Riddle of the Unicorn [Paperback]

Rick Smith; Matt Mayfield (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 2005

79 new riddles from Cloud Kingdom Games for solvers of all levels. Four of the riddles are cleverly hidden, and those who can find and solve them may enter a contest to win cash and prizes. Here's a sample riddle from the book: Not bitter, tart, sour, sweet, Still these are quite good to eat. Hard around and soft within, Sharp or flat, thick or thin. Gotten, lost then once more around, Roots that never reach the ground.

Product Details

• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: Cloud Kingdom Games (March 2005)
• ISBN-10: 1928807100
• ISBN-13: 978-1928807100
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.4 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,495,785 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Clever and original, January 12, 2008

By 

Aaron (Miami, FL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Riddle of the Unicorn (Paperback)

I love riddles and puzzles and so finding this was a nice surprise. Most books of riddles seem to be either oriented towards kids or are merely rehash classic riddles ("how many were going to St Ives"). The Riddle of the Unicorn is a compendium of original riddles all in a poetic format. That is, each riddle is a poem that provides an obscure description of the answer you seek.

The layout of this book is exceptional with darkened tabs on the page edges leading you to the riddles, the hints, the answers and the explanations.

The riddles are each laid out one per page with a nice graphic background. Each page also has a cross reference at the bottom showing you on which page to find the hints (there are usually two or three for each riddle), the answer and the explanation. This makes it much easier to find just what you're looking for.

Although I prefer to solve puzzles without hints, one kind of hint I found very useful (once I figured out what it was). The author provides a consonant/vowel grouping for the word. For example, if the answer were "WORD" then the check-hint would be "CVCC" because W, R and D are consonants and "O" is a vowel. This saved me several times when I thought I knew the answer but was able to eliminate it using the check-hint but without actually seeing the answer.

The answer section is intended so that when looking up the answer to one riddle, you don't accidentally see the answer to another. I found this a tad over-bearing, but having seen unwanted answers before when checking a puzzle answer, I can appreciate this.

The explanations provide a line-by-line description of the meanings of the riddle. There were several times where I managed to solve a riddle so that it made sense for almost all the lines but I couldn't figure out what one or more of the lines meant. The explanations made it all clear.

There are still about a dozen in the book that I have yet to solve, but they were all enjoyable. A handful of them were what I considered to be far too easy but in general they all provided a suitable mental workout. I look forward to any additional riddle books from this author.