Cuckoo Sudoku: Sudoku Variants That Will Drive You Batty

I like all of Djape's Sudoku books. Most are challenging, use good paper, and the cells usually have enough room to write in the possibilities. I never do the traditional Sudoku any more, choosing instead the more interesting and challenging Sudoku variants. All of the puzzles in Cuckoo Sudoku, except on the first two pages, consist of 5 separate 9x9 puzzles, with one in the center, and the other 4 overlapping the corners of the center puzzle.With 2 exceptions, I found all of the puzzles to be about the same difficulty level, which for me were relatively easy. They do take some time to complete though, because to solve one puzzle, you are solving 5 of them. Here is some detail on those 2 puzzles. After working on them yourself, please leave some comments in this review regarding your thoughts on those two puzzles.The first is Puzzle 14, where four of type "Consecutive Sudoku" are wrapped around a Regular Sudoku in the center. I have not yet finished puzzle 14, and have not made much progress on it after coming back several times. It just seems to me that there are not enough clues. I found it strange that the difficulty of this puzzle was so drastically different than the others. Maybe I am missing something. I hope Djape reads this review and will add a comment.The second puzzle that I found to be significantly more difficult than the others was puzzle 58, with the difficult part being the type "Greater Than, Less Than" puzzle in the upper left. However, I was able to solve it. Unlike all the other puzzles of this type in the book, this one had no numbers pre-filled in that top left puzzle. For anyone interested, here are the strategies I used to solve puzzle 58:- If you start off by working on the upper left puzzle, you will probably make little, if any, progress. So solve the other 4 puzzles first, which will give you the values of the overlapping 3x3 box in the lower right part of the Greater Than, Less Than puzzle.- Now, you should be able to determine where several of the 1's and 9's are in that puzzle, using the obvious fact that a "1" can never be greater than any other cell, and a "9" can never be less than any other cell.- Because it had a "6-run", I next worked on the center 3x3 box. By "6-run", I mean that there are 6 consecutive cells with Greater Than symbols in between. So this significantly limits the possibilities of values in those cells. Take a separate sheet of paper, make a big 3x3 box, and write in the possible values for that 6-run. For example, on the lower end of that run, possible values are 1 through 4. Anything bigger than a 4 wouldn't leave room for the 5 numbers that are larger than that one. Repeat for each cell in that 6-run.- Continuing with this step, next you have to accomodate the 3-run in the last row of that same 3x3 box. That 3-run intersects with the 6-run, so on your worksheet, figure out what values will work in that lower row, and how that will affect the potential values in the 6-run. In the end, you want your worksheet to show all the possible values in each of the 3x3 cells.I probably spent at least a half hour or more on that worksheet for the 3x3 box, getting the possible values for each cell. It was quite difficult. But after that, I was able to slowly, but methodically, solve the rest of the puzzle using the same techniques as above.If you are able to solve puzzle 58, then try some of Djape's Killer Sudoku books. They are quite difficult. And if you can solve those and want a real challenge, then try his Deadliest Killer Sudoku book. I've finished about a third of that book, and took a break from them for Cuckoo Sudoku, so am now ready to go back again to Deadliest Killer Sudoku.Update: one of the reviewers indicated that there were puzzles in this book with multiple solutions. I have found that to be true occasionally in other books, but not this one. The methodology I use to solve puzzles makes it apparent when there are multiple solutions. That reviewer probably has duplicate numbers in one of the irregular, non-square Sudoku types, such as Jigsaw or Windoku.

OMG - I am loving this book! I can't put it down. Nothing is getting done around the house. I'm starting to look like the pup on the cover, LOL! I had done most of Gareth Moore's "The Mammoth Book of New Sudoku," which is probably the best book of sudoku variations out there (over 25 varieties, and almost 500 puzzles) when I found this one. If you have progressed beyond regular sudokus to variants like jigsaw sudoku, odd/even sudoku, consecutive and non-consecutive sudoku, etc., you are going to LOVE Cuckoo Sudoku. As shown on the cover, the puzzles consist of five overlapping sudoku puzzles, but each of the five are a different variation. Wait - what?!? This delightful, brain-scrambling twist challenges you to switch nimbly from one mode to another and COMBINE modes in the overlapping sections! The only problem I have is...what the heck am I going to progress to when I finally feel I've mastered this? Oh well, I'm sure Djape will come up with something!

The intro to this book showed 5 variants and explained them. Once into the puzzles, there were several more variants. I was able to figure out most of them, but one is not explained and the "feature" isn't obvious. I tried applying a rule from one of the others, since the same symbol was being used, but it didn't work. In the current set of puzzles I'm working, this variant is in EVERY ONE. I tried to solve as a regular Sudoku, but they are super hard, with very few numbers filled in. Eventually, I have to look up one or two cells to keep going. I went to the web site shown in the book, and also on his Amazon author page. There is no web site, only a banner that says "Coming Soon." I like the interlacing of different variant on a single grid, and enjoy a number of the variants. It's just very frustrating not to know how to work one that appears so often, and even more frustrating not to be able to get support.

Let me start by saying I'm a bit obsessed with brain games. But I'd gotten to where I was having trouble finding Sudoku books that were challenging enough. This one is PERFECT. It took me all weekend just to work through the "warm up" exercises.1. Very challenging2. I love the variations (8 in all)3. It's the good kind of paper (not the crappy newsprint)4. Spiral bound5. Enough room in the margins for notesI should note that it's a full notebook size (8.5 x 11)

I am struggling with some of the versions of Sudoku included: the greater than , less than puzzle still has me stumped on how to choose the correct number as there are very few cues. I have put in a number and get going, and then realize somewhere my number was not correct. Sudoku normally relaxes my, but this variation does not.

I am so addicted to these! The first few were taking me so long that I started filling in the corner squares where each puzzle intersects with the middle and I did that a few times and then I started getting better and faster at it and now I can do them without any cheats and I am now working on number 47! Highly recommend!

Just a pain to try and figure out all the variations It's OK if you want a project. I thought it would be a bunch of difficult regular sudoku. This is complicated bc you have to teach yourself about the variations . I should've read more in the description before buying it.

When you've mastered even hard sudoku puzzles, these are hard-with-a-twist. You'll learn consecutive or greater-than sudoku and then be challenged by them and others in the same puzzle. I had my favorites and you'll have yours, but the 4 or 5 types have to solved simultaneously to reach the end.

This was a fun book to complete, I did not have to guess to complete any of the puzzles though I do recommend using a pencil because making mistakes is very easy.Personally Puzzle #14 was the hardest which was surprising as it was the hardest consecutive sudoku puzzle in the book.The book starts out with Warmup puzzles (1-8) are 9x9 grid and (7-19) are Samurais with a Original Sudoku in the Center with either 4 of one of the variants, and or the 4 other grids with 2 types of variants. Which Puzzle #14 is is of the warmup puzzles so the difficulty here varies and you should not be discouraged if you cannot solve one. If you can solve all of these the rest of the book should be no problem.For the rest of the book the Samurais are made from Diagonal Sudoku, Greater Then / Less Than Sudoku, Consecutive/Nonconsecutive Sudoku, Even - Odd Sudoku, Window Sudoku (windoku), Jigsaw . IThe Even - Odd Sudoku Puzzles were easy because every (Even Square) was marked, I think that difficulty could have been increased if the White Space was a Even OR Odd and Shaded Space was ONLY Even. OR vice versaThe Consecutive Puzzles besides the #14 were not challenging enough especially when I got to the hard puzzles they seemed to feel like easy/medium difficulty solves. Learning to use the variants restrictions was difficult but once you got some of the tricks the puzzles stopped feeling challenging.Non-consecutive Puzzles were similar to Consecutive Puzzles .. learning the methods was difficult but none of the puzzles were challenging in the classic Sudoku sense.Jigsaw variants were some of my favourites in the book, they give a nice warped perspective on the classic sudoku and some of the most challenging puzzles were of this variety.Greater/Less than variants had a good representation in the book with a good mix of difficulty, one of the puzzles I would consider very hard. I think the difficulty could be increased if the inequality signs did not respect the house/box boundaries in the puzzles. (I thought that was strange)Diagonal Sudoku variants were enjoyable, the puzzles forced you to use the diagonals to solve the puzzle and they were never there just for funWindoku (Window Sudoku) variant was also enjoyable, and forced you to use the windows, these puzzles were consistent challenges.For a sequel I would like to see more challenging consecutive puzzles, Greater/Than to not respect box boundaries, and Even/Odd puzzles to be less restrictive.

Love, love, love the both the Cuckoo Sudoku and the Loco Sudoko books. If you like different types of Sudoku, these books are definitely challenging, but an excellent workout for the brain!

Love the variations.. keeps you on you toes while getting a sudoku fix.

Some of the puzzles have 2 solutions, which I do not like.I like the spiral, and the paper.

This was a wonderful purchase, would recommend to any sudoku enthusiast.