Product Description

It appears we are a nation of puzzle obsessives after the phenomenal response to Su Doku. For those Su Doku fiends who are eager for variety, here is a collection of four of the most popular Japanese Logic Puzzles -- Hitori, Hashi, Slitherlink, Mosaic. Guaranteed to strain your brain for hours. 200 new puzzles arranged according to difficulty. The four main puzzles are: Hitori -a 7x7 grid and the aim is to shade in the squares so that no number appears more than once in any row or column and no two adjacent squares, both horizontally and vertically, are both shaded. All the cells with numbers in will then form a single connected shape that is not divided up by shaded squares. All the single numbers you don't black out will be connected. Hashi consists of circles containing numbers. The circles act as islands. The object is to connect the islands with vertical and horizontal bridges. The number of bridges linked to an island must equal the number inside the island. There must also be a continuous path connecting all the islands. There can be up to two bridges between two islands. Bridges cannot cross islands or other bridges Slitherlink -- a 10x10 grid composed of dots rather than lines. The aim is to connect adjacent dots with vertical or horizontal lines so that a single loop is formed with no crossings or branches. Each number indicates how many lines surround it, while empty cells may be surrounded by any number of lines. Mosaic -- a 15x15 grid. This puzzle is based on looking at a square and those around it, rather than rows or columns of cells. Using simple logic alone, it is possible, from the numbers given, to fill in the grid and create a pixelated picture. In the grid, most cells have eight neighbours, making a block of nine cells: Cells along an edge have five neighbours and those in the corner only three. The number in a cell tells you how many of its adjacent cells and how many of its neighbours adjacent cells are to be filled in. The quantities are as follows -75 Hashi, 75 Slitherlink, 30 Hitori and 20 Mosaic. Includes hints and tips on how to solve them. As with Su Doku it is all about logic and reasoning, not mathematical genius.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #87794 in Books
• Published on: 2006-03-20
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

About the Author
The Puzzler

Customer Reviews

Excellent Puzzle Book
Recommended to all logic puzzlers, especially for those looking for an alternative to the Sudoku craze which dominates the market.

The book contains 75 Hashi, 30 Hitori, 20 Mosaic and 75 Slitherlink. Of these, Hashi was my favourite before I came across but I've recently become a converted Slitherlink addict!

Very enjoyable
Of the four types of puzzles in this book I most enjoyed the pathfinding puzzles hashi and slitherlink. The other two seemed a bit trite in comparison, however that is probably just a matter of taste. If three out of the four types had appealed to me I would have given the book five stars instead of four.

Why buy this book? Why not just stick to sudoku, which certainly is a deeper and richer puzzle at the end of the day? (sudoku being to puzzles, what go is to games)

I'd say this book is for the kind of people who enjoy discovering for themselves the basic techniques needed to solve puzzles. If you skipped the "how to" at the beginnning of your first sudoku book and jumped right in learning the techniques (up to a point) from scratch, then you'll obviously enjoy a variety of new puzzles, rather than just getting better and better at one sort.

So if you're looking for some new, interesting puzzles to give you that beginner feeling again, this book won't disappoint. It's well printed, it has accurate answer keys, the puzzles are well constructed, and pathfinding offers interesting new challenges.

Beyond Sudoku
I had discovered "Bridges" in a newspaper and wanted to try some more. There was a huge variety in this publication - but at the end of the day, it is Sudoku that is really special.
Not bad value though