Product Description

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #31242 in Books
• Published on: 2007-03-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Spiral-bound
• 159 pages

Customer Reviews

Excellent format and value
The format is very good. Puzzles are large enough. The difficulty matches well to the level. I buy all 4 of the series for myself and as gifts. If you're tired of sudoku books which claim to have difficult puzzles and find only medium level difficulty, then this is the series for you.

These books are difficult
I recently purchased the entire Menza series, and I have to say they've lived up to the Menza criteria. You have to focus and know your solving techniques to get through these without guessing or cheating. Do yourself a favor and purchase the book Mensa Guide to Solving Sudoku: Hundreds of Puzzles Plus Techniques to Help You Crack Them All (Mensa) to help you learn the techniques used in these puzzles. I started out by letting my wife begin with Mensa Absolutely Nasty Sudoku Level 1 (Mensa), and I've been working on Level 2.
After familiarizing myself with the solving tips, I went to work on my Level 2. Usually I go straight to the back and try and solve the last puzzle in the book. That kinda tells me how difficult the book will be. That puzzle is still unsolved. I've now worked through the first 65 puzzles in Level 2, starting from #1. I've used the X-Wing technique frequently and also some Swordfishes to get through these, so you'd better be prepared. My wife is also struggling with her Level 1, but mostly due to inefficiant candidate marking and not staying focused on all possibilities while marking. Some of her puzzles have, however, still required an X-Wing to solve.
When I get really stuck, I also tend to use a sudoku tool called Simple Sudoku. This is freeware and can be downloaded from [...]. This tool will allow you to easily see things such as hidden pairs and locked candidates when you build in your book puzzles. Use the filters to find the X-Wings and Swordfishes, and if you still have trouble, the tool will provide you with a hint, although even the hints themselves can be a little difficult to figure out.
These books are definitely for the serious Sudoku puzzlers. I can only imagine how hard the Level 4 book will be, but I'll need to work up to that. Have fun with it!

I LOVE THESE BOOKS!!!!
These books are so nice! The puzzles are nice and big, and the paper is high quality, which definitely makes it easier. I concur with the previous reviewer, though. Volume 2 is not noticeably harder than Volume 1. However, Volumes 3 & 4 will wear you out! They did me (you might know all the crazy techniques I have yet to learn). The books are really well made and a pleasure to work. I enjoy them immensely, and I hope you do as well!!! :)