran in Atlantic Monthly magazine. They were life-savers during the endless waits in doctors' offices,or in cars waiting for passengers to emerge. In fact, they were addictive, an addiction you shared with friends. The first blow came when the Atlantic stopped printing them in the magazine, but did allow subscribers to get them online. Just when we made peace with that, the puzzles simply stopped. A long panic moment!! Then--a miracle--Amazon let me know the puzzles had been published. I bought two copies instantly, and gave one to a friend who reponded with a giant hug and shouts of delight. Yes, this was a great purchase. Be forewarned: these puzzles are cryptics with added pitfalls along the way.

I love this book so much that when I lost it, I bought a second copy.

I was worried this book would be much too hard for me--I can only do puzzles rated medium difficulty on NYTimes with much concentration and effort. The puzzles certainly aren't easy, but I can finish them with only a few peeks at the oneacross or other helpful websites.

Every puzzle has an extra challenge built into it, so figuring out the answer to the clue only partially helps you to fill in the grid. It's great fun, but also makes this book too difficult for beginners. (Beginners should start with the collection from the New Yorker--101 Cryptic Crosswords: From the New Yorker.) Once I got the hang of it and completely filled in an entire grid, I was hooked and have been compulsively working on these puzzles ever since.

Cox and Rathvon compose the best cryptic crosswords since Stephen Sondheim introduced the genre to the US. If you love cryptics you won't have to be told that you absolutely must buy this collection. Hours and hours of masochistic pleasure. Alas, the Atlantic no longer publishes these wonderful puzzles, so it's probably a good idea to stock up on this book for future fun.

I was totally disgusted with this book. The descriptions of each puzzle were unfathomable. The Amazon website description of this book gave no clue as to what the puzzles were like. It seems like they were as impossible to understand as an Enigma machine. Since I tried a few of them, I felt I had no right to return the item. I threw the damn book away. I don't like cryptic puzzles that cater to an effete "Mensa" type mentality. The best cryptic puzzles are the classic types, the ones that are hard to solve; the ones that appear occasionally in the NYTimes Sunday puzzles.

This is a fine collection of devilish puzzles that all have some added twist. One adds random letters into the across answers, although those random letters are a natural part of the down answers. Another includes a series of unclued words that form a laddergram. Very challenging and rewarding.

This spiral-bound book collects 60 cryptic crosswords by Emily Cox & Henry Rathvon. It's an easy-to-read and to use format; on long plane rides, one can just rip out a page and take that along, for instance. Otherwise, the pages open flat and are easy to read.

The contents themselves are superb and thrilling. The collection highlights their remarkable and magnificent career. These are more than puzzles: they are works of art, seamlessly and playing with language to create remarkable constructions.

Several features, taken together, distinguish the Cox & Rathvon work from that of ordinary constructors.

- Their work is extremely accurate and error-free (*). No matter how complex their schemes are, they avoid typographical errors, printing errors, and other mistakes. I don't understand how they do it.

- They are fair. Their clues always adhere to a strict, fair set of rules. For example, their &lits always read smoothly and are never forced or straining the definition of &lit, in the way some British constructors' &lits are. Cox & Rathvon firmly, and I think quite rightly, reject the loose, rambling, imprecise cluing style that some less gifted composers resort to. Cox & Rathvon clues are normally precise, clear, to the point.

- They are stunningly original and interesting. They can weave together geometry, language, and humor to in novel and interesting ways. The best of the puzzles have a sort of unifying theme that emerges at the end, and it's often elegant and interesting. To solve them, one must sometimes use three or four completely different kinds of reasoning: geometric, logical, wordplay, semantic.

One notable feature of the collection is that a puzzle at first might seem completely unapproachable, but always, by slowing working through the possibilities, it can be solved. This distinguishes the puzzles from ordinary crosswords, or even ordinary cryptic crosswords, which often can be unsolvable if one lacks the requisite knowledge or if one just cannot think of the right answer to a clue.

Few books have ever given me as many hours of pleasure as this one, since each individual puzzle can take hours to solve. They are especially great on plane rides - instead of being bored, one doesn't want the plane ride to end too soon so that one can finish the puzzle in time!

SPOILERS BEGIN HERE!!!!

*)The clue "CEOs, by the way, eating liver? (10)", the puzzle "Mitosis" (#33) seemed questionable to me, however, although it was solvable given other information in the puzzles.

Some of the clues were just spectacular. My favorite clue was probably "One is in orchestra? (7)" (In Musical Chairs, #50).

Certainly "Dashing pigskin?? (7)" (Guided Tour, #6) was excellent as well; as was "One wearing horn that's wild? (5)" (Pairs, #18). Another great clue was "Take a chance on a software prototype (4)" (Something Different, #39).

My favorite puzzles were probably Knight's Moves, #34, in which the answers were entered in the diagram along the paths of a knight's motion on a chessboard; Asteroids (#48), which involved some logic to solve; and Flower Cuttings (#52), which had an exceptionally attractive diagram. But some of the others were, if simpler, equally pleasant to solve, e.g. Valentine (#36) brought a smile to my face.

END SPOILERS

There is not much else to say here. I know of no other constructors who approach Cox & Rathvon in the depth and beauty of verbal puzzles. But it was great while it lasted.