Will Shortz Presents The Ultimate KenKen Omnibus: 500 Easy to Hard Logic Puzzles That Make You Smarter

This book begins with 3x3 puzzles, trivial to solve, for 9 pages of warm-up. Pages 10-72 are 4x4, followed by 5x5 on 73-130. The 6x6 on 131-237 start off easy and progress, but still remain easy. 7x7 begin on 238, taking about 10 minutes each to solve. Progress to about 30 minutes at 284 (with lots of variation - some still 10 minutes and some 60 minutes). Last 7x7 is #325, taking about 60 minutes to solve. 8x8 begin with #326 with lots of variation in solution time - some 15 minutes, others in the 30ish range and a few of 60 minutes. Then a streak of easy ones with 15 minutes for solution. Back to reasonable, then one at 377 that took 132 minutes. Ugh! Then 5 more at 60 minutes, then just gave up at that point. Last 8x8 is #401. Rest are 9x9, uncharted territory for me! Enjoyable book, but humbling. BTW, did you realize KenKen can go beyond 9x9? The digits are just symbols for numbers, so no obstacle to having 10x10, 11x11, etc. There are already "symbols" for the numbers 10-15, with A=10, B=11, ..., F=15, as in hexadecimal numbers. But no need to stop with 15, except they would be beyond usefulness to most humans!

I started this book with almost no KenKen experience. After working on it about an hour a day for four months, I've now finished all the puzzles. The puzzles start out easy; the 3x3s and 4x4s take less than a minute. But the hardest puzzles can take hours. For the most part, the difficulty gradually increases, with each size of puzzles offering a greater challenge than the last and with the later puzzles of a given size being harder than the earlier ones. As I progressed through the book, my skill level increased and I discovered techniques to help me solve the puzzles.Strangely, once you get to the 9x9s, the difficulty takes a nosedive and never recovers. I'd say the ten hardest puzzles in the book are all 8x8s. I don't think it's just a matter of me getting better, since the drop in difficulty was very sudden when I finished the 8x8s and started the 9x9s. There are some good 9x9s, but many of them are too quick and easy.While the lack of difficult 9x9s is disappointing, the book as a whole is still an excellent collection of puzzles.

I first got into KenKen back with the iPod Touch 2 in 2009. I HATE Sudoku. Can't stand it. But I'm addicted to KenKen. I'd call myself advanced and try to do as many as I can without writing down hints (I'm doing this book in order so I know I can do 6X6 like that, maybe even bigger, and I've solved 9X9's quite a bit). I'm on day 6 of having this book and I'm at puzzle 170, having only had to skip one (#68, a 4X4, is kicking my behind). I'm right around a third of the way in but as the book goes on it'll take longer to solve each puzzle (specially the way I do it trying to avoid writing down hints).On the bigger puzzles the hint space gets considerable smaller but still doable. This is my first print KenKen experience and I love it. For 10 bucks? A no-brainer. This is going to give you weeks of pleasure (well, depending on how many hours a day you spend on this). This is a great way to start the KenKen experience. I also got a Ferocious KenKen book but that's proving quite a bit more challenging. This is just the right mix.

I am new-ish to ken ken and bought this book due to its large variety of puzzles. I thought this would allow me to try different sizes and levels of challenge. What I have found is that I prefer ones in the middle. I like 5x5 - 7x7s the best. The most challenging ones are a bit out of my ability, though in time I can often crack them, while the easier ones are too easy. This means that the majority of this book I will likely never get to, not any time soon anyways. I have since book a smaller book that just contains 5x5s and 7x7s, because they are the ones I like best. This book may helped me figure out where my comfort level is and one day I may make it on to a new, harder, section, but I will likely have lost the book by then.

Kenken is to sudoku as crunchy peanut butter is to smooth -- much more fun to chew on. Ultimate KenKen Omnibus is a fine collection, richer in variety than Ferocious KenKen (which is also excellent), especially if you want to improve your skill. The puzzles increase in size through the book. Within each size they go up in difficulty in a rising sawtooth pattern, not a relentless straight line -- this is nice for your morale. If you can solve all these puzzles on paper, congratulate yourself on being some sort of genius -- I'm not exaggerating. The toughest ones are incredibly hard.

I’m obsessed…after doing all of these I purchased more books of Ken-Ken. None were as great as this one - not just the puzzles, but the SIZE of the book allows room to “calculate” on the page.

This book is really bulky which makes it less portable (it doesn't help that there's only one puzzle per page), thus it is most suitable to be placed at home for families to do the exciting puzzles. The print quality is also good. I suggest writing your answers on a separate piece of paper so that you and others can continually attempt the puzzles even when you've completed all the puzzles. After all, there are 500 unique ones with varying levels of difficulty so you can go back to the puzzles attempted before.

the ONLY number puzzle I workand this will help me to besafer at home without feeling left outglad I have LOTS of pencils and anelectric pencil sharpenercup of tea/dvdkenken and me!!!!(that's a poem)