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The Mammoth Book of Kakuro, Wordoku and Super Sudoku

Introduced by Nathan Haselbauer



      Unless you have been hiding in a closet you are sure to have heard of - and probably done - Sudoku puzzles, and perhaps Kakuro, too. How about Masugo, or Suhai, or Katagaku? Less likely, which is where this latest addition to the Mammoth range comes in. Introduced by the president of the International High IQ Society, here is a nice fat sampler of the latest puzzles to come from Japan...

...And England too, if you count Wordoku. In the West, people like words possibly better than numbers, so here is a Western hybrid that combines traditional wordplay with the added Sudoku-style twist. But you will find more numbers in here than words, codes to crack, sums to tot up, even tangrams to fit into grids. I confess to being a long-term puzzle enthusiast who combs the shelves of any store that sells puzzle magazines but I had never seen this array before - possibly this is the first such publication for Westerners. I liked the introduction that gave a brief but concise potted history of the new craze, and the equally short but to-the-point descriptions on how to solve the puzzles. There are puzzles, too, for all levels from easy to fiendish, so you can start at the beginning and work onwards and upwards. Possibly the only thing not in this book's favor for any commuters or holidaymakers out there is its tubby dimensions, so better to keep this gem at home. I do hope there is more where this came from - man (and woman) cannot live by books alone!

The Book

Carroll & Graf (sold in UK by Constable & Robinson)
February 2006
Paperback
ISBN-10: 078671784X
ISBN-13: 978-0-78671-784-2
Non Fiction/Puzzles
More at Amazon.com US || UK
Excerpt
NOTE: Addictive!

The Reviewer

Rachel A Hyde
Reviewed 2006
NOTE:
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