Customer Reviews

Essential Book of Hanjie: And How to Solve It

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

 

 

This is a great book for Hanjie beginners. I would recommend this for someone who hasn't attempted these puzzles before. There is an easy to follow How to Play section, and handy tips on how to use deduction to complete the puzzle. The cover states 'Over 150 Puzzles!' however, there are exactly 150. The puzzles grids range from 10 x 10 squares to 30 x 40 squares.

The paper is thick and a good quality, I've used inky pens and they haven't bled through to the puzzle on the next page. At 5.3 x 6.8 inches this book is smaller than many others, this makes it easier to fit into my bag.

Unfortunately the puzzles have no difficulty rating. The size of the grid doesn't neccessarily reflect how complicated the puzzles may be, so I've found myself staring at the grid trying to guess if it will be challenging. While I am no where near completing this book, I have been enjoying this type of puzzle for many years and have found the puzzles in the first 2/3 of the book very easy.

Overall I'd rate Essential Book of Hanjie as 5 stars for a beginner and 3 stars for someone looking for challenging puzzles.

This is probably the definitive book of Hanjie. The book is broken up into grid sections, starting from a 10 x 10 grid and ending with a 30 x 40 grid. Towards the end of each grid section, the puzzles become increasingly harder. For instance, if there is eight 25 x 25 grids, the last two or three will be more advanced. I have completed over 100 of the puzzles, and as the author states, you never have to guess to solve the puzzles. There may be times where you seriously question that statement; however, there is always a discreet solution buried in the tiny boxes.

Out of all the Hanjie books I have completed, this has been by far the most enjoyable. The only critique I have, is the instructions are elementary, and unless you know how to solve Hanjie puzzles already, will leave you questioning the more advanced puzzles. However, a little research on "how to Hanjie" on the Internet will dash any need for instructions.

There were a lot of puzzles for your money, and not too large for me. The 60x60 & up puzzles are just too much counting for me. However, this must be a "left-hander" puzzle, because the clues are backwards to most puzzles.
The verticle clues are listed at the bottom, so your hand is covering them all the time, and same with the horizonton clues. They are listed to the right, so if you are right-handed, your hand is always covering the horizontal clues.
??? puzzling why the author chose this configuration.

I had never done a Hanjie puzzle before I found this book. I'm now hooked!

This definitely is a book for beginners. I haven't completed it, but I've done over 100 puzzles so far and have not been challenged yet. I ranked it a little higher because those new to these puzzles may find some enjoyment and challenges out of them (and again, I still have about 50 to go, and those may make up for the boredom so far). Also, be careful about skipping ahead, because the pages fall out.

I have bought this for my 13 yrs old but I like it too, be sure to follow the directions it can get confusing but not to bad after you get the hang of it and are started on a right path.

I'm hooked on these puzzles and have many books now. This one is just okay. The others I have are much better.

If you are right-handed you may not like having the numbers on the right side and the bottom of the puzzle like the ones in this book are. My hand was always covering up the clues. This might be just the book for lefties! All of the other books I've purchased have the numbers on the left side and the top of the puzzle.

Also, some of the puzzles had very small numbers and are somewhat difficult to read if you have trouble with small print.

Although I wouldn't say this is the best of the hanjie/pixel puzzle books I've ever done (I prefer the conceptis puzzles) it's definitely up there. Here are my top considerations when using a hanjie puzzle book:
PAPER QUALITY: Good, can be erased easily, a little sensitive to damp, can be shiny in certain lights (makes it hard to see what you've colored in)
PICTURE QUALITY: Most of the easy pictures are rather amorphous, but that's to be expected. Some of the more difficult ones are really pretty, rather intricate but without a lot of "junk" stuff around them
DIFFICULTY LEVELS: A pretty decent spread from easy to hard. I would have liked a few more hard ones and a few less easy ones, but I'm a long time veteran. This book is good for beginners as well. My only criticism is that they weren't rated.
GRIDS: The grids were a good size. Too large and it takes too much effort and lead to color them in, too small and you get cross-eyed trying to figure out what you did...but these grids are a good size. My only criticism is that I prefer the number clues to be on the left and the top, and these are on the right and the bottom. Your hand is always in the way when you're solving it. It caused me to make some dumb mistakes!
Overall, though, I would recommend it!

I bought a copy of this book for a very bright 9-yo.
Excellent investment.
The instructions are enough to tell a tyro what the goal is,
but not so much that all the discovery is mechanical.
He thinks it's fine that he does not know whether a given puzzle is relatively easy or hard before he starts it.
If you are bothered by getting stuck, you might not like this.
If you greatly enjoy the "Aha!" experience when you get unstuck... you'll have them here.
After solving some of the puzzles in this book, the kid has his own bag of tricks which were NOT explained, but which he invented. This is excellent.

I really liked this book. It gives ratings for how hard each puzzle is. Erasing is a little difficult, but not a big deal. The answers in the back make it easy to check your work when you get lost. I was able to color in each page without it showing through to the puzzle on the back of the page which was really nice. I highly recommend this book!