28 of 29 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Now here are some new challenges!, November 16, 2005
This review is from: Massive Sudoku (Paperback)
Just 4 months after her "Master Sudoku" (see my review of September 30,2005);Carol now gives us another great book This time she has upped it to 400 puzzles.
She gives us a couple of hilarious stories she's heard;and there are surely more to come.
"A mother of four has become so totally obsessed,her family is
considering moving her to a shed at the bottom of the garden
where she says she'd be quite happy".
"A wife has banned her husband from bed after a particular nite
when he was forced to shut off the light in the middle of a
Sudoku and went to sleep.Then he woke up again at 2am shouting
'I've got another number'".
This book has "Ten Top Tips for solving:
1.Slicing & Dicing
2.Completing Rows & Columns
3.Only One That Fits
4.Completing a row or column when two numbers are missing
5.Slicing & Slotting
6.Writing Options
7.Lone Numbers
8.Looking for Single Options
9.Twinning
10.Triplets
With each puzzle ,depending on difficulty, Carol gives a time and score so you can judge how well you did.
Here are a couple:
Medium
Less than 20 mins....15 Points
20-45 mins...........10 "
Over 45 mins.........5 "
Super Difficult
Less than 40 mins....15 Points
40-80 mins...........10 "
Over 80 mins..........5 "
Yeah,some are pretty hard.
Just to spice things up a bit she gives us 10 SQUIFFY Sukodus.
These are 9 by 9 cells where you must get 1 to 9 in each row and column, as normal.But here's the "SQUIFF' (I like that word).
Instead of getting 1 to 9 in each 9-cell mini grid you have to get them in each 9-cell shape that has been outlined in a bold border.
After trying these SQUIFFYS,maybe we'll all be heading to the
shed at the bottom of the garden.
Good Sukoduing!
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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
More from Carol Vorderman!, February 8, 2006
This review is from: Massive Sudoku (Paperback)
Of all the sudoku books I've bought, my favorite has been Master Sudoku by Carol Vorderman. Its hundreds of puzzles have kept me happily sudoku-ing since last summer, and it's nice to have 4 levels of difficulty to go back and forth between--sometimes you feel like a quick & easy one and sometimes you feel like one that will take some work and concentration to crack. She also has one of the best and lengthiest explanations of sudoku strategies to have yet appeared in any of the books.
Also, a diabolical innovation: suggested finishing times with a points-scoring system makes even the easiest ones challenging.
Massive Sudoku is more of the same, with some improvements. She reiterates the same strategies as she did in Master Sudoku; don't look here for more advanced ones, but what she lays out will get you through this book. Even a novice can start with this book without having tackled Master Sudoku first, although Master does work through puzzles of each level step by step and contain a bit more solving detail.
But if you already know how to solve and just want more, more, more! this is your book--400 puzzles, an interesting new variation where the sudoku blocks aren't perfect squares, and not only timed and points-scoring opportunities but every so often a puzzle has Carol's time posted for it. Who can help but want to pick up that thrown gauntlet?
I'm off for a vacation next week and bought this for it but I've already cheated and started playing with the puzzles in this. However, I've no doubt it will keep me happily puzzling through my vacation and beyond!
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10 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
From the Board Games Editor at BellaOnline.com, December 12, 2005
This review is from: Massive Sudoku (Paperback)
This is a great follow-up to "Master Sudoku", Vorderman's first sudoku book. That book is an ideal starting point for both new and advanced sudoku-ers, and this book is no exception.
She re-covers most of her techniques in this book, so if you already own Master Sudoku, you'll find yourself skimming most of the introductory material, but she does go into some interesting discussion about the sudoku craze.
The best part of this book, though, is the bang for your buck value... 400 puzzles for only ten dollars (many puzzle books are 100 or 150 puzzles for the same price). And the quality of the puzzles is high, so it's a good investment all around.
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