Reader reviews

A genuinely enjoyable read that also taught me a great deal.

I bought this on a whim after seeing it mentioned in a forum thread, and I am glad I did. The index and cross-references are surprisingly good, which matters for a book I will come back to. The author is unusually honest about where the simplifications break down, which I appreciated. If you have the prerequisites, this is an easy recommendation. I will be keeping it on my desk rather than the shelf.

Outstanding. I kept finding reasons to come back to it.

I came to this book already familiar with the basics, and it still had plenty to offer. The author avoids over-explaining, which keeps the pace up but means you need to pay attention. Some of the material is available elsewhere, but rarely presented this clearly. I appreciated the honesty about what the book does not cover — it saved me from expecting things that were not there. This is the book I wish had existed when I started working with game development.

Good in places. I would borrow it before buying if you can.

I have been working with ai & machine learning for a few years now and I still found plenty here that was new to me. The exercises at the end of each chapter are worth doing — they caught a few misconceptions I did not know I had. I particularly liked the way the author builds up from simple cases before introducing the harder material. The balance between theory and practice is well judged; neither side dominates. Useful as a reference, less so as a straight read from cover to cover.

Better than I expected. Rare to find a technical book this well judged.

I had been on the fence about this one for a while, and I should have bought it sooner. The exercises at the end of each chapter are worth doing — they caught a few misconceptions I did not know I had. A few of the examples could be more realistic, but the underlying points come across clearly. The author avoids over-explaining, which keeps the pace up but means you need to pay attention. I have already recommended it to two colleagues and will recommend it to more.

Worth every page. I have already recommended it to two colleagues.

I have been working with databases & big data for a few years now and I still found plenty here that was new to me. The chapters on databases & big data are the strongest — the examples are stripped down but complete, and I could follow along without constant guessing. I found myself making notes in the margins, which is always a good sign. Worth the money and the reading time, without hesitation.

A genuinely enjoyable read that also taught me a great deal.

There is a particular kind of technical book that is dense without being difficult, and this is one of them. The author avoids over-explaining, which keeps the pace up but means you need to pay attention. The index and cross-references are surprisingly good, which matters for a book I will come back to. The code samples assume a particular environment, which took a bit of fiddling to get running properly. One of those books that pays for itself within the first few chapters. Highly recommended.