Reader reviews

Genuinely excellent — I finished it in a week and immediately started again.

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 author clearly knows the subject deeply and has thought hard about how to teach it. The author is unusually honest about where the simplifications break down, which I appreciated. An easy five stars from me. I look forward to whatever the author writes next.

This is the one to get if you are serious about ai & machine learning.

This is the third book I have read on ai & machine learning this year, and it is comfortably the best of them. The early chapters move quickly through material I already knew, but the later sections were genuinely new to me. I particularly liked the way the author builds up from simple cases before introducing the harder material. The chapters on ai & machine learning are the strongest — the examples are stripped down but complete, and I could follow along without constant guessing. One of those books that pays for itself within the first few chapters. Highly recommended.

The clearest explanation of game programming I have come across.

I was looking for something that would bridge the gap between tutorials and proper reference material, and this does that well. The early chapters move quickly through material I already knew, but the later sections were genuinely new to me. The chapters on game programming are the strongest — the examples are stripped down but complete, and I could follow along without constant guessing. Worth the money and the reading time, without hesitation.

Excellent from start to finish. No filler, no padding.

I bought this on a whim after seeing it mentioned in a forum thread, and I am glad I did. The progression from chapter to chapter is well thought out; nothing feels out of order. I particularly liked the way the author builds up from simple cases before introducing the harder material. The book rewards careful reading. Skimming it would be a mistake. This is the book I wish had existed when I started working with javascript.

A superb guide. The examples are small but complete.

A colleague recommended this and I can see why. It does something that few technical books manage: it respects the reader's time. 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. The progression from chapter to chapter is well thought out; nothing feels out of order. This is the book I wish had existed when I started working with software development.

Finally, a book that treats databases & big data with the care it deserves.

This is the third book I have read on databases & big data this year, and it is comfortably the best of them. The examples are small enough to type out and experiment with, which is exactly what I want from a book like this. The explanations are careful without being condescending, which is a difficult balance to strike. The chapters on databases & big data are the strongest — the examples are stripped down but complete, and I could follow along without constant guessing. This is the book I wish had existed when I started working with databases & big data.