Customer Reviews

Will Shortz Presents Ultimate Sudoku: 1000 Wordless Crossword Puzzles

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Will Shortz is one of my favorite sudoku editors. The puzzles are interesting, require a variety of solving styles, and are well rated for difficulty. This book's large size is just perfect for propping on one's knees in an easy chair. It stays open without effort. The size of the grids is just right. Those of us who have struggled with some really hard puzzles might find too many easy ones here, but even the easy ones are interesting, and I find myself enjoying them when I need a distraction rather than a challenge. The rich offering of so many puzzles at many levels of difficulty makes this a book to go back to again and again.

I bought this book just after it was published in August 2006, to take on vacation. I'm up to #953 (Feb 2007), and sure hope I can find another giant one like this!!! (Or I have to erase all the puzzles and start over). The grid size is good, and characterization (easy/medium/etc) is good. It's definitely improved my technique, and I recommend this to anyone who loves sudoku.

Will Shortz has done it again. These puzzles are organized by difficulty: light and easy; moderate; demanding; beware! very challenging. 1000 Puzzles! I will still be working on these puzzles well into the next decade!

Nice big book. Good paper, lots of space for notes. For me there are a bit too many easy ones, but overall I think it is great.

This is a good solid book. It appeared that someone had worked through the puzzles to be sure they were solvable, which is comforting when you're up against something tough. Loved the extra margins and large boxes to leave plenty of room for notes and scribbling. Sometimes the tough ones seemed easy and vice versa. Definitely requires skills in more than one strategy to beat the tougher puzzles.

Good book.

I look for Sudoku books with three qualities. First, I want puzzles that have only one solution. If I find a book that includes puzzles with more than one solution I discard it. Two, I want books with grids large enough that I can enter candidates in the cells. Third, I want books with challenging puzzles. Many of the descriptions on Amazon omit such info.

I prefer grids that are about 4 ½" x 4 ½". The grids in my newspaper are about 3" x 3" (which is tolerable because not many candidates are needed).

Shortz's Ultimate Sudoku 1000: The puzzles have only one solution; the grids are 4 ½" x 4 1/2". There are 1,000 puzzles in this book: 450 easy; 200 moderate; 180 demanding, and 170 very challenging. I cut the pages out and put them on a clipboard. The only improvement I would suggest to the publisher is to perforate the pages. (Don't confuse this book with Shortz's The Ultimate Sudoku Challenge [100 puzzles]. I did and now have two of the latter instead of two of the former.)

Was surprised by how large the book is (I guess I should have guessed that 1000 puzzles would be a large book). Too large for taking for travel. Too many of the puzzles are "easy" (450 out of 1000). But it was inexpensive!!

I knocked off a star because I don't like how the puzzles do not conform to the standards of symmetric givens and 30 or less givens (although this is really only present in the easy puzzles, some of which have 39+ givens). I also think there are too many easy puzzles (450); I just skipped the easy section entirely because I found them too easy and boring. However, this is still a pretty good sudoku book and with 1000 puzzles will definitely last you a while (even if you skip the easy ones).

This is another great book of Sudoku puzzles for experienced gamers. The "Light and Easy" category is a bit harder than those you get in the drugstore, and the demanding ones take some time. This is great for the sudoku person who hates to get stuck for too long, but likes a challenge. It's pretty big and heavy though - not great for traveling.

This was a gift for my adult son. He commented that this was a perfect compilation. Although many of the puzzles are in the easy category, there are plenty of medium and hard ones. He also commented that the easy ones were perfect for when he didn't have a lot of time or was just trying to veg and tune things out for a while. Overall I would say this was a great gift since he seldom comments this much on anything!