Monster Book of Japanese Puzzles: Masyu, Nurikabe, Hitori, Sudoku and Kakuro [Paperback]

Michael Mepham (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 10, 2006

Sudoku and kakuro are the fun and addictive logic puzzles that have been driving you mad. But if you thought they were the greatest puzzles to sweep the world, wait until yoou try 'hitori', 'nurikabe', and 'masyu' - three NEW sometimes maddening but always fun Japanese puzzles.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

The Monster Book of Japanese Puzzles is packed with 400 of these five mind-bending puzzles ranging in difficulty from gentle to diabolical. All puzzles in this book have an indication of the level of difficulty. A short, illustrated tutorial for each type of puzzle will start you off on the road to hours of infuriating fun.

About the Author

Michael Mepham is a veteran puzzle compiler. His puzzles are featured in newspapers around the world, including Life magazine, the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune, the National Post, and others. He compiled the runaway bestsellers The Book of Sudoku, Sudoku to Go, and The Book of Kakuro.

Product Details

• Paperback: 528 pages
• Publisher: Overlook TP (March 10, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1585678325
• ISBN-13: 978-1585678327
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #916,067 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars aggravating, and not in a good puzzled way..., February 22, 2007

By 

Puzzler (Texas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Monster Book of Japanese Puzzles: Masyu, Nurikabe, Hitori, Sudoku and Kakuro (Paperback)

I started this book with the Hitori section, which it seems was a big mistake. The "solutions" contain many errors. After doing a search online, I found that this had been acknowledged at the publisher's website: "From Michael Mepham: While all the hitori puzzles in the Monster Book of Japanese Puzzles and the Book of Hitori are valid, some of the published solutions are incomplete, leaving a final square or two unpainted. The error will be obvious to anyone who checks an erroneous solution, but for clarity we have reproduced all the solutions here, with corrections wherever necessary." [...]

My continuing complaint with this is that, while the reprinted solutions may in fact be valid (I haven't checked them) many of the puzzles do NOT, in fact have unique solutions. There may be 2 readily apparent alternatives, or even 3.

I've also found solutions in the Nurikabe section that are different from the "unique" solutions that Mepham has included in the book.

Hitori and Nurikabe are the 2 sections I started with, and the puzzles have been mostly entertaining...right up until the aggravation kicks in when you reach a different solution than the reportedly unique one, and you spend more time double-checking your work than you did doing the puzzle in the first place.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Disappointed, December 20, 2007

By 

Mary M. Agostini - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Monster Book of Japanese Puzzles: Masyu, Nurikabe, Hitori, Sudoku and Kakuro (Paperback)

As a hitori fan, I was very disappointed in this book. The reason I chose this particular book was for the hitori puzzles and they are all flawed. For those of you familiar with hitori, there are blacked out numbers with no reason for black out, and also circled numbers with no reason to circle. Leaves the puzzles unsolvable.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars this book is a mess, May 20, 2007

By 

J. Weedon (North Carolina) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Monster Book of Japanese Puzzles: Masyu, Nurikabe, Hitori, Sudoku and Kakuro (Paperback)

I bought this primarily for the Nurikabe puzzles. After a while, I started getting a feeling of déjà vu. Turns out that the same few puzzles are used over and over. A real ripoff.