The Ultimate Book of Su Doku 1

(3.5 stars) This oversized book, with two puzzles per page, offers plenty of room for writing number options in the boxes. The paper is high quality, able to stand up to any erasures, and the pages are perforated for easy removal for those occasions in which you may want to bring a puzzle but not a whole book. The book offers four different skill levels--Painless, Tricky, Nasty, and Migraine. Experienced sudoku fans, however, will be disappointed with the "Migraine" level. Unlike real migraines that sometimes last for hours, these "Migraines" last for only 15 - 20 minutes, at most. It is rare that the puzzler has more than a few logical options for any given box, and often most of a square can be filled in just from the numbers given at the outset of a puzzle. (One "Migraine" puzzle allowed me to fill in seven of the nine required numbers at the very outset of the puzzle.) "Tricky" provides an average of 31 - 32 of the required 81 numbers at the outset. "Nasty" provides, on average, 27 of the required numbers, and "Migraine" provides 24. While it is possible to find extremely challenging puzzles in other books with the same number of "givens," the givens in this book are placed in such a way that most of the challenge is removed before the puzzle even starts. Tom Sheldon's Sudoku Master Class has extremely difficult puzzles, overall, and it offers outstanding lessons and practice in some of the advanced techniques of sudoku. Will Shortz Presents Ferocious Sudoku: 200 Hard Puzzles also contains about a hundred very challenging puzzles. This book is good fun for the novice or intermediate fan, but not for someone more experienced. n Mary Whipple

As I've said in previous Sudoku book reviews, I have become addicted to this type of numbers/logic puzzle - I now have about 10 different Sudoku books to choose from, and have at least one in every room of the house (smile)... Sudoku is a logic puzzle where you are given a 9x9 grid, which includes 9 smaller 3x3 grids within it. Your task is to fill in the grid with the numbers 1 through 9, without repeating any of the numbers within each 3x3 grid, as well as within each row and column of the full 9x9 grid. You do this by using the few numbers given to logically deduce the appropriate place for each of the remaining numbers (it sounds harder than it is...). One of the things that I really like about this particular Sudoku book is that the print is large - so you don't have to squint to see the print, and you can easily write all the possible solutions within each box, erasing the ones you deduce as "wrong" as you go along. There are four levels of puzzles in "The Ultimate Book of Sudoku 1", each increasing in difficulty. They include: Painless, Tricky, Nasty & Migraine Inducing - allowing you to choose which puzzle is right for you based on the time you have available, and whether or not you want to be challenged at that time. The only downfall of this book is that there isn't an in-depth set of instructions at the beginning - which is fine for people who are already familiar with them, but could be a problem for people who are new to Sudoku.

I love this book! It's the best sudoku book I've ever had. The huge pages that are perforated make it a lot easier to do every puzzle. I wish more sudoku books were like this.

This is a large format book with two puzzles on each side of the page. The best part is that the pages are perforated so they rip out easily (much easier to do the puzzles on the back sides of pages this way). The puzzles range from Painless all the way up to Migraine. There is adequate space for notations in each cell. Of the 10 or so Su Duko books that I own, this is a favorite.