Collins Uk Staff
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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 11
Average rating: 5.0 of 5
Lots of Fun 5 out of 5 stars.
7 of 7 people found this review helpful.
In my opinion, Killer Sudoku puzzles are much more fun and satisfying to solve than regular Sudoku puzzles because of the added complexity of the sums and the various techniques that can be employed to solve them. "Killer Su Doku 1: The Deadly New Dimension" contains 110 puzzles of which there are 17 Gentle, 30 Moderate, 42 Tricky, 16 Tough, and 5 Deadly puzzles. Each puzzle has a suggested time to beat. There is also a two-page "Guidelines for Solving Killer Su Doku".
I didn't find the guidelines for solving to be particularly useful. They give a quite minimal explanation of how to solve these types of puzzles and leave out explanations of some of the more important techniques for solving, such as the 45 Rule. (Steve Arons book, "The Official Book of Killer Sudoku" contains a much more comprehensive introduction.)
Regarding the suggested times, I didn't specifically time myself, but I often noticed that I took much less or much more time than what was suggested. As for difficulty, I found that sometimes a puzzle in a given section was either much harder or much easier than what was implied. The puzzles in the Deadly section were no more difficult than the ones in the Tough section. The hardest puzzles in the book are 78, 98, and 105. I eventually figured out some interesting equations and relational techniques for solving 78 and 98. (Whew, that was fun!) Puzzle 105 is the only one that I have not yet managed to solve.
This brings me to a recommendation for the Solutions section. In general, I find the solutions in the backs of Sudoku books to be useless. If I finish a puzzle and it conforms to the rules then it's correct; otherwise it's wrong. I don't need a solution to tell me that. The only time I look at the solution is occasionally when I'm doing a really difficult puzzle and I want to check an intermediate result to make sure I'm on the right track so I don't end up having to erase the entire puzzle and start over. This also helps to instantly understand what type of mistake I made. Something that would be really helpful in the solutions for the really difficult puzzles would be to show a partially solved grid and an explanation of how to get to the next step.
On the whole I found this book to be very enjoyable and highly recommend it for any Killer Sudoku fan. Publisher, another one please!
Editorial Review:
Just when you thought it was safe to pick up a pencil
Killer Su Doku is based on the original Su Doku grid, with the same rules and numbers—1 to 9—but with an added deadly twist. This time there is an element of arithmetic involved and there are few, if any, clues. The aim is to not only complete every row, column, and cube so that it contains the digits 1 to 9, but to also fill in the outlined cubes so they add up to the same number.
Hints to solve the puzzle are hidden in the joined squares where only one combination of numbers applies. In the case of joined squares, if the printed number is 3, it should be 1 and 2 that go into the squares. Likewise, in the case of three joined squares, if the printed number is 6, the only combination possible is 1, 2, and 3.
To add one final fiendish level, each puzzle also has a time worked out by its Japanese creators so you can try to beat the clock.
