The New York Times Will Shortz Presents Diabolical KenKen

Husband is a big Ken Ken fan.

Super hard and fun!

Bought as a secret Santa gift for someone who likes KENKEN. Was worried the “diabolical” would mean they’d get frustrated by it, but they were able to work through 10 puzzles on a day off. They appreciated the gift. Nice to sit with a pencil and paper sometimes instead of the online or app games.

I like the range of difficulty because sometimes I want a challenge then there are times I just want to do a quicker puzzle. Other Shortz books I found too easy and with 300 puzzles, can't go wrong. Arrived in excellent condition.

Great gift for those who would be interested in what Cardinal Dolan has to say.

Don't buy this ken-ken book if you already own another ken ken book by Will Shortz. You may find that you are paying for puzzles that you have already seen and completed.My family enjoys the 9x9 ken ken puzzles. The 9x9 puzzles are the most challenging. Having had much fun completing the 9x9 puzzles in Shortz' book Big, Bad Book of Ken Ken, we looked for another ken ken book that would produce similar fun. We struggled through the confusing nomenclature of titles Shortz produces (why can't the titles clearly indicate which books are the most challenging, instead of confusing the readers with adjectives that do not sufficiently clarify which books contain the highest percentage of difficult puzzles?). We finally selected the Diabolical Ken Ken book that is the subject of the review.What we discovered upon opening the Diabolical Ken Ken book is that every single 9x9 puzzle in the Diabolical Ken Ken book duplicated a 9x9 puzzle that was contained in the Big. Bad Book of Ken Ken. Well, we actually quit counting after noticing that the final 20 puzzles in Diabolical Ken Ken were duplicates of puzzles that had already been published in Big Bad Book of Ken Ken.)My family still enjoys completing the 9x9 ken ken puzzles. We would gladly purchase another book of ken ken puzzles, particularly a book that is all or mostly all 9x9 puzzles. However, we will surely not buy a third Will Shortz book and pay for puzzles we have already seen and completed.

If you're reasonably good at Kenken, you will not find very many of these 300 puzzles to be "diabolical". The 5 x 5's can mostly be done just about as fast as you can write. There were about 20 puzzles among the 7x7s and 9x9's which truly fit the description. Still, I enjoyed them.

A gift for boyfriend. He loves it

I've brought this book three times over the last six years. More interesting than Suduko, due to the added twist of multiplication/division/addition/subtraction operations, and the nine by nine grids are at least a little challenging (some would find too much so, though he book builds up in difficulty). Just wish the first half of the book wasn't wasted on beginner level puzzles. I haven't found a Ken Ken book that surpasses this level of difficulty, so if you are good at this type of puzzle or like a challenge then this is the one to get.

I'm enjoying this collection, having had several kenken books before. It's split into two categories, of which the harder is 'mind-melting'. In truth, puzzles I've encountered in other books have been tougher, but these are sufficiently challenging to keep me entertained on my daily commute.Well worth the money.

Great KenKens, not so diabolical...

The paper is a bit rough and thin. First impressions.Sudoku books by Nikoli Publishing are thoughtfully printed on smoother, optically whiter, writing grade paper that can withstand an eraser, pencil or ball pen. The recycled paper on these seems are a little rougher, cheaper and a bit more fragile. This is my first Kenken book.I took at look at the first puzzle. I think I should have gotten something simpler, even though I am an experienced Sudoku puzzler. Time will tell.