Customer comments on this selection.
 killer sudoku
great group of puzzles! these are "thinkers" and not the trivial puzzles you find in some of the other collections. However I did find two puzzles in this book with unsolvable rectangles (and therefore there is no solution to
the puzzle).
Perfect!
I've been doing Killer Sudokus for more than a year and enjoy them far more than traditional sudoku. This is a very nice collection with a range of difficulties that excludes both the easiest and very hardest I've ever seen. (Nothing as hard as the "Mind Bending" found on a popular killer sudoku website--and nothing quite as easy as the "easy" puzzles on that site either.) I'm nearly through this one and will either go back with a big eraser to start over again or buy another copy!
And: if you've never done Killer Sudokus before, it includes a little primer on the tricks for doing this kind of puzzle at the front of the book.
Killer Sudoku: 101 Puzzles
A killer Sudoko book that really kills your brain. It's very addictive so, for your own safety, don't do the puzzle before going to bed. It may keep you awake the whole night.
Bravo
I started to do Killer Sudoku a few months ago, and became hooked. Of many puzzles I tried on books or online, this one is the best. It gives a very good introduction, and ease you into the games by giving you some Easy ones first and then progresses into 'Cool', 'Thinker', 'Brain', and the hardest 'IQ'. A total of 101 puzzles. It has been weeks now, and I am still doing a couple of them a week - enjoying tremendously as I go along.
There are good reasons why the puzzles are so enjoyable - particularly in the advanced sections. The author has explored the wide variety of solving skills of Killer Sudoku. Because of the math involved, numerous scenarios are possible for designing and solving interesting Killer Sudoku puzzles, I found myself discovering novel approaches every once in a while as I progress into the harder puzzles. Such discovery is pure joy, which we addicts really appreciate. I came to the realization that, unlike the classical Sudoku, the solving techniques in Killer Sudoku are much more diversified, and many are revealed during the mind mending processes of solving (and designing).
The author has also seemingly put to a lot of thoughts into the design of the puzzles. There are puzzles with unique symmetrical patterns, with unique approaches. For example, in one puzzle, the corners may be solved relatively quickly, and the center takes a lot of mind twisting and pencil works. Then there is another one, in which the first and last three columns are all filled up quickly, leaving the center three columns completely blank smiling teasingly at your face. This one, I wrote down 'Bravo' after solving it.
The puzzles have apparently been well tested and selected. I cannot say the same with some other Sudoku books.
A superb book. I look forward to a sequel with only hard puzzles of the same quality.
 Great primer but impossible puzzles
I've completed the Mensa Nasty series of regular Sudoku, Collins's Killer Sudoku Book 1, and all levels of Kakuros that appear in the backs of other books I've bought, so I'd like to think I'm fairly skilled. But I got NOWHERE in this book. As another reviewer says, pretty much the only technique available to you is Rule of 45. Very minimal opportunity to use cages, I/O's, or significant number combinations. I assumed there had to be some major breakthrough technique that I wasn't aware of and searched everywhere on the web to find it. But evidently the only techniques that exist are the ones explained very clearly in the beginning of this book. But buy it for that reason alone, and then get Collins's Killer Sudoku book. You'll have much more fun.
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