Puzzles are extremely popular at present, largely due to the world-wide phenomenon of Sudoku. Puzzle solving is a great activity for young and old alike - puzzles help children to develop their logical thought processes, help adults relax from the stresses and strains of daily life, and recent research shows that increased mental activity might help protect against degeneration in later life. This book introduces a puzzle called Nurikabe. Like Sudoku, Nurikabe has its roots in Japan, like Sudoku, Nurikabe involves a grid and numbers, and like Sudoku, Nurikabe is a test of logic - no mathematical ability is required. This book contains 101 Nurikabe puzzles, arranged in increasing order of difficulty, from tiny 6x6 puzzles to get you started, up to the final enormous 20x25 puzzle. The introduction contains a description of the rules of Nurikabe, and a few hints to get you started. Solutions to all puzzles are in the back of the book.
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About the Author
Sam Griffiths-Jones is the author and maintainer of the Daily Sudoku website (www.dailysudoku.com), which provides free daily logic puzzles, hints and other resources. He lives with his partner and their one year old daughter, and during the day, uses computers to solve biological problems at an academic institute.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
2.7 out of 5 stars
3 reviews
17 of 19 people found the following review helpful
1.0 out of 5 stars
Few options for Nurikabe books, but still stay away from this one.
6 Aug 2007
By A. Brewer
- Published on Amazon.com
Having recently found the latest puzzle craze called Nurikabe, I was ecstatic to find a book containing only this puzzle with varying levels of difficulty. I have been working all the puzzles online I could find, easily mastering the so-called difficult ones, so I jumped about 3/4 into the book the day I received it to some of the more difficult puzzles. I got pretty far into one particular puzzle, but then hit an unexpected roadblock. There was no way to logically solve the puzzle. I pondered this for quite awhile, since I figured there "just had to be a way" to solve it. But alas, there wasn't. I had to guess. I also eventually found out that several of the puzzles have multiple ways to solve them (yes, I am absolutely certain of this, checking, rechecking, triple-checking, and even quadruple-checking the puzzles and solutions). This in itself goes against the idea of Nurikabe, where the puzzles are supposed to be solvable by logic alone, and every puzzle only has one unique solution.
Bottom line, wait for a more competent creator of Nurikabe puzzles to publish a book, and continue to solve the various ones found online.
Bottom line, wait for a more competent creator of Nurikabe puzzles to publish a book, and continue to solve the various ones found online.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars
Changing the Rules
30 Sep 2008
By Gil
- Published on Amazon.com
Bad feature: The author has changed the rules of Nurikabe! His first three rules are correct. The fourth is his own, is complex and confusing, and has an incorrect implication about white squares. It should simply be replaced by the correct rule, "No 2x2 block of black squares is permitted" ([...]).
Good feature: I've done about twelve of the harder puzzles, and many are truly excellent, clever, and thought provoking. Only one so far has had an alternate solution (such errors can creep into most books), and I haven't yet had to use his incorrect rule.
If that rule were corrected (and none of the puzzles needed his old rule for unique solution), I would rate this book 5 stars. I still recommend buying it, but use the rules on the web site I've listed.
I like Nurikabe more than Sudoku, and like "Masyu" even more ([...]).
Good feature: I've done about twelve of the harder puzzles, and many are truly excellent, clever, and thought provoking. Only one so far has had an alternate solution (such errors can creep into most books), and I haven't yet had to use his incorrect rule.
If that rule were corrected (and none of the puzzles needed his old rule for unique solution), I would rate this book 5 stars. I still recommend buying it, but use the rules on the web site I've listed.
I like Nurikabe more than Sudoku, and like "Masyu" even more ([...]).
4.0 out of 5 stars
Some beautiful puzzles here
22 Feb 2011
By A. Rodgers
- Published on Amazon.com
I will be writing a lengthy review of this book for Amazon.co.uk, when I have finished all 101 of the puzzles (I've just finished 93 of them --- not counting the handful I messed up and couldn't be bothered to erase and start again!), so I will just add briefly to the comments already made by the two other customers at Amazon.com.
This author has indeed changed the rules of Nurikabe; he has not stated that he has changed the rules; nor has he explained his own rules very clearly! (I was very confused, until someone in the Usenet newsgroup rec.puzzles explained what the changed rules must be.) That is the main reason why I only give the book 4 stars. I actually prefer the altered rules to the usual ones (established by Nikoli), but that is another story, which I will tell in the longer review.
As I stated in a comment on one of the other reviews:
In fact, all of the puzzles in the book (with the single exception, so far, of puzzle #76, which has two slightly different solutions) have unique solutions, according to the altered rules. Many of these solutions are also unique according to the usual rules, but many of them aren't. (The altered rules, when properly understood, imply the usual rules, but they also impose an extra constraint.)
This author has indeed changed the rules of Nurikabe; he has not stated that he has changed the rules; nor has he explained his own rules very clearly! (I was very confused, until someone in the Usenet newsgroup rec.puzzles explained what the changed rules must be.) That is the main reason why I only give the book 4 stars. I actually prefer the altered rules to the usual ones (established by Nikoli), but that is another story, which I will tell in the longer review.
As I stated in a comment on one of the other reviews:
In fact, all of the puzzles in the book (with the single exception, so far, of puzzle #76, which has two slightly different solutions) have unique solutions, according to the altered rules. Many of these solutions are also unique according to the usual rules, but many of them aren't. (The altered rules, when properly understood, imply the usual rules, but they also impose an extra constraint.)
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2.7 out of 5 stars
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