Customer Reviews

Su Doku for Dummies (Sudoku)

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

Allow me to explain how messed up are the levels of difficulty of the puzzles in this book.

There are computer programs that let you enter any Sudoku puzzle and then can tell you how hard the puzzle is by classifying it into certain levels of difficulty. A friend of mine who is very good at Sudoku got one such software, and that one uses the following difficulty levels: 1) Very Easy, 2) Easy, 3) Medium, and 4) Hard. There is a separate special level of difficulty called "Very Hard - Unfair", but that's reserved for Sudoku puzzles that require guessing / trial and error.

Sudoku puzzle number 3 in this book, supposedly an "entry level" puzzle according to the book, is ranked as "Medium" by the software mentioned above. Who considers a level of difficulty 3 out of 4 an "entry level"? And I do think these kinds of software have extremely powerful solving engines, making them capable of accurate assessments on the levels of difficulty of any puzzle.

This messed up level of difficulty in such an early exercise can be extremely discouraging for newbies, and on the other hand, in my opinion it is a sympton of little care and very poor editing when putting this book together.

Page 35 of the book (Spanish version) talks about one of the alleged "Beyond the obvious" strategies, a so called "Rule of the three numbers in three cells", or in more standardized terminology found online, the "Hidden Triples" strategy. In my opinion the strategy is very poorly exemplified and explained in the book. Any webpage describing it is much more enlightening and clear. And there are numerous other strategies very carefully explained in several online sources, which are not even mentioned in this book (not even in the Sudoku for Dummies vol 2).

The book has no alphabetical index at the end by the way, so you can't search for strategy names directly, or for key words, and there is a good reason for that: the book has really very little textual information. An alphabetical index would be ridiculous with so few entries. There is only a few pages of text at the beginning, 37 out of 342 pages, Spanish version again. Those text pages basically describe the only rule of Sudoku with some diagrams, and them attempt to explain very few basic solving strategies plus the poorly explained hidden triples. From the 37 first pages remove the first 12 which are mostly contents, intro, etc. So basically, 25 pages of text, in a small format book (7x5 inches). The bulk of the book is just exercises, and their solutions.

This book in general does not match the typical comprehensiveness I've seen in many For Dummies books.

What other reviewer indicates is also true, the paper this book was made of is pretty bad, doesn't stand erasing too well.

Conclusion: NOT recommended. Try other Sudoku books with less faults. And in any case, check the numerous Sudoku resources and compilations of strategies available for free online. This book in my opinion is not worth it. I really regret having purchased it.

This is a good book if you are new work Su Doku puzzles. It has good definitions of terms, but it also has a few typos in the instructions which caused some confusion. I had to reread the sections a couple of times before I understood what was being said. However, once past that, I was able to begin working the puzzles. A good variety of easy, medium and difficult puzzles. I am not too please with the paper content; it does not hold up well to eraser marks.

I first came across SUDOKU in May of this year.I have been a puzzle enthusiast since I was in High School ,over 55 years ago;and have seen a myriad of puzzles and games come and go.I really have no favorites as I enjoy them all.From the time I completed my first SUDOKU,I knew there was something different and special about these puzzles.No special knowledge or special abilities are required for anyone of any language,skill or age to do this puzzle.This is similar to Jigsaws and Crosswords;and the reason these puzzles have become universally popular,probably outstripping all other types of puzzes.I believe we will soon see speed competitions taking various forms including TV.
Checking out the Books available,I found a few already published,and without doubt there will be a flood of them in the near future.You will see among my reviews,a few others I have checked out.
This book is just as good as the others to get you started.It covers the basic methods and hints to help you solve them. In addition,it gives you 240 SUDOKU puzzles. In all fairness,to date ,there is not really much to pick and choose among the half dozen books at this time.However,I would not at all be surprised to see more books shortly;describing more sophistophed and speed enhancing methods and hints.
In the meantime ,you should find SUDOKU puzzles in your local newspapers.To date, I have not seen any SUDOKU magazines on the shelves,but expect to see lots of them shortly.
Don't overlook the Net though,there is lots of good stuff by searching under SUDOKU.
In the meantime ,GOOD SUDOKUING!
By the way you might want to check out my other Sudoku book reviews on Aug 3 (2 books),Aug 6,Aug 10 and Sep 30 of this year.

Ok, so you have seen Sudoku and your friends (or family members) are all doing it. How do you get started?

Well, there are about a zillion Sudoku books out there. All of them have instructions at the beginning. However, there is definitely a wide variation in the usefulness of these instructions. Many only have enough instructions to get the idea, but if you tried to use them as an absolute beginner, you'd be totally lost. Believe me, I tried several - and was left thinking "well, this is nice, but where the heck do I start?"

This book gets you started step-by-step from the beginning, which is obviously necessary if you actually want to do the puzzles. It walks you through better the first baby steps than any other book I've seen. Another reviewer gave the book a bad review because it doesn't give you advanced strategies (presumably X-wing, Swordfish, and all the rest) Well, my only response to that is that it is called "Sudoku for Dummies", not "Sudoku for Semi-Experts."

Some of the editions of the book also have variations, like 16x16 puzzles and my personal favorite, the round or "Target" Sudokus.

So, if you really want to get adicted to Sudoku, I recommend you take the following course of action:

1. Buy this book
2. Read the introduction.
3. Start doing puzzle #1 and then methodically do every puzzle in the book. Don't skip ahead.
4. When you get to point of hitting your head against a wall on a given puzzle, start Googling for help. There's lots of it out there.

Also, if your young kids come up to you and ask you to teach them to do Sudoku as well, I recommend you pick up "Sudoku for Kids". It's a great step-by-step introduction to the addictive puzzles on a young kid's level.

This is the wrong book to get for any level. Master Sudoku is better in all ways. The intro in Master Sudoku beats the Dummy and the content is so so.

I have both books. I learned very little from Dummy, Master sent me on my way to doing Sudoko well.

I thought the explanations of how the puzzles work were pretty clear...I have seen worse anyway. Immediately following the tutorial are 240 puzzles, that are organized by difficulty from easy to diabolically difficult, and solutions in the back. I haven't seen enough of the Sudoku books that are out there to make a lot of comparisons, but overall I felt like this book was worth the price.

Sudoku for Dummies is a book that accomplishes the primary two purposes of the book
1.) introduce and teach the addictive but simplistic game of sudoku
2.)offer a good range of puzzles
It is a good value for your money too, but still you should not purchase this, and here's why
1.) sudoku for dummies has a second and third volume, both which are basically revisions of the first, and they are slightly better in every way.buy sudoku for dummies volume 3.
2.) The spaces are too small for the hard puzzles and you'll have to enlarge it on a scanner.

I have to say that if you never tried a Sudoku puzzle you may get the basics from Sudoku for Dummies, but that's about it. The authors present the first (relatively difficult) puzzle and begin solving it with some basic strategy. Then for some bizarre reason, half way through the explanation, the authors leave the reader to finish the most difficult part of the puzzle on his own. I could not find the solution to this one anywhere. In the next section they switch to another puzzle that is taken to completion but without delving into any logic that goes beyond the obvious. The majority of the book consists of actual puzzles. However, I wanted strategies for solving the puzzles not just some workbook. If you have no idea how to begin to solve a Sudoku puzzle, you may find some value in this book. Otherwise, you will probably feel that you bought an overpriced puzzle book.

I read the full introduction, being new to sudoku. Thought I would have the tools from reading to certainly do the easy puzzles in this book, but found them way too brain-twisting. The puzzles were not a good followup teaching tool as way too difficult. I couldn't believe those puzzles were marked EASY even after reading a lot of these materials.

So I would have to rate this as not a good sudoku book for anyone but more advanced. Just my humble opinion.

Su Doku is a number puzzle originally developed in Japan. It consists of a 9x9 grid, divided into nine 3x3 sub-grids. Each row and column must contain the numbers 1 to 9, which means that no number can appear more than once. Furthermore, each 3x3 sub-grid must also contain all the digits from 1 to 9, which again means that no number can appear more than once. With each puzzle, some of the numbers are already in place - your job is to fill in the blanks. The number and positioning of the numbers given to you will determine how easy or difficult the puzzle is. There is - or, at least, there should be - only one solution, which can be solved by reasoning and elimination.

The bulk of "Su Doku for Dummies" is made up of the Su Doku puzzles themselves. (Thankfully, their solutions are also included). However, it also starts with an explanation of Su Doku's rules and provides a detailed approach on how to start solving the puzzles - which is very helpful for those, like me, who have never tried them before. If you are already a successful Su Doku puzzle solver, you'll probably not learn much from this section. You will still, however, have over 200 new puzzles to solve.

You don't need to have studied maths in depth to enjoy Su Doku - a knowledge of Calculus isn't required, while those who studies Classical Mechanics will have absolutely no advantage over those who didn't. However, a sense of logic, a pencil and an eraser (don't rub too hard, though !) will be a great help. Highly recommended for puzzle-solvers everywhere !